Bacchanale

A bacchanale is an orgiastic musical composition, ^[1] often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal .

Examples include the bacchanales in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah , the Venusberg scene in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser , ^[1] Danse générale (Bacchanale) from Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé , and Grande bacchanale des saisons in Alexander Glazunov's The Seasons .^{[ citation needed ]} John Cage wrote a Bacchanale in 1940, his first work for prepared piano. ^[2] The French composer Jacques Ibert was commissioned by the BBC for the tenth anniversary of the Third Programme in 1956, ^[3] for which he wrote a bacchanale.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 1939, Salvador Dalí designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ballet entitled Bacchanale, based on Wagner's Tannhäuser and the myth of Leda and the Swan. ^[4]

Bacchanale (1954) was written by composer Toshiro Mayuzumi for 5 saxophones (soprano, 2 alto, tenor, baritone), timpani, percussion (4), piano, celesta, harp, and strings.^{[ citation needed ]} The previous year, he had written a Bacchanale for orchestra. ^[5]

"Bacchanale" is also a track composed by Greek musician Vangelis on his album Heaven and Hell .

References

1. Kennedy 2006.
2. Pritchett and Kuhn 2001.
3. Anon. 1956.
4. Terry 1976, 44.
5. Kanazawa 2001.

Works cited

• ‹See TfM› Anon. 1956. "Third Programme Anniversary: Music Commissioned for the Occasion". The Times, issue 53570 (Friday, Jun 29 June): 11, col C.
• ‹See TfM› Kanazawa, Masakata. 2001. "Mayuzumi, Toshirō". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• ‹See TfM› Kennedy, Michael. 2006. "Bacchanale". The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised, Joyce Bourne, associate editor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0198614594.
• ‹See TfM› Pritchett, James, and Laura Kuhn. 2001. "Cage, John". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• ‹See TfM› Terry, Walter. 1976. Ballet Guide. ^{[ full citation needed ]}
• ‹See TfM› Vangelis. 1975. Bacchanale. Heaven and Hell (Vangelis album) ^{[ full citation needed ]}