Symphonic poem Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia" "powerful orchestral pictures, each unique in its composer's output". Titled a "musical portrait", "In the Steppes of Central Asia" evokes the journey of a caravan across the steppes. "Night on Bald Mountain", especially its original version, contains harmony that is often striking, sometimes pungent and highly abrasive; its initial stretches especially pull the listener into a world of uncompromisingly brutal directness and energy. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote only two orchestral works that rank as symphonic poems, his "musical tableau" "Sadko" (1867–92) and "Skazka" ("Legend", 1879–80), originally titled "Baba-Yaga". While this may perhaps be surprising,
Symphonic poem Swan of Tuonela" (1895) is a tone poem from Jean Sibelius's "Lemminkäinen Suite", and "Vltava" ("The Moldau") by Bedřich Smetana is part of the six-work cycle "Má vlast". While the terms "symphonic poem" and "tone poem" have often been used interchangeably, some composers such as Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius have preferred the latter term for their works. The first use of the German term "Tondichtung" (tone poem) appears to have been by Carl Loewe, applied not to an orchestral work but to his piece for piano solo, "Mazeppa", Op. 27 (1828), based on the poem of that name by