The Most Overtly Erotic Works in Classical Music

 by Emily E. Hogstad  May 28th, 2026

Western classical music is often thought of as cerebral or abstract, but throughout its history, composers have repeatedly been inspired by themes of desire, sensuality, and physical longing.

Because the overt depiction of sex was socially taboo during much of the genre’s history, eroticism in classical music has traditionally been relatively subtle. Rather, it tended to surface indirectly through the use of harmony, orchestral colour, rhythm, and the like.

But over time, composers became increasingly bold. By 1919, one avant-garde work for solo soprano was much more explicit than most pop music heard today.

Today, we’re looking at seven works that chart the evolution of the portrayal of eroticism in classical music: from sublimated longing to performative sensuality to outright explicitness.   

Few pieces in Western music history are as saturated with sheer erotic tension as the Prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde.

At the time he was writing Tristan, Wagner was embroiled in an extramarital affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the wealthy patron who was supporting him.

Mathilde Wesendonck

That sexual tension seeped into the work. Here Wagner shies away from depicting sexual fulfilment; instead, he constructs, in painstaking fashion, an almost unbearable state of unresolved desire.

The opening harmony – the notorious “Tristan chord”, which became 19th-century shorthand for romantic pining — never resolves in a satisfying way.

Ludwig and Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the title roles of the original production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 1865.

Phrases tilt and yearn forward, dissolve, then begin again.

The end result is a musical experience of longing that feels more physical than almost all of the classical music that came before it.   

Debussy‘s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) was inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé‘s symbolist poem L’après-midi d’un faune.

In Mallarmé’s poem, the faun narrator awakes from an erotic dream, then drifts into very explicit daydreams. He toes the line between sleep, fantasy, and reality until it’s impossible to discern which one he feels most intensely.

Nadar: Stéphane Mallarmé, 1890

The famous opening flute solo in Debussy’s musical version of the story feels more like breathing than melody: languid, suspended, outside of the boundaries of traditional musical timekeeping.

From there, the music continues to avoid a clear pulse and a firm structure, instead unfolding in a series of sensuous gestures that suggest touch, heat, and longing.

This work quietly redefined what eroticism could sound like in the hands of a savvy orchestra.  

Debussy’s treatment of the Chansons de Bilitis is even more explicit than his setting of the story of the restless faun.

The lyrics came from a work by his friend, poet Pierre Louÿs. In 1894, he published a celebrated translation of newly discovered Sapphic works by Sappho’s contemporary, the courtesan Bilitis. It turned out that Bilitis was entirely his own invention and that Louÿs had been lying to readers about the poetry’s origins; nevertheless, he fooled some established scholars.

In the second of the three poems that Debussy set, the narrator’s lover describes in detail the night they spent together.

Last night I dreamed. I had your
tresses around my neck. I had your hair like a black
necklace all round my nape and over my breast.

And gradually it seemed to me, so intertwined
were our limbs, that I was becoming you, or you were
entering into me like a dream…

Debussy responds to the suggestive text with music that veers between extreme delicacy and wholehearted, demonstrative passion.   

Eroticism rarely appears in classical music as a marital or domestic experience, which is precisely what makes Richard Strauss‘s Symphonia domestica so striking.

Over the course of this 45-minute tone poem, Strauss depicts twenty-four hours of family life in lavish orchestral detail.

That includes the nighttime – and moments clearly intended to represent intimacy between spouses.

Richard Strauss

The music here is exuberant and occasionally almost embarrassingly personal. The melodies representing Strauss and his wife wind graphically around each other for about six or seven minutes; take from that what you will. (If you want to hear, the love scene begins around 19:20 in the performance above.)

Unlike works that associate eroticism with transgression or danger, Symphonia domestica presents physical intimacy as a joyful, deeply satisfying, even productive experience, central to the ordinary human experience. It was an unusually frank public stance for its time.   

Soon after depicting his own love life in music, Strauss turned to dramatising Oscar Wilde’s retelling of the Biblical story of the princess Salome, who uses her sexuality to bewitch the evil King Herod and order the head of the prophet John the Baptist on a platter.

If any single moment in classical music history up to this point qualifies as overtly erotic, it is Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils.

Oscar Wilde

Written as a striptease, the music luxuriates in excess: lush orchestration, swelling climaxes, and destabilising chromaticism. Here, desire becomes so intense that it becomes grotesque, blurring the line between arousal and horror.

And yet Strauss gave the rather bewildering instruction that the dance should be “thoroughly decent, as if it were being done on a prayer mat.” Perhaps he thought that all of the necessary eroticism was contained within the music itself, and that to add any more in the dance would be overkill.

Needless to say, not many productions have followed his advice. The dance and the opera ended up being explicit enough to provoke widespread outrage – and occasional censorship.

Ravel – Bacchanale from Daphnis et Chloé (1912)

Ravel‘s ballet Daphnis et Chloé culminates in a radiant Bacchanale that depicts erotic fulfillment as communal ecstasy.

Léon Bakst’s set design for Act 1 of “Daphnis et Chloe”, 1912

After a series of misadventures, the goatherd Daphnis falls in love with a shepherdess named Chloé. The couple represent rural purity and wholesomeness, and it takes them a long time to recognise their desires.

Finally, at the end of the ballet, after long stretches of anticipation and awakening, the music bursts into motion and rhythmic release as the couple celebrates conquering the obstacles that have kept them apart.

Maurice Ravel in 1925

Unlike Strauss’s Salome, this eroticism is not kitschy or corrosive. It is celebratory and even awe-struck, suffused with orchestral colour and intoxicating momentum.

In this retelling, sex is depicted as part of the natural world, aligned with feelings of light, joy, and triumph.

Schulhoff – Sonata Erotica (1919)   

Composer Erwin Schulhoff‘s Sonata erotica ends the tradition of euphemism in classical music entirely.

Written for a breathy female solo voice, the piece consists of exaggerated, notated vocalisations intended to mimic sexual sounds. Trust us: the result is more explicit than even most modern-day love scenes. (You certainly don’t want to listen to the performance above at work!)

Erwin Schulhoff

Schulhoff’s aim here is partly satirical – he’s mocking Romantic excess in music – but given the time period, the work is also clearly pushing the boundaries of what is appropriate, or even possible, for a musician to portray about sex on the concert stage.

Sonata erotica also marks a breaking point in the history of sex portrayed in classical music. After centuries of sublimation, Schulhoff finally brought into the open what the art had been suggestively circling, in one way or another, for hundreds of years.

Conclusion

Taken together, these works reveal how Western art music gradually moved from encoded longing to an open acknowledgement of lovemaking.

Even before Schulhoff, when sex could not be shown in any kind of overt way, it was heard through tension, instrumentation, rhythm, and more.

Eroticism has always existed in classical music; what changed over time was how openly composers were willing to depict it.

The Year of the Fire Horse Energy and Progress

 by Hermione Lai  February 17th, 2026

I am sure you know this famous line from William Shakespeare’s historical play Richard III. During the Battle of Bosworth Field, the king desperately cries out, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse.”

It’s all about medieval warfare, and unable to flee the Tudor cavalry, he would be captured or killed very soon. No wonder he was desperate enough to hypothetically trade his crown and kingdom for a horse.

There is no such desperation in 2026, when the Horse becomes the zodiac for the Chinese New Year, running from 17 February 2026 to 5 February 2027.

Recent years of the Horse have included 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966, and 1954. And the next Horse year will be celebrated in 2038. So, let’s have a look at the 7th animal in the cycle of the Chinese zodiac signs.  

Galloping into Greatness

According to Chinese astrology, Horses are confident, agreeable, and responsible, although they also tend to dislike being reined in by others. They are fit and intelligent, adore physical and mental exertion, yet they are also easily swayed and impatient.

Even more significantly, this will be the year of the Fire Horse. This promises a year of positivity because movement is always considered good. This year is for progress, a new start, bold decisions and dramatic shifts.

It’s certainly best to ignore the curse of the Fire Horse, a superstition that holds that women born in that specific year are ill-tempered, headstrong, and fated to bring ruin to their families or cause their husbands’ deaths.   

Finance and Opportunities

In terms of career and finance, there are new opportunities waiting. That may include career shifts; however, be careful with impulsiveness or emotions taking centre stage. This is particularly true around mid-year, as mental and emotional breakdowns may present challenges.

Keep up the constant networking, acquire new skills, and effective time management is a powerful catalyst for overall success. You must be mindful of impulsive financial decisions, however. Avoid overspending on vacations, gifts for yourself and others.

Don’t borrow or lend out large sums of money, otherwise your long-term economic success will be in jeopardy. For 2026, consistent savings and long-term risk-averse investments are your ticket to wealth.   

Love and Lovers

The Year of the Fire Horse may hold surprises and excitement in the romance department. Since Horses are energetic, lively, and generous, they are certainly popular in the romance department. When it comes to love compatibility, their hot temper and stubborn nature means that they tend to gravitate towards romantic partners who are more easy-going and gentle.

Tigers and Horses are temperamental, hot-headed, and often cocky, but in the love department, they bring out the best in each other and allow the other to grow. It’s as if both the Tiger and the Horse finally have someone who can keep up with their own breakneck speed.

Dogs and Goats are also beautiful matches for the passionate Horse. However, you must stay away from the Rat and the Ox. Such relationships result in frequent conflicts that neither will bother to resolve. Horse loves freedom, which makes Ox feel insecure. What started quickly as a passionate love affair is more likely to result in a bitter breakup rather than a happy marriage.  

Wellbeing and Luck

When it comes to health, Horses are very healthy, most likely because they hold a positive attitude towards life. However, heavy responsibility or pressure from their jobs may make them weak. As such, Horses shouldn’t do overtime very often or go home late. They should also refuse some invitations to parties at night.

Lucky numbers in the Year of the Horse are 2, 3, and 7, and numbers that contain them. For your lucky colours, look towards green and yellow, and your lucky flowers are calla lily and jasmine. As for lucky directions, always head east, west, and south.

You should definitely avoid the unlucky colours of blue and white, and your unlucky numbers are 1, 5, and 6. And if you’re on the go, avoid moving north and northwest. And finally, know that you are in good company as famous people born in the Year of the Horse include Isaac Newton, Neil Armstrong, James Cameron, and Max Planck.

To all Interlude readers, we wish you a wonderful Year of the Fire Horse, Gong Hei Fat Choy!

Two Pianos as a Home Orchestra

 by Maureen Buja

With the normalising of a piano at home in the 19th century, music opened up to the masses in a way never anticipated in the 18th century. One of the results of this was music that would have normally been heard only rarely and only in a concert hall, as played by an orchestra, was reduced for performance by groups at home, usually based around a piano.

Gustav Holst

By the 1920s, much of this home music-making had been supplanted by the home radio. Recordings also became available, and with a record player, you could have your own orchestra in your drawing room.

In the early 20th century, however, the piano still held sway, and in this new recording by the piano duo of Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman, one major work by Gustav Holst and two by Edward Elgar are presented. The transcriptions of Holst’s The Planets, Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, and the Salut d’Amour give us something back of music in the home.

Gustav Holst’s suite for large orchestra, The Planets, brought Holst’s name into the spotlight. Although admired by his musical friends, few others knew of this Cheltenham-born composer.

The original layout of The Planets was for two pianos, and it was only orchestrated later. Holst suffered from neuritis, an inflammation of the nervous system, and it was easier for him to compose for two pianos than work through a large symphonic score.

With the success of the orchestral version, particularly in a time when astrology and the study of the stars were in fashion, Holst’s two-piano version was set aside and only published some 30 years after the orchestral premiere.

In the two-piano version, the big works, such as Mars, seem too light, but the lighter movements, such as Venus, The Bringer of Peace or Neptune, The Mystic, come across beautifully. One of the particularly good movements in the two-piano version is the flight of Mercury, The Winged Messenger.

Gustav Holst: The Planets – III. Mercury, The Winged Messenger (Ben Schoeman, Tessa Uys pianos)

Edward Elgar

The other English composer who rose from relative obscurity to international fame was Edward Elgar. As in the case of Holst, the piano transcriptions of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, and the Salut d’Amour have largely been ignored with the greater fame of their orchestral versions. Whereas Holst made his transcriptions as part of his compositional process, Elgar’s works were done by other hands. Introduction and Allegro was transcribed by Otto Singer II, who made his name with his piano transcriptions of Bruckner’s symphonies. Introduction and Allegro (1905) was written for the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra, with Elgar conducting the premiere.

The second Elgar work, Salut d’Amour, originally entitled Liebesgruß (Love’s Greeting) but retitled in French by Elgar’s German publishers, was a wedding present to his fiancée, Caroline Alice Roberts. Their marriage in 1889 was done with her family’s disapproval, but proved to be a love-match in all the good ways. This melody is probably the most famous of Elgar’s light works, and in his publisher’s catalogue were some 25 different arrangements for all manner of ensembles.

Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman, piano duo

The two-piano format made important orchestral works accessible for home consumption. In the case of these three works, which are far better known in their orchestral versions, we can hear both the advantages of the genre and some of its limitations.

Holst: The Planets / Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Salut d’Amour

Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman, piano duo
SOMM Recordings: SOMMCD 0709

Official Website

Centenary of the Premiere of the Controversial Concerto in F

  by Frances Wilson  December 3rd, 2025

Composed in 1925, following on the success of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, George Gershwin’s ‘Concerto in F’ is one of the most celebrated works that straddles the worlds of classical music and jazz. Commissioned by Walter Damrosch for the New York Symphony Orchestra, it was Gershwin’s largest and most complex work for the concert stage he had yet undertaken – a fully-fledged concerto in the classical three-movement format – and the first work he scored entirely by himself, thus signalling his determination to be taken seriously by the classical establishment. The work showcases his signature blend of rhythmic vitality, blues-inspired melodies and sophisticated orchestration and, like ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, it captures the energy and spirit of 1920s America, from bustling urban life to lyrical introspection. It stands as a landmark in American music, demonstrating Gershwin’s ability to fuse popular idioms with symphonic tradition.

George Gershwin

‘Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody [in Blue] was only a happy accident. Well, I went out, for one thing, to show them that there was plenty more where that had come from’ – George Gershwin speaking about the birth of his Concerto in F.

The Concerto’s premiere took place at Carnegie Hall on 3rd December 1925, conducted by Damrosch with Gershwin at the piano. The concert was sold out, and the Concerto was very well received by the general public. But the reviews were mixed, with many critics unable to classify it as jazz or classical. There was a great variety of opinion among Gershwin’s contemporaries too: Prokofiev found it “amateurish”, while The New York Times called it “a new kind of symphonic jazz,” acknowledging Gershwin’s growing maturity as a composer beyond the success of his earlier ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential composers at the time, praised Gershwin’s concerto in a posthumous tribute in 1938:

Arnold Schoenberg

‘Gershwin is an artist and a composer – he expressed musical ideas, and they were new, as is the way he expressed them.… Serious or not, he is a composer, that is, a man who lives in music and expresses everything….by means of music, because it is his native language. … What he has done with rhythm, harmony and melody is not merely style. It is fundamentally different from the mannerism of many a serious composer [who writes] a superficial union of devices applied to a minimum of ideas. … The impression is of an improvisation with all the merits and shortcomings appertaining to this kind of production. … He only feels he has something to say and he says it.’     

The concerto’s lasting legacy begins with its role in legitimising jazz as a component of “serious” music. Gershwin didn’t simply sprinkle jazz harmonies over a classical structure: instead, he successfully integrated syncopations, bluesy melodic contours and the raw energy of urban life into the concerto’s DNA. This helped shift attitudes in concert halls, expanding the notion of what orchestral music could or should contain. It also paved the way for later composers such as Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to continue exploring the crossover between jazz and classical idioms.

Carnegie Hall program

In addition to its historical importance, the Concerto in F is a beloved staple of the piano concerto repertoire because of its sheer musical appeal. Pianists relish its virtuosic demands, from crisp syncopations to sweeping, lyrical lines. Orchestras enjoy its colourful writing, which includes inventive writing for percussion and dynamic interactions between soloist and ensemble. And audiences continue to be captivated by its buoyant spirit and its ability to convey both exuberance and introspection. Few works capture the optimism, swagger, and complexity of early 20th-century America as vividly as the Concerto in F.

🎻 PART III - 24 famous classical pieces you've heard and don't know the title

Robert Redford has died at 89 years old

 Robert Redford has died at 89 years old.

The film icon starred in classic films such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President's Men," won an Oscar for directing “Ordinary People” and founded the Sundance Film Institute, among other career highlights. Read more here: https://variety.com/.../robert-redford-dead-all-the.../

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