# Which pieces are too short?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

My vote goes for the finale of Beethoven's 5th Symphony...  Yours?


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## Bone (Jan 19, 2013)

As far as movements go, the finale of Bartok's 6th quartet needs another 5 minutes at least. Piece-wise, I'll go with Schubert 8 (of course) or Bruckner 9.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

_Vexations._


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> _Vexations._


pmsl...... you think ;-)


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MagneticGhost said:


> pmsl...... you think ;-)


At least ten time as long!!!! Then I would buy a copy.

I also reckon *Sibelius's* 6th is too short. And the first mvt of his 4th...it is 9-10 minutes of incredible dream-like music but it feels like it ends so quickly!


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Mozart's Confutatis Maledictus and Lachrymose from the Requiem.

The 2nd movt of Shostakovich 10.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

It would have been nice if Ravel had made an expanded version of the "_Don Quixote Songs_" - the beautiful material is certainly there ...

Also, Webern`s "_Klavierstück, Im Tempo eines Menuetts_" is gorgeous, but it only lasts 1 minute (the you-tube recording does not do it justice, Zimmerman´s airy DG version in the one to listen to).

Some late Stravinsky works should have been more ambitious too - the "_Orchestral Variations_" and the "_Movements for Piano & Orchestra_" in particular.

(Concerning the Beethoven 5 Finale I personally think he should have changed it completely, reducing the march-like effects to something very different at the end!)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I would have loved Mahler to use the vocal parts and extend the orchestra parts of the Kindertotenlieder into a symphony in the style of Das Lied von der Erde.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Carl Nielsen's Symphony No.5, OP.50 First movement: "Tempo giusto".


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Handel wrote some exasperating short pieces. The Bouree from the Water Music Suite in F (the one used on "The Frugal Gourmet" here in the USA) with its wonderful initial unaccented beat ambiguity is way too short. Then there is the tiny Sonatina in B, HWV 585. This joyful upbeat piece lasts less than a minute. 

Most of all I think Cage's 4' 33" is too short. Or rather in this case the peace is too short.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

The Minute Waltz, by Frederic Chopin. Coulda done with another five or ten seconds. 

Some pieces frustrate because they're too long, the composer didn't leave anything out and flogged an idea to death. For me, I always wish my favourite pieces would go on and on, and yet that satisfaction at the end, the feeling of wanting more, is a proof of how perfectly pitched it is. If I had to name a single work, I'd say the violin sonata K377, by Mozart. The third movement is a delicious minuet and trio, but after all the music that's gone before, I often dream of him adding another two movements to it. But this is part of why I think it's perfect: it lets the listeners imagination come into the piece and fly with it...


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

I like to think that in many cases less = better. There are many good symphonies that could be great if the composer knew when to stop.

But if I have to choose one, maybe the last movement of Shostakovich #5. The "forced rejoicing" end is so amazing that I probably could listen to it forever until I go crazy


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## Guest (Apr 8, 2013)

KenOC said:


> My vote goes for the finale of Beethoven's 5th Symphony...  Yours?


Shostakovich's 7th Symphony - 1st Movement


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## Sudonim (Feb 28, 2013)

MacLeod said:


> Shostakovich's 7th Symphony - 1st Movement


Or the first movement of Mahler's 3rd.


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## Ostinato (Jun 24, 2009)

Sibelius - Intermezzo from Karelia Suite (a stirring piece - I always want more)
Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik, 1st movement (development section too short)
Beethoven - 'Waldstein' Sonata, 2nd movement (its brevity seems disproportionate to the other movements)
Clementi - Sonatina Op 36 No 3, 2nd movement
Puccini - O mio babbino caro



KenOC said:


> My vote goes for the finale of Beethoven's 5th Symphony...


The second movement is definitely too _long_.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

The final march from Tchaikovsky's incidental music for "Hamlet". It's only 30 seconds long; I feel like it could've been turned into something more, but obviously that wasn't the point at the time. Still, almost makes me want to compose a piece based on it...


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## RobertoDevereux (Feb 12, 2013)

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg!

I actually remember walking out of a performance of Die Meistersinger at the Met saying to my friend: the only problem with this is that it's too short!

I think it could use another act! 

RD


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

RobertoDevereux said:


> Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg!
> 
> I actually remember walking out of a performance of Die Meistersinger at the Met saying to my friend: the only problem with this is that it's too short!
> 
> ...


You musta fallen asleep and missed nearly all of it...


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## RobertoDevereux (Feb 12, 2013)

Oh, come on! Another dramatic act showing Walter and Eva giving blessing to their son setting off in the search of Monsalvat would be quite _a propos_, don't you think? 

RD


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

RobertoDevereux said:


> Oh, come on! Another dramatic act showing Walter and Eva giving blessing to their son setting off in the search of Monsalvat would be quite _a propos_, don't you think?
> 
> RD


Oh go on then! But a very brief scene, maybe mimed. Behind a curtain.

With the lights out...


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I don't know that it _should_ be longer, but the end of Brahms 4 always makes me sad because I just want more. I often listen to that last movement twice.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

science said:


> I don't know that it _should_ be longer, but the end of Brahms 4 always makes me sad because I just want more. I often listen to that last movement twice.


iPod!


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## Cygnenoir (Dec 21, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> And the first mvt of his 4th...it is 9-10 minutes of incredible dream-like music but it feels like it ends so quickly!


Just in time for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th mvts.  I adore that symphony... Sibelius is one of the Big Guys!


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Possibly the first movement of Dvorak's violin concerto


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Another shorty is Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, 3rd movement. I suppose it gave it's audience some relief from the massive overly long first movement and the dreary interminable second, but it's my favorite part of that work and I wish it were longer.

Also any piece in sonata allegro form and no exposition repeat is too short.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Weston said:


> Also any piece in sonata allegro form and no exposition repeat is too short.


Ah, except Schubert's final piano sonata and Quintet. Proper people edit the repeats out.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Bach's B.B.C. No. 3, second movement


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Weston said:


> Also any piece in sonata allegro form and no exposition repeat is too short.


I don't suppose that's including the 25-minute long first movement of Bruckner's 1873 3rd....?


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

The Ring. 15 hours jsut isn't enough to give the forth or fifth recount of what happened earlier in the story.


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## Minona (Mar 25, 2013)

John Cage's 4'33 should have been at least an hour. It was a bit lazy of him actually.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

As somebody has said just play it again and again! There are a number of works that are far tooo long1


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

No matter the real-time running length, the pieces I all find too short, in one manner of regard, are actually, imo, 'near perfect.'

Like a great work of fiction, where I _so don't want it to end_... because I so like 'being there.'

Easy solution, perhaps a misuse, even abusive of music.... the repeat play button 

Morton Feldman ~ Piano and string quartet


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Mendelssohn's piano concertos


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