-ana
Encyclopedia
-ana is a suffix of Latin origin, used in English to convert nouns, usually proper name
s, into mass noun
s, as in Shakespeareana or Dickensiana, items or stories related to William Shakespeare
or Charles Dickens
.
The recognition of this usage as a self-conscious literary construction, typically as a book title, traces back at least to 1740, when it was mentioned in an edition of Scaligerana, a collection of table talk
of Joseph Justus Scaliger
, from around 150 years previously. By that period Scaliger was described as "the father, so to speak, of all those books published under the title of -ana".
As grammatical construction it is the neuter plural, nominative
form of an adjective: so from Scaliger is formed first the adjective Scaligeranus (Scaligeran) which is then put into the form of an abstract noun Scaligerana (Scaligeran things). In Americana
, a variant construction, the adjectival form already exists as Americanus, so it is simply a neuter plural (suffix –a on the stem American-); the case of Victoriana
, things associated with the Victorian period, is superficially similar, but the Latin adjective form is Dog Latin
.
Mauro Giuliani
(died 1829) wrote six sets of variations for guitar on themes by Gioachino Rossini, Opp. 119-124. Each set was called "Rossiniana", and collectively they are called "Rossiniane".
Later examples include:
Ballets named Glinkaiana, Medtneriana and Scriabiniana were staged in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century, set to music by Mikhail Glinka
, Nikolai Medtner
and Alexander Scriabin
respectively.
Robert Schumann
wrote a piano suite Kreisleriana
, but the Kreisler in this case was the fictional literary character Johannes Kreisler
created by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Einojuhani Rautavaara
subtitled his 6th Symphony Vincentiana
, in honour of Vincent van Gogh
. He had earlier written an opera on van Gogh, called Vincent
, and he reused some of the material in his symphony.
Randall Thompson
set seven poems of Robert Frost
in a work he called Frostiana
.
Eric Woolfson
's first solo album was titled Freudiana, in honour of the pioneer psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
.
María Teresa Prieto
's 1942 symphony was titled Asturiana.
Darius Milhaud
wrote Kentuckiana, divertissement sur 20 airs du Kentucky
, Op. 287 (1948)
Gösta Nystroem
's Symphony No. 4 (1952) was originally entitled Sinfonia shakespeariana
.
Proper name
"A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic , "but not of telling anything about it"...
s, into mass noun
Mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
s, as in Shakespeareana or Dickensiana, items or stories related to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
or Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
.
The recognition of this usage as a self-conscious literary construction, typically as a book title, traces back at least to 1740, when it was mentioned in an edition of Scaligerana, a collection of table talk
Table talk
Table talk is a species of memoir in which a collector records impromptu comments by some famous person , in anticipation of their lasting value...
of Joseph Justus Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history.-Early life:He was born at Agen, the tenth child and third son of Italian...
, from around 150 years previously. By that period Scaliger was described as "the father, so to speak, of all those books published under the title of -ana".
As grammatical construction it is the neuter plural, nominative
Latin declension
Latin is an inflected language, and as such has nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five declensions, which are numbered and grouped by ending and...
form of an adjective: so from Scaliger is formed first the adjective Scaligeranus (Scaligeran) which is then put into the form of an abstract noun Scaligerana (Scaligeran things). In Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...
, a variant construction, the adjectival form already exists as Americanus, so it is simply a neuter plural (suffix –a on the stem American-); the case of Victoriana
Victoriana
Victoriana refers to items or material from the Victorian period , especially those particularly evocative of the design style and outlook of the time....
, things associated with the Victorian period, is superficially similar, but the Latin adjective form is Dog Latin
Dog Latin
Dog Latin, Cod Latin, macaronic Latin, or mock Latin refers to the creation of a phrase or jargon in imitation of Latin, often by directly translating English words into Latin without conjugation or declension...
.
Examples
- Shakespeariana; or the most beautiful topicks, descriptions, and similes that occur throughout all Shakespear's plays; subtitle of Charles GildonCharles GildonCharles Gildon , was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or...
, The Complete Art of Poetry (1718) - Gulliveriana: or a Fourth Volume of Miscellanies, being a sequel of the three volumes published by Pope and Swift, to which is added Alexanderiana, or a comparison between the ecclesiastical and poetical Popes and many things in verse and prose relating to the latter by Jonathan SmedleyJonathan SmedleyJonathan Smedley was an Anglo-Irish churchman who became Dean of Clogher. He was an opportunist and satirical victim who engaged in a polemic with Jonathan Swift and the forces of the Tory party.-Life:...
(1728). - Johnsoniana: or, Supplement to Boswell (1842), by John Wilson CrokerJohn Wilson CrokerJohn Wilson Croker was an Irish statesman and author.He was born at Galway, the only son of John Croker, the surveyor-general of customs and excise in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1800...
, formed from Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer... - C. A. Moore , Miltoniana (1679–1741), Modern Philology, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Feb., 1927), pp. 321–339. From John MiltonJohn MiltonJohn Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
. - "In all of Vidaliana, there may be no more famous moment than the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1968." From Gore VidalGore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
.
Use in music
The suffix -iana or -ana has often been used in the titles of musical works, as a way of a composer paying a tribute to an earlier composer or a noted performer.Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani was an Italian guitarist, cellist and composer, and is considered by many to be one of the leading guitar virtuosi of the early 19th century.- Biography :...
(died 1829) wrote six sets of variations for guitar on themes by Gioachino Rossini, Opp. 119-124. Each set was called "Rossiniana", and collectively they are called "Rossiniane".
Later examples include:
- Albeniziana: Joan Gibert Camins honouring Isaac AlbénizIsaac AlbénizIsaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
- Bachianas BrasileirasBachianas BrasileirasThe Bachianas Brasileiras constitute a series of nine suites by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945...
: Heitor Villa-LobosHeitor Villa-LobosHeitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
honouring Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity... - Bartokiana: George RochbergGeorge RochbergGeorge Rochberg was an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Life:Rochberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended the Mannes College of Music, where his teachers included George Szell and Hans Weisse, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Rosario Scalero and...
honouring Béla BartókBéla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer... - Fantasia Busoniana: John OgdonJohn OgdonJohn Andrew Howard Ogdon was an English pianist and composer.-Biography:Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, and attended Manchester Grammar School, before studying at the Royal Northern College of Music between 1953 and 1957, where his fellow students under Richard Hall...
honouring Ferruccio BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:... - ChopinianaLes SylphidesLes Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46...
: Alexander GlazunovAlexander GlazunovAlexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
honouring Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano".... - Cimarosiana: Gian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...
honouring Domenico CimarosaDomenico CimarosaDomenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school... - Debussiana: James Rhinehart honouring Claude DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
- Donizettiana: Myer FredmanMyer FredmanMyer Fredman is a British-Australian conductor.He studied at Dartington Hall and in London with Peter Gellhorn, Vilém Tauský, Sir Adrian Boult, and was assistant conductor to Otto Klemperer, Vittorio Gui, Sir John Pritchard and Sir Charles Mackerras.He was conductor at the Glyndebourne Festival...
honouring Gaetano DonizettiGaetano DonizettiDomenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment... - Dussekiana: Eric GrossEric GrossEric Gross AM was an Austrian-Australian pianist and composer.-Biography:Gross was born in Vienna and emigrated to England in 1938. From the age of fourteen, he worked as a pianist in bands and orchestras...
honouring Jan Ladislav DussekJan Ladislav DussekJan Ladislav Dussek was a Czech composer and pianist. He was an important representative of Czech music abroad in the second half of 18th century and the beginning of 19th century... - Frescobaldiana: Vittorio GianniniVittorio GianniniVittorio Giannini was a neoromantic American composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works.-Life and work:...
honouring Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio... - Gabrieliana: Gian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...
honouring Giovanni GabrieliGiovanni GabrieliGiovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice... - Gershwiniana: Steven GerberSteven GerberSteven R. Gerber is an American composer of classical music.-Biography and career:Steven Gerber wrote such works as the contrapuntal Fantasy for Solo Violin, which has been recorded on both the CRI and Naxos labels, and Piano Trio, commissioned by the Hans Kindler Foundation.His early works are...
honouring George GershwinGeorge GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known... - Handeliana: Józef KofflerJózef KofflerJózef Koffler was a Polish composer, music teacher, musicologist and musical columnist.He was the first Polish composer living before the Second World War to apply the twelve tone composition technique .- Biography :...
honouring George Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music... - Lisztiana: Dmitri Rogal-Levitski, Jean-François Grancher honouring Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
- Mahleriana: Domenico Giannetta honouring Gustav MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
- Mozartiana: Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
honouring Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music... - Mozartiana: Julian Yu honouring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Nordraakiana: Johan HalvorsenJohan HalvorsenJohan Halvorsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist.-Biography:Born in Drammen, Norway he was an accomplished violinist from a very early age and became a prominent figure in Norwegian musical life...
honouring Rikard NordraakRikard NordraakRikard Nordraak was a Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian national anthem.-Biography:... - Offenbachiana: Juan José CastroJuan José CastroJuan José Castro was an Argentine composer and conductor.Born in Avellaneda, Castro studied piano and violin under Manuel Posadas and composition under Eduarno Fornarini, in Buenos Aires. In the 1920s he was awarded the Europa Prize, and then went on to study in Paris at the Schola Cantorum under...
, Manuel RosenthalManuel RosenthalManuel Rosenthal was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America...
honouring Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr.... - Paganiniana (Casella)Paganiniana (Casella)Paganiniana is a divertimento for orchestra composed in 1942 by Alfredo Casella and based on themes of Niccolò Paganini. The piece was composed to honor the centenary of the Vienna Philharmonic, which gave its premiere in March 1942, under the direction of Karl Böhm. It is in four movements:I....
: Alfredo CasellaAlfredo CasellaAlfredo Casella was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Life and career :Casella was born in Turin; his family included many musicians; his grandfather, a friend of Paganini's, was first cello in the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon and eventually was soloist in the Royal Chapel in Turin...
honouring Niccolò PaganiniNiccolò PaganiniNiccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
- Nathan MilsteinNathan MilsteinNathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...
also wrote a Paganiniana - Charles CamilleriCharles CamilleriCharles Camilleri was a Maltese composer, long acknowledged as Malta's national composer.Camilleri was born in Ħamrun and, as a teenager, had already composed a number of works based on folk music and legends of his native Malta...
wrote a Paganiana [sic], for piano 4-hands
- Nathan Milstein
- Pedrelliana: Manuel de FallaManuel de FallaManuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
, Robert Gerhard honouring the pianist Felip Pedrell (Falla’s piece was the final section of Homenajes) - Purcelliana: Alfred Akon honouring Henry PurcellHenry PurcellHenry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
- Overtura Respighiana: Salvatore Di VittorioSalvatore Di VittorioSalvatore Di Vittorio is an Italian composer and conductor. He is Music Director and Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of New York "Ottorino Respighi".-Biography:...
honouring Ottorino RespighiOttorino RespighiOttorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals... - RossinianaRossinianaRossiniana, P. 148, is a 1925 orchestral suite by Ottorino Respighi, based on four piano pieces by Gioachino Rossini.Respighi had written the ballet La Boutique fantasque for Léonide Massine in 1919, basing it on short piano pieces by Rossini, from his collection Péchés de vieillesse...
: Ottorino RespighiOttorino RespighiOttorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
honouring Gioachino Rossini - Sarasateana: Efrem ZimbalistEfrem ZimbalistEfrem Zimbalist, Sr. was one of the world's most prominent concert violinists, as well as a composer, teacher, conductor and a long-time director of the Curtis Institute of Music.-Early life:...
honouring Pablo de SarasatePablo de SarasatePablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster... - Scarlattiana: Alfredo CasellaAlfredo CasellaAlfredo Casella was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Life and career :Casella was born in Turin; his family included many musicians; his grandfather, a friend of Paganini's, was first cello in the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon and eventually was soloist in the Royal Chapel in Turin...
, Noam SheriffNoam SheriffNoam Sheriff is an Israeli composer, conductor and arranger. Sheriff is one of Israel’s most versatile and world renowned musicians. Currently, he is the music director of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra.- Early life :...
honouring Domenico ScarlattiDomenico ScarlattiGiuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style... - Schumanniana: Vincent d'IndyVincent d'IndyVincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
honouring Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era.... - Segoviana: Darius MilhaudDarius MilhaudDarius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
honouring the guitarist Andrés SegoviaAndrés SegoviaAndrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain... - Soleriana: Joaquín RodrigoJoaquín RodrigoJoaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...
honouring Antonio SolerAntonio SolerAntonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos, usually known as Padre Antonio Soler, known in Catalan as Antoni Soler i Ramos was a Spanish Catalan composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras... - Straussiana: Erich Wolfgang KorngoldErich Wolfgang KorngoldErich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
honouring Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas... - Tartiniana: Luigi DallapiccolaLuigi DallapiccolaLuigi Dallapiccola was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions.-Biography:Dallapiccola was born at Pisino d'Istria , to Italian parents....
honouring Giuseppe TartiniGiuseppe TartiniGiuseppe Tartini was an Italian baroque composer and violinist.-Biography:Tartini was born in Piran, a town on the peninsula of Istria, in the Republic of Venice to Gianantonio – native of Florence – and Caterina Zangrando, a descendant of one of the oldest aristocratic Piranian families.It... - Tchaikovskiana: Myer FredmanMyer FredmanMyer Fredman is a British-Australian conductor.He studied at Dartington Hall and in London with Peter Gellhorn, Vilém Tauský, Sir Adrian Boult, and was assistant conductor to Otto Klemperer, Vittorio Gui, Sir John Pritchard and Sir Charles Mackerras.He was conductor at the Glyndebourne Festival...
; and Tasmin LittleTasmin LittleTasmin Little is an English violinist.She studied under Pauline Scott at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Guildhall School of Music, coming to prominence as a string section finalist in the 1982 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition...
and John Lenehan; honouring Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"... - Telemanniana: Hans Werner HenzeHans Werner HenzeHans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
honouring Georg Philipp TelemannGeorg Philipp TelemannGeorg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually... - Thomsoniana: Peggy Glanville-HicksPeggy Glanville-HicksPeggy Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer.- Biography :Peggy Glanville-Hicks was born Melbourne in 1912. At age 15 she began studying composition with Fritz Hart in Melbourne...
honouring Virgil ThomsonVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music... - Viottiana: Luciano SgrizziLuciano SgrizziLuciano Sgrizzi was an Italian harpsichordist, organist, pianist and composer.-Biography:Luciano Sgrizzi was born in Bologna, from whose Philharmonic Academy he graduated as a pianist in 1923. He toured South America for three years, then returned to Italy to continue his organ and composition...
honouring Giovanni Battista ViottiGiovanni Battista ViottiGiovanni Battista Viotti was an Italian violinist whose virtuosity was famed and whose work as a composer featured a prominent violin and an appealing lyrical tunefulness... - Vivaldiana: Gian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...
honouring Antonio VivaldiAntonio VivaldiAntonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
Ballets named Glinkaiana, Medtneriana and Scriabiniana were staged in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century, set to music by Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
, Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist.A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano...
and Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
respectively.
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
wrote a piano suite Kreisleriana
Kreisleriana
Kreisleriana, Op. 16, is a composition in eight movements by Robert Schumann for solo piano, subtitled , written in April 1838. Dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, it is a very dramatic work and is considered to be one of Schumann's finest compositions....
, but the Kreisler in this case was the fictional literary character Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler is the name of a character in three novels by E.T.A. Hoffmann: Kreisleriana , Johannes Kreisler, des Kapellmeisters Musikalische Leiden , Lebensansichten des Katers Murr nebst Fragmentarischer Biographie des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler in Zufälligen Makulaturblättern...
created by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Einojuhani Rautavaara is a Finnish composer of contemporary classical music, and is one of the most notable Finnish composers after Jean Sibelius.-Life:...
subtitled his 6th Symphony Vincentiana
Vincentiana
In 1986-1987, the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote an opera, Vincent, based on several events in the life of painter Vincent van Gogh, and later used some of the same themes in his 6th symphony, Vincentiana....
, in honour of Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
. He had earlier written an opera on van Gogh, called Vincent
Vincent (opera)
Vincent is an opera in three acts by Einojuhani Rautavaara first performed in 1990. The libretto was by the composer, and consists of scenes from the life of the artist Vincent van Gogh, told in retrospect....
, and he reused some of the material in his symphony.
Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.-Career:He attended Harvard University, became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music...
set seven poems of Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
in a work he called Frostiana
Frostiana
Frostiana: Seven Country Songs is a piece for mixed chorus and piano composed in 1959 by Randall Thompson. It premiered on October 18, 1959, in Amherst, Massachusetts...
.
Eric Woolfson
Eric Woolfson
Eric Norman Woolfson was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and creator of The Alan Parsons Project. He has sold over 50 million albums world-wide....
's first solo album was titled Freudiana, in honour of the pioneer psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
.
María Teresa Prieto
María Teresa Prieto
María Teresa Prieto was a Spanish composer who lived and worked in Mexico.-Life:María Teresa Prieto was born in Oviedo in 1896 to a middle-class Asturian family. She studied with pianist and composer Saturnino del Fresno in Asturias and Benito de la Parra at the Conservatory of Madrid...
's 1942 symphony was titled Asturiana.
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
wrote Kentuckiana, divertissement sur 20 airs du Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Op. 287 (1948)
Gösta Nystroem
Gösta Nystroem
Gösta Nystroem was a Swedish composer.Nystroem, originally Nyström, was born in Silvberg, Sweden, a parish in the province of Dalarna, but spent most of his childhood in Österhaninge near Stockholm, at the time a small village but nowadays a suburban district. His father was a headmaster and an...
's Symphony No. 4 (1952) was originally entitled Sinfonia shakespeariana
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
.