Donna MItchell - Consolation No. 1

 My personal review:

  To speak of "Consolation" in music is to speak of the composer Franz Liszt, who was the first to use this term for some of his compositions, where music merges with poetry in its purest form, in a calm, reflective, and contemplative atmosphere. Therefore, the term does not refer to a musical form, but rather to a musical mood.

There are several theories about the origin of the term in music, one of the most widely accepted being that Liszt may have been inspired by a poem by the Frenchman Alphonse Marie Louis Prat de Lamartine entitled "Une larme, ou Consolation," which appeared in a collection of poems entitled "Harmonies poétiques et religieuses" (Poetic and Religious Harmonies). This theory is reinforced by the fact that Liszt composed a series of piano pieces with the same name.

On the other hand, another possible source of inspiration for Liszt could have been the famous Consolations of the French poet and literary critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve; poems that address themes such as friendship and the anguished loss of religious faith.

Be that as it may, composer Donna Mitchell presents us with this, her first Consolation, inspired by those of Franz Liszt, a piece with an accompanied melody texture, a calm tempo, and a reflective character.

We could divide the piece into three sections, although the constant and unchanging repetition of the accompaniment makes us feel a single, continuous line from beginning to end.

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    Let's enjoy Consolation No. 1 by Donna Mitchell, performed by Carlos Marín Trigo: