# Incipits



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

_In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since._

_All children, except one, grow up._

_It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

_
_Call me Ishmael.

_
Opening lines of novels are very important, imo. The good ones can set the tone for the rest of the book and quite often they are what decide whether you feel like reading or just close the book.

Sometimes the same applies to music as well. Few bars can grab you from the very beginning of the piece.
I am thinking for example at the opening bars of Beethoven's 9th symphony, with all those enigmatic empty fifths, or the subject (just 4 notes) of the fugue in C#min from Bach's WTC 1.

Any other good (and pithy ) example?

Thanks!

:tiphat:


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## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

Hello, GioCar, *Sonoris causa*, dated 1.997 by Croatian Ivo Malec (1.925-), is the first example that has come to my mind (apart from Index and Bad Trip, but we have another thread for Romitelli).

It's a work of around 16' written "in favour" of the orchestra instead of "against" as many other contemporary pieces, dedicated in gratitude to an orchestra who had played former pieces by him so they can enjoy playing it, and it shows from the sensual beginning (you can listen to it on many streamings, not in Youtube).


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

When I saw the thread title, I thought of:





Of course, for the greatest of all Stravinsky openings, one need look no further than the first chord of this:





Just an E minor triad, of course, but a more forceful E minor triad has yet to be found.


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## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

Your Threni has reminded me of this *Threnody* (a friend of mine compared 2 versions saying one was like seeing/hearing it from land and oher from Enola Gay):


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

SilverSurfer said:


> Hello, GioCar, *Sonoris causa*, dated 1.997 by Croatian Ivo Malec (1.925-), is the first example that has come to my mind (apart from Index and Bad Trip, but we have another thread for Romitelli).
> 
> It's a work of around 16' written "in favour" of the orchestra instead of "against" as many other contemporary pieces, dedicated in gratitude to an orchestra who had played former pieces by him so they can enjoy playing it, and it shows from the sensual beginning (you can listen to it on many streamings, not in Youtube).


Thanks SilverSurfer for the example, I found it on Qobuz and tonight I'll give it a try.


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## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

You're welcome, don't miss Ottava alta, then...


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

First two notes of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony - Dat! Dat!

Wake up and pay attention - I have something important to say


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

How about the organ playing a tonic E flat chord at full blast at the beginning of the Mahler 8th Symphony? Speaking of "wake up and pay attention"!


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart) and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony have probably the most famous openings in music.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

What could be more commanding than the pounding timpani at the start of Brahms' first symphony?Brahms, finally presenting a symphony to the world at age 43 after struggling with it for two decades, said he felt the heavy tread of Beethoven behind him. What a coup, to deal with that tread by laying it directly before us in the music and then proving he could live up to its challenge!

The start of his first piano concerto, at one point intended to be his first symphony, is pretty terrifying too. L van B must have scared the daylights out of him, but JB certainly grabbed the bull by the horns in both works.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

How about:










Despite long familiarity, this sends a tingle of anticipation down my spine every time I hear it.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

There's also the Pathetique Sonata (Beethoven) and Vaughan Williams' amazing Sea Symphony.
^^What is this? Not sure.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

The opening Intrada to Janacek's Slavonic Mass.
Any opening in D major by Bach.
Any opening in E-flat by Beethoven.
The opening of the overture to Figaro.

Dinner's on. More later.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

While I have outgrown Beethoven a bit over the years, I have to admit, he was very good at immediately grabbing the attention. The OP has already mentioned the opening of his ninth symphony. One might add the dark, brooding opening of the fourth. And those banal little taps on the tympani with he chooses to open a violin concerto (and that then go on to become a recurring motive in the whole first movement!)

Other gripping openings that come to mind:

Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra
Rachmaninov's second piano concerto
Several symphonies by Mahler


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Miraculous Mandarin
Don Juan
Prokofiev 3
Honegger 3
Grisey Partiels
Poulenc Gloria
Brahms Double Concerto (the 2 vs 3!)
Ruggles Suntreader
Kurtag Stele

And from literature, I ALWAYS think:

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

TurnaboutVox said:


> How about:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hangs head in shame and whispers quietly ..... Please sir! What is is? I can't read music!


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2014)

Opus 111.

(Beethoven's, not Prokofiev's.)


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Stravinsky certainly knew how to begin a piece (let alone all the genius and ingenuity in the middle bit) and knew just as well how to end one, often in an apotheosis which leaves the listener feeling that even when the piece is done there is a monumental object sitting in physical space, and that whatever dialogue had gone on was not merely complete, but that nothing further could possibly be said on the subject.

Mahlerian has already mentioned the signal call of a perfectly voiced and orchestrated E minor triad which is like a signal call opening Stravinsky's _Symphony of Psalms_, and his highly dramatic preluding to the first entry of the chorus in the opening measures of _Threni._

The opening bars of Orpheus just melt me, they did the first time I heard it and still work their magic, as does the staid, crisp and highly elevated opening of _Apollo_, for string orchestra. (I recommend only the Stravinsky conducted recordings of these on Columbia -- now Sony Classics -- done in the late '70's)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Orff's Carmina Burana and Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, to name but two that have been overused in popular culture.


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2014)

PetrB said:


> The opening bars of Orpheus just melt me, the first time I heard it and still work their magic,


Magical is le mot juste.



PetrB said:


> (I recommend only the Stravinsky conducted recordings of these on Columbia -- now Sony Classics -- done in the late '70's)


Do you know the Colin Davis recording of Orpheus? I know. Colin Davis? But his performance does that melting thing on me even more than Stravinsky's does.

Oh, and I just now noticed the modifier of '70's. Stravinsky died in 71, so these recordings must have been done in the late 60's. I had that 22 CD box myself for awhile. Splendid set. If you don't have it, and you love your ears, you should get it. I had the later, stripped down version with no info hardly and the CDs in cardboard sleeves. It was perfect for me, and then even that was too much. It is now a bunch of .wav files residing in a couple of external hard drives. (And even those drives are too much. I live for the day when three terabyte drives are the size of thumb drives. Bliss!!)


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

The opening to Mozart's String Quartet #19 never fails to grab my attention as it slowly evolves to a lively C major.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The first few seconds of the adagio from Mahler's 4th always get me. This is so unbelievably beautiful.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The fanfare at the beginning of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony is memorable and never fails to get my attention.


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

"It was a dark and stormy night;" a much-maligned and parodied opening that I think is terrific.

Made me want to read the rest of the opening sentence, "...the rain fell in torrents - except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the streetlamps that struggled against the darkness."

Always feels to me like the opening of something by Dickens, or better yet, Conan Doyle. (Not that Doyle is 'better' than Dickens, just that it seems almost inevitable that this sentence would be followed by "Holmes and I were glad of the comforting fire in the grate as we awaited the arrival of a mysterious yet illustrious client on that night in the Autumn of 187_.")

And for an _incipit_ that pulls me right in, how about this:


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Ravel - Piano Concerto For the Left Hand

That's what I call setting the tone!


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

GioCar said:


> [/I]
> _Call me Ishmael.
> 
> _
> Opening lines of novels are very important, imo. The good ones can set the tone for the rest of the book and quite often they are what decide whether you feel like reading or just close the book.


Not that _Call Me Ishmael_ really sets the tone for the hours of whale classifications you'll have read.

...but to answer the question. Gershwin's _Rhapsody in Blue._


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Couac Addict said:


> Not that _Call Me Ishmael_ really sets the tone for the hours of whale classifications you'll have read.
> 
> ...but to answer the question. Gershwin's _Rhapsody in Blue._


Lol, the opening of that piece is another sort of wailing!

I think it was in the Eighties that a panel of literature pros -- academics (from Hahrvard, Yale, Princeton maybe) wrote up a list of the 100 greatest works of literature which were at the same time _also generally agreed to be great literature's most boring reads!_ I don't recall the ranking of Moby Dick, but I think if not in the number one slot, is was very close to


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Couac Addict said:


> Not that _Call Me Ishmael_ really sets the tone for the hours of whale classifications you'll have read.
> 
> _...._


I may agree but surely it _decides whether you feel like reading or just close the book. _Then probably you'll close it the same, after few pages...


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Going into opera:

Verdi: Otello

The huge, mighty 11th chord that opens the 1st act of his new opera, after 16 years of silence. 
I still can feel the emotion of those who were so lucky to be there, the 5th of February 1887.






I can read the same emotion on Carlos Kleiber's face...


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

SilverSurfer said:


> Hello, GioCar, *Sonoris causa*, dated 1.997 by Croatian Ivo Malec (1.925-), is the first example that has come to my mind (apart from Index and Bad Trip, but we have another thread for Romitelli).
> 
> It's a work of around 16' written "in favour" of the orchestra instead of "against" as many other contemporary pieces, dedicated in gratitude to an orchestra who had played former pieces by him so they can enjoy playing it, and it shows from the sensual beginning (you can listen to it on many streamings, not in Youtube).


A great work which I listened twice last night. The beginning is as sensual and beautiful as the conclusion...
Thanks a lot for it and for introducing me to the works of Ivo Malec.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

SilverSurfer said:


> You're welcome, don't miss Ottava alta, then...


Possibly tonight, surely by the end of the week...


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## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

You're welcome, GioCar: as a reviewer wrote, Sonoris causa is celebration of sound IN sound...

And if you want to complete "my" Top 3 of Malec, cello concerto Arc-en-cello (being Arc-en-ciel a rainbow in French), would be next, also on a Timpany Cd.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

some guy said:


> Opus 111.
> 
> (Beethoven's, not Prokofiev's.)


erm .... so do you mean the sheet music I couldn't read is Beethoven's Op 111 ..... or this is your reply to the OP?

still unsure!


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

^^^Definitely that sheet music is the beginning of Beethoven's Op 111.

Maybe it's also his reply to the OP...


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

^^^ Thank you, GioCar

I hope everyone will now forget that I am *only* a listener


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2014)

Headphone Hermit said:


> erm .... so do you mean the sheet music I couldn't read is Beethoven's Op 111 ..... or this is your reply to the OP?
> 
> still unsure!


The sheet music you couldn't read is Beethoven's opus 111.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Aside from Beethoven's Fifth, the openings of Nielsen's 4th ("_The Inextinguishable_") and of Tchaikovsky's and Grieg's Piano Concerti remain for me the most indelible musical introductions in my consciousness. Such openings are all inextinguishable!


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

It may not be as immediately arresting as some of the other beginnings mentioned, but the prelude to _Das Rheingold_ is to me one of the very best beginnings I can think of. It makes me hold my breath, and gives more questions than answers. And then these questions pile up and suddenly add up to overwhelming beauty. The answer was indeed in the questions!


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

My favorite opening sentence in literature is probably that of _Pride and Prejudice_.

In the realm of music, I didn't notice _Don Giovanni_ or _Tristan und Isolde_ mentioned yet. A personal favorite would be the opening of Albéniz's "Granada" from _Suite española_.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

science said:


> My favorite opening sentence in literature is probably that of _Pride and Prejudice_.


It's an especially wonderful one because it's presented in such absolute confidence and then the book sets out to forcefully dismiss it!


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Speaking of Ravel....the piano concerto in G starting with the crack of a whip! 
Strauss En Heldenleben brilliant start, indicative of more joy to come.
Honegger symphony no1...I mean, wow! stunning. 

Three of my favourites.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Xaltotun said:


> It's an especially wonderful one because it's presented in such absolute confidence and then the book sets out to forcefully dismiss it!


I haven't thought about it that way before. I will give it some thought.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Headphone Hermit said:


> ^^^ Thank you, GioCar
> 
> I hope everyone will now forget that I am *only* a listener


Well, I can (sort of) read music, but I thought at first it might be the opening to Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C# minor. I guess it was the descending first two notes. I wasn't looking at the key signature. I see now there is no similarity but this Prelude would by my pick for great opening line.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

science said:


> My favorite opening sentence in literature is probably that of _Pride and Prejudice_.


As a literary maven, I of course must prefer the opening sentence of English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel _Paul Clifford_. I'm sure that if Miss -- what's the name again? ... oh, yes -- Austen had utilized that same opening, she and her book would have achieved some greater literary notice. Alas ....

In the realm of music, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the opening of Havergal Brian's _Gothic Symphony_! Surely that 1s memorable! Perfect music, too, for a dark and stormy night.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Adam's Harmonielehre. Just repeats an E minor chord, great curtain raiser
As is the intro orchestral flourish of Strauss' Elektra
Mozart, Symphony 41 intro is short, but grows the anticipation


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Headphone Hermit said:


> Hangs head in shame and whispers quietly ..... Please sir! What is is? I can't read music!





Headphone Hermit said:


> erm .... so do you mean the sheet music I couldn't read is Beethoven's Op 111 ..... or this is your reply to the OP?
> 
> still unsure!





Headphone Hermit said:


> ^^^ Thank you, GioCar
> 
> I hope everyone will now forget that I am *only* a listener


Sorry, sorry, sorry, I had no intention to be cryptic, HH, I've only just returned to the thread to realise I hadn't put at the top "How about: Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 111?" I went to Wikipedia to find the graphic and posted without checking again. Mea culpa. I can barely read music either.


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## OperaGeek (Aug 15, 2014)

GioCar said:


> *Going into opera*:
> 
> Verdi: Otello
> 
> ...


Puccini's "Tosca". Those five _tutta forza_ chords let you know this ain't gonna be a comedy!


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

And then who could have imagined that the *15 repetitions of a single note* could introduce such a shimmering beauty as this:


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## Guest (Sep 21, 2014)

I see your 15 and raise you 144.


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