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From: jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Any Brucknerians out there?
Message-ID: <137@midas.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Feb-86 12:27:29 EST
Article-I.D.: midas.137
Posted: Thu Feb 13 12:27:29 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Feb-86 00:48:19 EST
References: <562@yale.ARPA>
Reply-To: jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
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Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 32

In article <562@yale.ARPA> francois@yale.ARPA (Charles B. Francois) writes:
>
>I do realize that in classical and neo-classical compositions, the
>closing movement is *traditionally* not meant to carry the rhetorical
>weight of the opening and slow movements, but Bruckner's finales
>typically strike me as, if not inconsequential, but without focus.
>Even in my favorite work of his (the Sixth), I find myself fidgeting
>and struggling to concentrate during the last movement. 

This is from memory, so there may be exceptions, but I think it's
interesting in light of this comment that all of Bruckner's symphonies
use the sonata-allegro form in their finales. In other words, their structure
is identical to the opening movements. I seem to remember that many of them
even have similar sounding opening themes. This is rare in the classical
symphony tradition, and I think Charles's comment indicates why - it just
doesn't work. The powerful sense of deja-vu thus created leaves you impatient
for it to get over with, where with a simpler structure and contrasting
style, you become interested in the new and further things being presented.
This is one trait, by the way, in which Bruckner is very different from 
Mahler. Mahler's finales are generally in rondo form, although one in
particular (Ninth) is hardly an allegro. (But it is sublime!)

Bruckner's use of the sonata-allegro form in the finale may have been
an attempt to attach more weight to it - to try to make it the climax
of the overall work. Composers from Beethoven onwards have been interested
in doing this (e.g., his Ninth, and later quartets and piano sonatas).
Apparently it's more aesthetically satisfying to post-Enlightenment types.
(And I agree.) However, I think Bruckner's method, if that's what it was,
is a dead end.

				Jeff Winslow
				"Why do you hate the Socratic method?"