Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune is a Joey Special. Here’s your hint: this is music from a film score.
As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at toneprose@substack.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing.
Last Week’s Results
Tone Prose 125
Alban Berg, Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 5
I led the guessing with Schonberg and Webern. Why I stopped there, I’ll never know. I just didn’t think he was very tall! (Turns out: he was.)
The rest of you were much more sensible. Listener Eric sussed out Berg and added Feldman for good measure. Listener Laurie chose Berg with Webern as a backup, after puzzling through several other options, including Ives and Klemperer (the Klemp!)
Listener Gregor heard the clip differently than the rest of us and went with the French school, namely Ibert and Françaix.
Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!
Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.
GALANTERIES in NYC
A brief announcement for New York-based Tone Prose readers: Joseph will be performing our new album live in recital at the CUNY Grad Center this coming Monday, February 3, at 7:30 pm, and I’ll be on hand to emcee. It’s a free recital and we’d love to see you there!
Details: https://gcmusic.commons.gc.cuny.edu/events/recital-joseph-vaz-piano-3/
I Got Plenty o’ Nothing
Sorry folks, no classical news headlines crossed my desk this week (except for this from Listener Jeremy, an article about how the Chicago Symphony just hired their first Latina musician. Kind of mindboggling that’s just happening, but good for everyone involved!)
Use the comments this week to suggest topic ideas for next week’s edition! Or leave questions about the ever-changing world of classical music, the new album, conductor life, etc.
Tone Praise
Gustav Holst, A Fugal Overture
Where has this piece been all my life? I thought that beside The Planets, every piece by Holst was a major downgrade, but this thing is fantastic!
Tone Prose is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)
NTT: There are some aspects of the melodic contour and orchestration that make me think of Britten, who I know wrote music for a handful of films/documentaries. In a similar vein, I’ll also put Walton in my bucket.
Doesn’t sound quite “romantic” enough to my ear to be Korngold, so I’m going to go with Rózsa.