The Eighth Symphony by the

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composer

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

was composed in 1992–93. Using

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' as inspiration, it has a lighter theme than the major work it immediately follows, the '' Requiem'' of 1992. Each movement is inspired by a short section of the play: the first derives in part from Puck's line "I'll put a girdle round the earth/ In forty minutes". Henze depicts Puck's global journey in pitch variation: the

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is middle C, the

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is the lowest notes in the modern symphony orchestra's range, while the

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is naturally at the opposite end of the range. The second movement depicts Titania's attempted seduction of

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, whilst the Adagio final movement takes Puck's ''If we shadows have offended'' speech at the end of the play. It was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who commissioned the piece (and to whom Henze dedicated it) under Seiji Ozawa on 1 October 1993.Liner notes to 2008 recording, Wergo WER 67212

Movements

# Allegro # Allegramente con comodo tenerezza e ballabilità # Adagio

References

{{Authority control 8 1993 compositions Works based on A Midsummer Night's Dream Music based on works by William Shakespeare Music commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra