| Recently I read an interesting article on the | | | | Another way to ask the question is this: What |
| topic of the modern symphony. However, it | | | | gives a listener the impression of a |
| left me wondering. The author spoke of | | | | symphony? Let's say that you turn on a radio |
| titans of symphony in the twentieth century, | | | | in the middle of a piece you never heard |
| yet Prokofiev, Honegger, and Shostakovich | | | | before. If it's a symphony, there's a very |
| completely escaped his attention. Was this an | | | | good chance that you will recognize it as |
| accident? It seems like the mighty stream of | | | | such. But how do you know? |
| modern symphonic music of these composers has | | | | |
| not been appreciated enough in the critical | | | | Is it by the sound of a large orchestra? Then |
| literature of European music. More | | | | what about symphonies with smaller |
| appreciation of the atonal avant-garde and | | | | orchestras? Is it by its monumental way of |
| dodecaphony (Schoenberg's music and the | | | | expression? Then what about lyrical and |
| Second Viennese School, and late works of | | | | intimate kinds of symphony? It seems that |
| Stravinsky), but less of the tonal and | | | | these features of the symphonic genre still |
| traditionally melodic approach. | | | | do not define it. |
| | | | |
| Another question: Should we write symphonies | | | | It seems that the scope of what symphony can |
| for the public, or only for an elite | | | | possibly encompass is incredibly wide. Of |
| audience? Is it possible that New Age | | | | course, there are basic similarities of |
| composers have a historic mission to foster | | | | musical form. For a very long time the most |
| the public's experience of the highest music | | | | distinctive characteristic of symphony as a |
| genre - to share it with people "not | | | | music genre was the sonata form in the first |
| trained," or "unprepared" for a professional | | | | movement. But like everything else, genres |
| music experience? Where else in music today | | | | evolve and our perceptions do too. Shouldn't |
| does the public have a such a chance to | | | | we start searching deeper? Really, an average |
| submerge itself in the ocean of orchestral | | | | person wouldn't appreciate how thesis, |
| sound without fear of being lost, and to | | | | antithesis, development and synthesis can |
| actually emotionally enjoy it? The answer is | | | | create a music form ( and even these are not |
| New Age! And of course, in the music of | | | | necessarily all a part of symphony anymore ). |
| cinematography. But soundtracks shouldn't | | | | Still all human beings seem to appreciate |
| count because they are not free from visual | | | | symphonic music on its different levels. So, |
| images, and so they can't be experienced in | | | | is there something else, something global, |
| the same purely musical way. | | | | rooted in our human sensibilities by which we |
| | | | recognize a symphony, as if by a certain |
| The electronic era has created possibilities | | | | language or code? Was it invented, or just |
| beyond imagination. We can experience sounds | | | | discovered, at a certain level of |
| remotely recognized as orchestral, or | | | | civilization? Could it be like recollecting |
| something absolutely new with no connection | | | | something you knew before, but have forgotten |
| to anything we have heard before. Symphonies | | | | from not using it, so it feels more like an |
| written with this new kind of sound - is it | | | | essential part of our reflection? Does it |
| something yet to come? | | | | have to do with how we feel TIME? Because |
| | | | basically, symphony as a form very much |
| Next question: Is there anything common among | | | | depends on how it comes into existence, |
| all the symphonies ever written, starting | | | | changes, develops, and transforms in TIME. |
| with the era of classicism? Considering the | | | | That's probably why we can relate to |
| differences of the centuries - artistic | | | | symphonic music - as a reflection of our own |
| styles, ethnic or class-based bonds, | | | | traveling through life. If this is an answer, |
| religious or cultural priorities, and | | | | then classification of a symphony as a |
| personalities of composers - is there | | | | complex musical composition for an orchestra |
| anything that unites all the symphonies, not | | | | usually composed in four movements, at least |
| only on the level of the definition of the | | | | one of which is in sonata form, is outdated, |
| symphony as a music genre or form, but | | | | isn't it? |
| fundamentally deeper? | | | | |
| | | | Lots of questions! |