Video demonstration and sheet music PDF
L’orage is French for “the storm” and it is the title for a piano piece composed by Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmuller during the Romantic era. Burgmuller lived from 1806 to 1874, and although he was born in Germany, he lived in France from 1832 onwards, hence the French title. This piece is from a set of compositions called “Etudes de Genre” – Characteristic Studies.
This colourful piece certainly deserves its description as a characteristic study – it effectively depicts the electric excitement and drama of a thunderstorm with a range of musical effects. Loud dynamics, fast rhythms and changeable timbre and registers contribute to the feeling of agitation and turbulence. Sforzandos paint a picture of sudden crashes of thunder (see my article on performance directions). Towards the end, the mood starts to become more settled and peaceful as if the storm is passing, and the use of very low bass semiquavers creates the impression of the thunder in the distance.
Another dramatic and turbulent piece is Schumann’s Romance No.1.
You may also like my recording of Venetian Gondola Song in F sharp minor.
You can listen to some of my own compositions here:
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