In Reply to: The first problem with Bruckner is Bruckner posted by Feanor on April 21, 2007 at 08:09:22:
"Bruckner's stuff is the worst sort of pompus, self-important, over-blown Romantic Era musical BS." While I for the most part share your doubt about Bruckner,Bruckner was actually humble to a fault. One of the most pertinent comments I've ever read pertaining to Bruckner was (I believe) observed by Bruno Walter: With Bruckner, the battle is already won, (or something like that).
If you think about it, that creates quite a problem when one is trying to write a symphony, especially in the "German" or "Romantic" tradition of consonance conquering dissonance, major conquering minor, etc., and I hasten to add I'm painting with extrememly broad brush-strokes. One could immediately point out Tchaikovsky's 6th as an example of the opposite, and one could easily point out moments of dissonance in Bruckner
If you were Bruckner, how would you go about writing a symphony in the Romantic era while believing that it would be blasphemous to fetishise despair, dissonance and conflict in your writing? I guess you would write like Bruckner: repetition, more emphasis on rhythm, elemental (humble) tunes... well, time for a beer.
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Follow Ups
- To take this a little further - jdaniel 17:07:58 04/22/07 (3)
- Regardless of whether I thought about it ... - Feanor 10:16:24 04/23/07 (1)
- Re: Regardless of whether I thought about it ... - jdaniel 13:12:31 04/23/07 (0)
- Bruckner also invented (a humble) silence as a musical expression. nt - clarkjohnsen 08:02:37 04/23/07 (0)