5 Orchestral Pieces
The first notes screamed through the hazy silence as the audience braced themselves for what was to come
Grotesque trumpet cries, distorted their colours as if in warning of what was to come
but there was to be no escape, the deathly roar of the angry orchestra
played to the edge of sanity and beyond
into the ragged and chaotic dissonance of chromaticism or worse.
the victomised screamed into the encompassing nightmare scene
that terrorised the strings
with percussive and relentless hatred
before dissolving into silence. Without remorse
>
Contemptly the darkness closed in
not a sound stirred
but for the crying in the corner of an oboe
but he was alone.
The world took no notice.
He could have been dying
but the world cared not, but for themselves
The lonley in the company of thousands
with no one to care enough
to take but a second glance
for he was now silent as the dead.
>
Diluted under closing rain
The city stirred
a beast surpressed
and nature thrived in little bits
she ran around softly the shivering beast
and veiled it in soaking grey
the city stirred
but drifted away into silence
as if it were asleep
>
Suddenly with a pounce the society ragged with rage sprung again
in all of its spitefull anger
ripped appart nature in a hating monstrosity
of ugliness and pillage
It destroyed itself in its process
and left the weak
silently shivering with quivering fear
>
The philosopher stood thinking without thought
at the carnage he saw and knew
He Knew not how This monstrous archetecture came about
with its ocillating dissonance and rage of terror
and sounds in cycles
He knew not this new rage of tones in rows
and Instruments in torment
that disapeared as fast as it begun.
 
 
 
 
 
 

This poem is somewhat similar to "3 abstract poems". This is however 5 abstract poems, and they take their inspiration from the general sense of speed that the 5 Orchestral pieces of Schoenberg. They do not discribe the pieces themselves, and the "topic" which comes about from the poems does not reflect the actual music. The poem was simply an experiment in rhythm and sound concepts in poetry. The first stanza simply is meant to make the musical inspiration clear, as it becomes less apparent in the stanzas to follow. It bursts to life with no introduction much like the piece itself, and discribes the very dissonant opening which bursts in with much noise from the orchestra, tone colours being mostly harsh and clashing. The second stanza mostly concerns the oboe solo towards the end of the movement and bare sounding accompanment of the 2nd movement of 5 pieces for Orchestra, and the way the accompanment sounds "detatched" from the melodic line throuought the movement. This movement is a very different tonecolour to the first, more consonant, but particularly mysterious. To me the movement always "feels" 'wet', like an atmosphere full of drizzle, in a sleazy suburban setting. So I tried to capture some of this in the poem.
Some performances of the 3rd movement sound like a wet monsoonal tropical forest with stifiling heat and suffocating humidity, others like being completley submerged. yet little movements which slowly emerge almost unnoticed. When I wrote this stanza I took yet another poetic idea to this piece, a rainy night, looking down apon a city from afar, the sounds of the city mostly drowned out by the rain, or even better, from high up in a hotel room, looking down on a city sleeping, the rain patting against the window pane.
Almost without warning, the 4th movement bursts to life with as much ferocity as the first movement, however this outburst is alot more rocky, it seems as if the piece doesn't know if it's being ferocious or mysterious... the two moods intersperse, ferocious one moment, mysterious at others, even occasionally sensual or at least suggestive. It's almost like the piece is schitzophrenic
In the piece, the music of the 5th movement is like a reflective memory of the pieces before it. You are spurred to remember parts of, mostly, the first movement. This return to reflection is one thing that I tried to capture in this poem's last stanza. The thought is quickly and abruptly cut off, just as the piece itself on the verge of remembering something important about the second movement, something deep and meaningfull, just simply stops.
 

(overemotional and not particularly analytical musical analysis of Schoenberg's 5 Pieces for Orchestra by Trent Hopkinson)

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1