Cocktail Party Fact: The folk ballads from which the four symphonic poems of 1896 take their inspiration are the Czech equivalent of Grimm’s Fairy Tales–and if you’ve ever read the original Grimm, you know that they can be pretty gross.

Commitment Factor: About 13 - 15 minutes

Vital Statistics: Romantic Period (1896) This is a mini-symphony in one movement (four sections, instead of four separate movements) that tells a good horror story.

What to Listen For: First Part: a little child is out playing, and becomes obnoxious. His mother scolds him (strings sounding like the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth), warning him that the noonday witch lies in wait to claim bad children. He goes back to playing, and the same scenario is repeated. Second Part: a sudden hush, with eerie string chords and a bass clarinet solo announces the arrival of the witch (surprise!). “Give me the child,” she demands (brass); “No way,” says mom (strings). Once again, this section is repeated in slightly shortened form (the witch getting impatient?). Third Part: the witch chases them around the house to a sinister little Scherzo (joke) that becomes wilder and wilder until the mother falls in a feint, the child clutched to her breast. The noon-bell strikes and witch vanishes. Fourth Part: Dad comes strolling home for lunch. He stops, looks, and sees his wife and child unconscious. He revives his wife, but when they go to wake up their son, he’s dead, suffocated in his mother’s embrace. The witch’s theme thunders through the orchestra, and the piece ends with a cackle of evil laughter.