# Economics of the Canon



## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

Why is there often such a disparity between the performance frequencies of works of approximate value? For example, Brahms first piano quartet is performed and recorded many times more than the second, when the second is, at worst, only marginally inferior to the first. Recordings of Brahms' Triumphlied and Song of Destiny are few and far in between the hundreds of cycles of his symphonies.

The ordinary goes down unsung to Orcus' are the last words of Schiller's Naenie. Brahms's Naenie is sung very rarely, and his Triumphlied hardly ever, in my experience. Following shortly on the Requiem, Brahms turned out Rinaldo, the Alto Rhapsody, the Song of Destiny and the Triumphlied one after another, followed after a longer interval by Naenie and the Song of the Fates. The Alto Rhapsody has become an established favourite, but the uneconomic format of the others, calling for chorus, and in the Triumphlied and Rinaldo a soloist also, as well as the orchestra in shortish pieces, tends to keep them out of the repertory.

This is crazy. No matter how uneconomical the Triumphlied is, it can be half as uneconomical as any of Wagner's mature operas. And the second piano quartet is just that, a piano quartet, yet recordings are relatively rare. Mahler 2, 8, Das Lied also call for soloists and/or choir and they are often recorded and performed.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

The conservative audience that evolved in the 20th century and survives today is what determines what becomes famous in the long run.


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