# Defining moments in music.



## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

The title may be a bit misleading but I was too lazy to think of something more appropriate. I was just listening to the Liszt Sonata before and when I heard the section in the video below from 0:45 to 1:05, I just thought....this defines Romanticism, for me (It may seem weird I choose that section in this piece! Depends who's listening I guess). It's just so free and beautiful and....romantic!

So my question is: What moments or little sections in works you know would you say define an era? Say a part of a Mozart symphony for the classical, or perhaps a section of a choral work in the baroque...Or whatever!


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## DavidMahler (Dec 28, 2009)

I wholly agree with you Lisztian


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

Schoenberg's String Quartet no 2, a quartet that starts with a tonal key signature but then suddenly in the fourth movement Schoenberg mysteriously abandons a tonal center for the first time. The repeating motif at the beginning makes me it even more poetic, as if time stops. Beginning of atonal music and one of the most beautiful moments in music for me. When I listen to this, as Schoenberg said "I feel the air of other planets"


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Three more from 20th century -

The clarinet solo in the opening of *Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue *seems to scream "listen up, this is a new era in music, folks!" (of course, Milhaud did the classical jazz combo first with _Genesis_ about a year before that, but Gershwin's work made the biggest splash, I think).

As I said on another thread, the 9 note clusters in *Mahler's 10th symphony *(the opening_ Adagio _movement) is like a dividing line between old and new, the romantic and the modern eras or styles or whatever.

Moving forward to the 1950's, *John Cage's Concert for piano and orchestra*, with it's non-determinism (strong elements of chance and improvisation, also new methods of notation) heralded a new era for music, it would be highly influential on many who heard it on radio broadcasts then. Lutoslawski was one, but I don't doubt Penderecki knew it as well, also Hovhaness (who knew Cage), and down here, Peter Sculthorpe. Cage's _Concert for piano and orchestra _was of more practical influence than_ 4'33," _which was obviously only a concept or performance piece. To pick one moment from this piece, it's the rattling of a bunch of keys that has kind of become cliche now, also sounds of water being stirred in a bucket and creaky doors, these are the "illegal harmonies" that Cage bought into the concert hall with this _Concert_ piece...


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

DavidMahler said:


> I wholly agree with you Lisztian


I actually thought you might  There are a few other moments in the work - namely the climax in the Andante Sostenuto, and a couple others that could also be given the same...honour, but I just think the section I mentioned is pure, flowing Romanticism at its finest.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Minimalism


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Historically, when someone thought of Renaissance polyphony, Palestrina would be the model, the way he contrasting layered entries (the first minute and a half) with block harmonies (at 1:42) in a clear texture. And Missa Papae Marcelli was probably the best known.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Wagner did it with one chord in Tristan, and of course there was no going back after Rite of Spring. Tchaikovsky and Rimsky Korsakov certainly made a huge leap in orchestration, but I don't know enough about tHe chronology of it to exactly pinpoint the aha! moment on that.


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