# Your favourite 20th century melody



## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

What's your favourite melody written in the 20th century? The great thing about the 20th century is that because the musical language became so diverse there was a lot of potential for very different types of beautiful melody.

I'm going to go with the main theme of the second movement of Barber's violin concerto:





So much Ravel, but I'll say the main theme of the first movement of his piano trio (and the second theme):





And finally the main theme of the first movement of Mahler's 9th:





:angel:


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## Guest (May 15, 2014)

I get a little confused with melodic terminology in the 20th century. 20th century music seems to give less attention to recurring melodies in general (like those "big" melodies from, say, Tchaikovsky's or Mendelssohn's violin concertos), and more attention to constant transformation. So, with that in mind, I'll just list a few melodic moments:

- Perhaps more of a motif, but the simple, recurring brass section in Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie. When it returns towards the end of the introduction under that other, more dissonant brass line, I sometimes get goosebumps.

- Both the first and second movements of Shostakovich's famous 8th quartet, though some of these moments are equally dependent on harmony.

- The slow movement of Ravel's piano trio.

- The melodic stuff in the prelude to Gurrelieder is simply divine.

- The Larghetto of Poulenc's concerto for two pianos. Perhaps a crucial factor in my love of Poulenc.

- Normally, Hovhaness feels pretty superficial to me, but the material towards the end of the first movement of the Mysterious Mountain...well that's pretty nice stuff, if you ask me.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

arcaneholocaust said:


> I get a little confused with melodic terminology in the 20th century. 20th century music seems to give less attention to recurring melodies in general (like those "big" melodies from, say, Tchaikovsky's or Mendelssohn's violin concertos), and more attention to constant transformation.


True. Even with Mahler's Ninth, listed above, the main theme isn't really a complete, closed off melody. It's lyrical, to be sure, and that makes it _melodic_, even if it itself isn't a "melody" per se.


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## Guest (May 15, 2014)

And of course, Rachmaninoff and Gliere were a couple of great melodists, but let's be honest - a lot of their music could've been written in the 19th century


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Aside from late romanticism and neoclassicism, chocka with melody, Prokofiev 5th symphony and Romeo and Juliet, Shostakovich 9 (the only Shos I really enjoy), Bartok 3 PC and Concerto for Orchestra, loads of Britten and Janacek have great long melodies that are recognisable, memorable and sing-alongable for even the most casual listener


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

How about this sensual aria from Szymanowski's _Roger_:


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Webern - _Concerto For Nine Instruments_






I love the sarcastic motifs in that piece and their subtle timbral and rhythmical transformations. The piece is very cohesive in terms of motivic development because of the particular row used by Webern (which contains internal symmetries).


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## Alypius (Jan 23, 2013)

I couldn't begin to name just one. There are simply so many.

If only one, well, probably the climax of Stravinsky's _Firebird_ ("Collapse of Kashei's Palace ...")

Other favorites:
*Ravel: String Quartet - 2nd mvt. ("Assez vif")
*Ravel: Piano Trio in A - 2nd mvt. (Pantoum)
*Debussy: Sonata for Violin and Piano - 1st mvt. ("Allegro vivo")
*Debussy: Danses sacree et profane - 2. Danse profane
*Holst: The Planets - 4. Jupiter
*Stravinsky: L'histoire du soldat - 2. Airs by a stream
*Stravinsky: Requiem Canticles - 2. Exaudi
*Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #2 - 1. Andantino 
*Prokofiev: Violin Concerto #2 - 1. Allegro moderato
*Sibelius: Symphony #5 - 3. Allegro molto 
*Gorecki: Symphony #3 - 2. Lento e largo, tranquilissimo
*Faure: Nocturne #11 in F# minor, op. 104, no. 1
*Faure: Sicilienne, op. 78
*Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues, op. 87 - Fugue no. 7 in A major
*Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
*Ropartz: Prelude, Marine et Chansons - 2. Marine: Adagietto
*Bonnal: String Quartet #1 - 1. Vif
*Myaskovsky: String Quartet #11 - 3. Allegretto pensieroso
*Copland: Appalachian Spring - 7.-8.
*Copland: Rodeo - HoeDown
*Berg: Violin Concerto - 1. Andante, Allegretto 
*Berg: Lyric Suite for String Quartet - 2. Andante amoroso
*Szymanowski: Symphony #4 - 3. Allegro non troppo ma agitato ...
*Pärt: Berliner Messe - 8. Agnus Dei
*Lauridsen: O magnum mysterium

Like I said, too many to name. And that list is just from memory. I'm sure if I went through my collection, I'd triple that. I skipped Bartok altogether (too many) and glossed over Prokofiev who has dozens.

You said 20th century. A couple from the 21st:
*Adams: Dharma at Big Sur - 2nd mvt. ("Sri Moonshine")
*Daugherty: Route 66
*Moravec: Tempest Fantasy - IV. Sweet Airs


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Some favored singing polyphony...
Bartok ~ _Music for string instruments, percussion and celesta._ 1st movement, the canonic / fugal (you decide) lines, all sinuous, highly chromatic (uses 11 of the twelve pitches), and intensely lyric.





Stravinsky ~ _Symphonie de Psaumes_ ~ 2nd movment; Fugue subject(s)





Darius Milhaud: any of his six varied and very brief Petite _Symphonies de chambre_, layered and highly melodic polyphony
No. 1





Messiaen: _Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine_
The unabashedly lyric melodic line of the unison female chorus, and ditto for the bulk of the accompaniment, a riot of lyric polyphony 













Alban Berg ~ _Violin Concerto_, the part for the solo instrument is one long nearly unbroken continuous singing line, with a bit of dramatic declamation in the middle, the last movement especially intensely lyric.

In the more conservative / antique manner -- two of the more outstanding of that type of extraordinarily extended melodic line which seems to float, i.e. "stay up in the air," longer than anyone might expect:
Ravel ~ _Piano Concerto in G_; ii, Adagio assai




Barber ~ _Piano concerto_, ii, Canzone





It seems I have never leaned toward the more melodically driven classical pieces, my preference and interest going more to the lyric / thematic, and contrapuntal vs. melody / melody dominated homophony. This has it that while I am no more immune than the next guy to the more immediately hummable sort of tune or single melodic line, that genre has never made as much of a deep or lasting impression on me as these other types of use of melody / melodic materials as in the above examples.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

The question says I have to pick one. So I'll agree with dgee and pick the main theme from the last movement of Prokofiev's 5th symphony.

Now I'll cheat and throw in a few more, as most other respondents have: the opening theme from the scherzo of Prokofiev's 5th symphony, the "country dance" in triple meter from the middle of that same movement, the bluesy trumpet solo melody from Gershwin's _An American in Paris_, the beginning motive of Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello, and the trumpet call from Ives's _The Unanswered Question_.

I'm not sure if the Ravel and Ives are technically "melodies". I turned to Google to verify that the Ives work is actually from the twentieth century (dates are not my forte). According to Wikipedia, it was written in 1908, "revived" (whatever that means) by Ives in 1930-1935, and was not performed until 1946. I've heard different versions of the work with slightly different trumpet calls. One is much more popular than the other(s?), and that is the one that I prefer.



dgee said:


> Aside from late romanticism and neoclassicism, chocka with melody, Prokofiev 5th symphony and Romeo and Juliet, Shostakovich 9 (the only Shos I really enjoy), Bartok 3 PC and Concerto for Orchestra, loads of Britten and Janacek have great long melodies that are recognisable, memorable and sing-alongable for even the most casual listener


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

spradlig said:


> The question says I have to pick one.


No one pays any real attention to 'the rules' as posted in most OP's


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

The beautiful pleading melody stated at the beginning of the Suite and punctuating the rest of the 5 pieces.






In general, my favorite Bartok quartet, but the melodies in this quartet, particulary in the first are beautiful; the second movement's "melody" is wonderful and barbaric.






The greatest single instrument work of the 20th century in my opinion, a instrumentation that is often not successful except in the hand of a master. Unlike Bach's, no real implied harmony either; a single broken melodic line.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I am not sure where a melody really begins and ends, or whether it might be a phrase or a theme, or just an arbitrary sequence, that appeals to me 

There are countless such favourites from the 20th Century. Without poring over all of my albums and trying to recall just such passages, I will simply point out these two pieces:

*Arnold Schoenberg*

Serenade, Op. 24
This is a beautiful lilting, scampering piece, particularly the first movement, as pertaining to the OP's question, but the entire work has these qualities, in either rapid or slow tempo.

*Iannis Xenakis*

Kottos, for solo cello
This gorgeous piece begins somewhat abrasively, tantalizingly (I guess you have to have heard it before to be tantalized by what's to come  ) playing around with motifs or themes that deliriously strive to find some kind of cohesion, until finally coalescing into an exquisitely beautiful passage at the end, that then quickly fades to nothingness.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

There are some lovely melodies throughout Nielsen's "Commotio" for organ (an unduly neglected masterpiece), especially in the "mysterious" moments around the 5-minute mark in this video.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I always liked that melody in the Webern non-opus work, the Piano Quintet of 1906.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

The second movement of Poulenc's Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano is one of the warmest and most charming slow movements I know of. The movement is kind of a big series of melodic material so I can't really isolate one in particular. The whole thing is beautiful.


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## Frei aber froh (Feb 22, 2013)

In terms of modernist (or by "modern" composers), I'm going to have to say the second movement of the Barber violin concerto, the third movement of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, the second movement of the Bartók viola concerto, basically everything in Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, and a *lot* of Prokofiev.

Well, if I had to pick two, I'd go with the Barber and Shostakovich. I think they're some of the most heartrendingly beautiful music ever written.


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## Mister Man (Feb 3, 2014)




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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Rachmaninov's _Vocalise_. It's wordless and I'm speechless.






And on the cello:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The one that pervades the fourth movement of Ives Concord Piano Sonata, a concientiously sadder rendition of Joy To The World?


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

Thanks for all the varied and interesting responses so far. It's always difficult to tell the difference between a melody, a melodic fragment, a motif etc. especially if the melody doesn't have clear start and finish points. I think the most important thing is if you feel that the melody is a melody.

I remembered another melody I find amazing, but it's not an obvious melody-like melody, especially since it's passed around the orchestra.
It's the melody that runs throughout this movement, made up by phrases in the oboes, flutes and violins. I love it so much.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Also, the theme from Dragnet is a favorite. Very catchy.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

How about favourite countermelody?


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

One that comes to mind immediately is the starting theme of the fourth movement of Vaughan William's fifth symphony; and also the main one from the Scherzo of the third.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

The haunting build up of Gorecki's 3rd's 1st Movement


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I love the theme from the original Honeymooners TV show starring the great Jackie Gleason.


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