Daily Classical Music Post

Richard Danielpour: The Enchanted Garden, Preludes Book II: VII. Winter Solstice

The decorations are up, the holiday music is blaring in the shops; there is no mistaking what time of year it is. This December, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to music composed for or inspired by holidays that occur in the month of December. There will be a little something for everyone (I hope)!

The Enchanted Garden, Preludes Book II: VII. Winter Solstice

The American composer Richard Danielpour (born 1956) composed The Enchanted Garden, Preludes Book II in 2009. Although Danielpour’s early work tended towards serialism, The Enchanted Garden, Preludes Book II is more typical of his later output: as he was described in one review of his music, he is a composer “who knows how to communicate deep, important emotions through simple, direct means that nevertheless do not compromise.”

Danielpour said, “The first book of The Enchanted Garden was composed in 1992; the five preludes in that cycle were musical responses to dreams that I had and had eventually written about. The second book, written nearly seventeen years later in 2009, includes seven preludes; experiences and memories both recent and historical are the sources here and the origins of the titles. The fine line between dream and memory, between reality and fantasy has always intrigued me. The ancient Greeks believed that the ‘real’ world was the unseen world.”

Allen Gimbel said that “Winter Solstice” “owes a debt to Schumann and is the most beautiful piece” in Book II. David Denton praised its “simplicity, peace and quiet.”

My classical music post for today is Richard Danielpour’s The Enchanted Garden, Preludes Book II: VII. Winter Solstice.