# Do you prefer music to be introspective or grandiose?



## Guest (Feb 12, 2019)

Which style do you prefer?


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Both? That's one reason I so like concertos--the alternation of grandiosity and introspection is a delight to the ears and the mind.


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Yes — among many other things.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

I can't imagine anyone not liking examples of both and sometimes even in a single work. 

Right at this moment I'm listening to Bruckner 6 and the opening movement has just finished. It's rather grandiose. I'm in that sort of mood (want to fire a cannon through my noisy neighbour's back window) and this music matches it.

What examples are there of 'introspective' music? I feel these tend to be limited to solo works or ensembles like string quartets. The quartet is my favourite. I listen to a great deal them and they also have grandiosity and fire in them among the introspection. I like the contrasts.

So again: both.


----------



## fliege (Nov 7, 2017)

Strange Magic said:


> Both? That's one reason I so like concertos--the alternation of grandiosity and introspection is a delight to the ears and the mind.


Exactly: "both". You beat me to it. I think there are symphonies that also manage the combination. For me, Shostakovich 4 is definitely like that: it's often large, loud, and over the top yet many sections are quite the opposite. As the symphony progresses the movements end in increasingly quiet and erie ways. There is the feeling of total emptiness after all the insanity. Passages with the solo bassoon have a very personal quality to them.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Yes, both, however, both simultaneously is nice as eugeneonagain and fliege stated. Something like Beethoven's 3rd is grandiose and introspective at the same time I feel. 

I feel Mozart's 41st is a good example of simply grandiose.

I feel Beethoven's first movement of his Moonlight is just introspective.

I really do love both, but if I had to pick, I'd say introspective, but I don't know where I'd be without those fantastic grandiose works!


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Does being introspective HAVE to be soft and quiet music? Or does it simply need to help us understand our inner emotional worlds?


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I would have listed the choices as introspective or motivating. Sometimes music can really get one moving and it’s the beat or its liveliness of spirit, not necessarily how grandiose it might be.


----------

