{{Short description|Orgiastic musical composition}} {{Use shortened footnotes|date=April 2021}} A '''bacchanale''' is an orgiastic musical composition,{{sfn|Kennedy|2006}} often depicting a drunken revel or ''bacchanal''.
Examples include the ''bacchanales'' in Camille Saint-Saëns's ''Samson and Delilah'', the Venusberg scene in Richard Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'',{{sfn|Kennedy|2006}} ''Danse générale (Bacchanale)'' from Maurice Ravel's ''Daphnis et Chloé'', and ''Grande bacchanale des saisons'' in Alexander Glazunov's ''The Seasons''.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}<!--Not found in Boris Schwarz's New Grove article on Glazunov.--> John Cage wrote a ''Bacchanale'' in 1940, his first work for prepared piano.{{sfn|Pritchett and Kuhn|2001}} The French composer Jacques Ibert was commissioned by the BBC for the tenth anniversary of the Third Programme in 1956,{{sfn|Anon.|1956}} for which he wrote a bacchanale.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}<!--The Times confirms only the commission for the occasion, not the title of Ibert's work.-->
In 1939, Salvador Dalí designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ballet entitled ''Bacchanale'', based on Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' and the myth of Leda and the Swan.{{sfn|Terry|1976|loc=44}}
''Bacchanale'' (1954) was written by composer Toshiro Mayuzumi for 5 saxophones (soprano, 2 alto, tenor, baritone), timpani, percussion (4), piano, celesta, harp, and strings.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}} The previous year, he had written a ''Bacchanale'' for orchestra.{{sfn|Kanazawa|2001}}
"Bacchanale" is also a track composed by Greek musician Vangelis on his album ''Heaven and Hell''.
Florent Schmitt's Dionysiaques for Band, Op. 62, No. 1 (1913) is a masterpiece of instrumental drunkenness.
==References== {{reflist}}
===Works cited=== * {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Anon.|1956}}|reference=Anon. 1956. "Third Programme Anniversary: Music Commissioned for the Occasion". ''The Times'', issue 53570 (Friday, Jun 29 June): 11, col C.}} * {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Kanazawa|2001}}|reference=Kanazawa, Masakata. 2001. "Mayuzumi, Toshirō". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.}} * {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Kennedy|2006}}|reference=Kennedy, Michael. 2006. "Bacchanale". ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', second edition, revised, Joyce Bourne, associate editor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0198614594}}.}} * {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Pritchett and Kuhn|2001}}|reference=Pritchett, James, and Laura Kuhn. 2001. "Cage, John". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.}} * {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Terry|1976}}|reference=Terry, Walter. 1976. ''Ballet Guide''. {{Full citation needed|date=March 2019}}<!--Place and publisher needed.-->}} * {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Vangelis|1975}}|reference=Vangelis. 1975. ''Bacchanale''. Heaven and Hell (Vangelis album) {{Full citation needed|date=March 2023}}<!--Place and publisher needed.-->}} Category:Classical music styles
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