MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA

Student’s Name

Class

Date
Theme: Friendship and Romance

Love knows no boundaries.

1. Puccini- O miobabbinocaro

2. Rachmaninov- Piano Concerto No.2

3. Elgar- Salut d'amour

4. Puccini- O soave fanciulla

5. Rota- love theme from Romeo and Juliet

6. Mascagni- Intermezzo, from Cavalleria Rusticana /*789

7. Handel- Ombramai fu, from Xerxes

Orchestra music from the good old days made it easy to spread the love using the theme. It was

as easy as signing up as a participant in an orchestra group of instruments, specifically the ones

that played the woodwind, the string, percussion, and the brass all at once1.

From my playlist, friendship gives birth to love, and love does not have limits2. A perfect

example would be Handel's sweet and innocent piece explaining how love sounds to the ear

when one is choosing a date. That words could be the same but they bear different meanings

depending on who speaks them. In his experience, Mascagni describes how romance comes as a

full volume blast and cannot be contained or controlled and that no one has immunity when it

comes to romance and friendship3. Puccini says “o soave fanciulla” to mean oh lovely girl in his

very romantic duet. He goes to explain how the lovely girl was highly cherished as a friend and

even more now that they are romantically involved, as the theme friendship and romance as their

1
Bartók et al., Concerto for Orchestra.
2
Abeles, “The Effect of Three Orchestra/School Partnerships on Students’ Interest in Instrumental Music
Instruction.”
3
Bartók et al., Concerto for Orchestra.
love knew no boundaries. Rota from Romeo and Juliet is very emotional, and though it does not

end well, there still lives love in them and the piece expresses how they formed a bond of

friendship and were there for each other. They made love win hence the theme friendship and

romance as their friendship gave rise to their romantic interactions.

Bibliography
Abeles, Hal. “The Effect of Three Orchestra/School Partnerships on Students’ Interest in

Instrumental Music Instruction.” Journal of Research in Music Education 52, no. 3

(2004): 248–63.

Bartók, Béla, Antal Dorati, Nelson Freire, Martha Argerich, Jan Labordus, Jan Pustjens, and

David Zinman. Concerto for Orchestra. Boosey & Hawkes, 1946.

Glynn, Mary Ann. “When Cymbals Become Symbols: Conflict over Organizational Identity

within a Symphony Orchestra.” Organization Science 11, no. 3 (2000): 285–98.