# Least Difficult Symphonies of the Late Romantic, Early Modern era.



## MozartEarlySymphonies (Nov 29, 2013)

Just for curiosity, can you please give me some of the least difficult symphonies of the Late Romantic, Early Modern Era? By least difficult, I mean least difficult for the orchestra in general, not just for one or two sections.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, I performed recently in the 2nd symphony by Randal Thompson (written in 1931 but is entirely romantic), and I thought it was a very simple piece. I barely needed to practice it, it was that easy, plus it only took my orchestra a month to rehearse and then perform at a reasonable quality level.

Elements that (in my opinion) make a symphony easier than others:

1. Short length overall (30-40 min)
2. Straightforward (tonal) technique
3. Doesn't stress the high range of any players too much
4. Never has blazing fast tempos
5. Has many moments that the orchestra can "regroup" if there is threat of error
6. Uses regular patterns often (rhythmically and harmonically in particular)

The Thompson 2nd symphony basically covered all these elements. The hardest part was in fact the 3rd mvmt (scherzo) was in a very fast 7/4 and has syncopation going on whenever it was in cut time. But even there, the rhythmic groupings were most often regular, just in a funky time signature.


----------

