# A synthetic symphony?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Create a synthetic symphony from movements of various symphonies by the same composer or different composers. Don't worry about key relationships; assume there are minions to handle those details. Just list the movements you want to put together to create a symphony you'd like to hear.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Hmm, how about

Mahler 1 - 1st Mvmt
Beethoven 9 - 2nd Mvmt
Tchaikovsky 6 - 2nd Mvmt
Brahms 4 - 2nd Mvmt
Beethoven 5 - 4th Mvmt

There is a purpose to the selection of the movements I chose, but it'd probably only make sense to me so I'll keep it myself.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Interesting. A 5-movement symphony? Can you edit in which Brahms symphony you have chosen?


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Interesting. A 5-movement symphony? Can you edit in which Brahms symphony you have chosen?


Well, I've been listening to Mahler, Bruckner, and Schubert lately so I'm growing more accustomed to looooong symphonies.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

I'll need to try to listen to this tomorrow morning; it's kind of late over here, but here's my first idea just off the top of my head:

Shostakovich 5 - 1st movement
Tchaikovsky 4 - 2nd movement
Beethoven 5 - 2nd movement
Sibelius 2 - 4th movement

EDIT: Maybe it would be better to switch the order of the Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, I'm not sure...


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2014)

Might as well throw in a song. Mahler 3 went for 6 movements without being too sacrilegious


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

musicrom said:


> t's kind of late over here, but here's my first idea just off the top of my head:


Quite a mash-up of styles there. Should keep the audience on their toes!  I want to hear it.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Nice idea.

I'd just keep it simple and choose 4 of my favourite movements.

1 - Mozart: Symphony #41 'Jupiter', 1st mov
2 - Beethoven: Symphony #5, 2nd mov
3 - Beethoven: Symphony #8, 3rd mov
4 - Beethoven: Symphony #3, finale

I'll choose another, longer one:

1 - Schubert: Symphony #9, 1st mov
2 - Bruckner: Symphony #4, 2nd mov
3 - Shostakovich: Symphony #5, 3rd mov (Largo)
4 - Bruckner: Symphony #4, finale


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2014)

It's been done already.






Bits and pieces of other pieces by Dhomont and Dhomont's students and colleagues sewn together to make this piece.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

1. FJ Haydn Symphony #94 first movement

2. Beethoven Pastoral Symphony second movement

3. Mahler Symphony #3 second movement minuet

4. Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony, fourth movement


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I'll give it another try, condiering all the 'Frankenstein Symphony' threads in the archive.

1. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 mov.1 (G minor)

2. Haydn Symphony No. 102 mov. 4 (B-flat major)

3. Sibelius Symphony No. 6 mov.1 (D minor/dorian)

4. Brahms Symphony No. 3 mov.4 (F minor/F major)

Here as a spotify playlist: https://play.spotify.com/user/12133896543/playlist/5EvRZfLSubKOnm7uQBzims


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Here's a very slight but extremely interesting Mahler experiment I've done twice, and I think it's actually really convincing:

1. sym 4 mov 1
2. sym 3 mov 2
3. sym 4 mov 2
4. sym 4 mov 3
5. sym 4 mov 4

In other words, insert "what the flowers tell me" into the fourth symphony, between the normal first and second movements. Yes, just going from G major to A major is awkward, but I think that outside of that it works really well! The dotted eighth, sixteenth note rhythmic figure that pervades the 4th symphony is totally present in the main theme, and in the secondary theme (the trio) it's very very similar to the part in the third section in "Das himlische Leben" where she says:

Willst Rehbock, willst Hasen,
Auf offener Straßen
Sie laufen herbei!
Sollt' ein Fasttag etwa kommen,
Alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen!

And emotionally, using "what the flowers tell me" is like a feeling of loss and nostalgia before the hero dives into the dance with the devil in the scherzo! And then when we finally go back to the extreme simplicity of the adagio's initial statement it's extremely poignant!

In fact, I do believe that Mahler originally intended for the third symphony to end with "Das himlische Leben" but for some reason that plan didn't work for him. Nobody knows for sure what his exact artistic structural plans were, but it's clear that "what the flowers tell me" and "what the morning bells tell me" are very thematically related to that song. It's very interesting.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

SeptimalTritone said:


> In fact, I do believe that Mahler originally intended for the third symphony to end with "Das himlische Leben" but for some reason that plan didn't work for him. Nobody knows for sure what his exact artistic structural plans were, but it's clear that "what the flowers tell me" and "what the morning bells tell me" are very thematically related to that song. It's very interesting.


Yes, "Das Himmmlische Leben" was at one point intended to be the finale of the Third Symphony. Mahler refrained from doing this for two reasons. First, the first movement, which was the last to be written, turned out to have such extraordinary weight and length that to end with a short song setting would feel anticlimactic. Second, the adagio movement that concludes the symphony also grew proportionally larger and made a successful finale on its own.

There are also connections between "Das himmlische Leben" and the "Es sungen drei Engel" setting in the fifth movement of the third.

The Fourth Symphony was designed around the concept of ending with Das Himmlische Leben from the initial concepts. Intriguingly, the trumpet call that opens the Fifth Symphony appears in the development section of the Fourth's first movement, so there are connections on both sides!


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

That's an interesting concept. How about these four:

1 - Bernstein #1 (1st movement)
2 - Vaughan Williams #5 (3rd Movement)
3 - Holst's Planets - Mercury
4 - Piston #6 (4th movement)

I hope the inclusion of Holst isn't cheating; the Planets are kind of symphonic, after all.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

This sounds cool. My combo won't make sense, but...

Mov. 1: Bruckner 9/1 Feierlich, misterioso
Mov. 2: Tchaikovsky 3/4 Scherzo
Mov. 3: Brahms 4/3 Allegro
Mov. 4: Beethoven 9/3 Adagio molto e cantible
Mov. 5: Mahler 5/5 Rondo-Finale


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I could probably do this all day long, but it's pointless. Schnittke has already done it ten times, much better than I ever could. I mean, create the "Frankenstein Symphony" by piecing together brick a brack from here and there. Schnittke's First Symphony is the ultimate Frankenstein of music.

But I give this thought problem a manifestation by suggesting the following:

Mvt. 1 -- Mvt. 1 Andante from Symphony No. 1 by Miklos Maros
Mvt. 2 -- Mvt. 2 Scherzo from Symphony No. 1 by N.W. Gade
Mvt. 3 -- Mvt. 2 Nottorno: Lento from Symphony No. 1 by Hans Werner Henze
Mvt. 4 -- Mvt. 2 Andante from Symphony No. 1 by Joseph Haydn
Mvt. 5 -- Mvt. 4 "The Explorers" Grave e molto adagio from Symphony No. 1 "A Sea Symphony" by Ralph Vaughan Williams

I tapped all first symphonies for that monstrosity, which actually sounds rather interesting in an homogenous way, I think, even through the mix of styles. Perhaps a Frankenstein symphony should be more disparate in sound. But again, Schnittke is the master here. So I'll defer to his Symphony No. 1.


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