# Do you know any symphony by heart?



## Whistlerguy

Is there any symphony which you know so well that you could play it in your head in its entirety ?


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## Huilunsoittaja

You ask a lot of questions... but you aren't too different from myself.  Do you feel rather isolated around yourself, so that you know very few people to talk about classical music?

Almost all of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, if I thought about it carefully, because it's pretty short.


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## Guest

Listen to some more music, that's my advice.

No bad side effects, and the more you listen, the more things you'll have to say on music threads.

Otherwise, the closest I ever got was memorizing the first movement of Brahms' fourth. Why do you ask?


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## Sid James

I can only "remember" snippets, especially beginnings, middles & ends. But before I go to a concert, I usually listen to at least one (or maybe two) of the works (obsessively?) beforehand, so I am highly familiar with the work. I get to the stage were I know exactly what's going to happen next, in every part. I really enjoy this, it's like listening to a favourite recording. I also like to note the differences in interpretation. But I also try to go to some concerts where I don't know a thing that's going to be played - this was the case a few weeks back, when I went to see some of the music of Rojas, Golijov & Crumb being performed...


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## Earthling

Probably a great deal of Beethoven's sixth symphony-- but I've heard that one repeatedly since I was an early teen, so I've had over 25 years of practise! Most pieces that I'm quite familiar with I couldn't "play" in my head from start to finish, but while I am listening, I can remember enough ahead of the piece to know where it is headed. I mostly remember chunks of music, some larger or smaller bits.


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## Weston

I usually bog down in the development sections. I would say I probably have much of Beethoven's 9th memorized, though not the lengthy 3rd movement. Also Dvorak's 9th. 

It has always been easier for me to "brain record" long progressive rock pieces than classical works, probably due to more repeated listenings of progressive rock when I was younger.


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## 151

I remember everything.


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## Whistlerguy

> I usually bog down in the development sections. I would say I probably have much of Beethoven's 9th memorized, though not the lengthy 3rd movement.


The same's true for me. 3rd movement is really hard to remember.


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## Chris

I heard a story on the radio about Herbert Von Karajan. One of his tricks was to start playing one of his own recordings on cassette tape, then turn the sound off leaving the tape running. After a few minutes he would start humming where he thought the recording had got to and turn the sound on again. His was within sync (we were told) not by seconds, but by tenths of a second.


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## Rasa

I know every section and every part of Beethoven's 1st


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## TWhite

Brahms' Fourth Symphony. But I'll be honest, I have to be VERY careful about the fourth-movement Chaconne. If I miss a variation in my head, I end up right back at the beginning, LOL!

Tom


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## 151

Chris said:


> I heard a story on the radio about Herbert Von Karajan. One of his tricks was to start playing one of his own recordings on cassette tape, then turn the sound off leaving the tape running. After a few minutes he would start humming where he thought the recording had got to and turn the sound on again. His was within sync (we were told) not by seconds, but by tenths of a second.


I do this all the time, it's called having rhythm.


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## Guest

I think the question should be reposed as: is there a symphony I _don't_ know by heart?

In all seriousness, the symphonies that I know like the back of my hand are: Brahms 1-4, Dvorak 5-9, Mendelssohn 3 and 4, Sibelius 1-7, Prokofiev 1 and 5, Vaughan Williams 2 4 5 6 and 7, Hovhaness 2, and Lilburn 2. If you expanded the list to include other forms, I could go on for a while.


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## Nix

Beethoven 5.


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## Conor71

I enjoy the process of getting to know a work better and "learning" it - I am pretty familiar with all the Beethoven and Sibelius Symphonies now though I dont think I know any work well enough to be able to play it out in its entirety. I guess part of the fun of listening to CM is that the works are often so complex that you are always picking up on new things every time you re-listen to a piece, even if you have already listened to it many times .


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## tgtr0660

Mozart's 40 and 41. I can play in my head about 80% of their entire length.


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## Falstaft

I tend to have a pretty good musical memory, which, when combined with a habit of extreme repeated listening, allows me to play a fair amount of music through my head (in the case of Wagner, I've overlistened to the point of being able to trace out long spans of the Ring without help). 

It's a lot easier for something I've recently listened to, of course. I don't think we're talking precise details of voicing or orchestration, but I can remember a lot of the full symphonies of Beethoven, RVW, and Brahms down. Similarly with most of the standard smaller selection repertoire of symphonies from Mozart to, say, Hanson. It's a lot easier for works with very defined melodies and not a lot of lulls or indistinct meandering. It may be interesting to ask eachother what *moments* come first to mind when trying to recall, say, Beethoven 7 or something.


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## handlebar

I can play all of the Mahler symphonies except the 8th and 10th in my head. I have grown up with them and digested every measure via recordings and scores that I know them well. Not too many other works I can do that with. Perhaps the Barber Violin concerto,the Moeran Symphony and a few smaller pieces.
Chamber music wise I can add a lot more to the list.

Jim


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## MattTheTubaGuy

Tchaikovsky #2, because I have played it recently. I can't quite remember the whole thing, but definitely the main tunes. the third fast movement (which i don't actually play in) is probably the most difficult to remember, but a lot of my music, I can hum along pretty much perfectly.


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## Bix

151 said:


> I remember everything.


me too  i can remember everything i have ever heard - thats why if i was on a desert island it wouldn't matter because i could go to a concert a few times a day (in my head of course)


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## PicklePepperPiper

Dvorak 8, I pretty much know what each instrument is doing at any given time. Also, Tchaik 5 but I haven't listened to it in so long that it's probably a little rusty around the edges.

-PPP


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## drth15

*Memorized*

Mozart Sym # 40.


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## tahnak

Whistlerguy said:


> Is there any symphony which you know so well that you could play it in your head in its entirety ?


Yes. I can conduct Tchaikovsky's Pathetique, Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade , Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Beethoven's Choral by memory. I don't need a score. All the parts for all instruments. I have been studying them for over thitry seven years.


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## Manxfeeder

tahnak said:


> Yes. I can conduct Tchaikovsky's Pathetique, Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade , Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Beethoven's Choral by memory. I don't need a score. All the parts for all instruments. I have been studying them for over thitry seven years.


Wow.

One time I had to take a midnight flight on a private plane from New York to Tennessee, and it was too noisy in the plane for conversation and too dark to look at the scenery, so I played Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in my head the whole time. So I know I can do it, if I have to.


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## Charon

No, I don't think I do. I might know a few movements off heart sort of though. Perhaps the first movement of Mozart's symphony no 36 and Beethoven's 1st.


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## elgar's ghost

Not me - my attention span is as long as it needs to be but my actual memory retention is pretty lousy. Maybe the one I might stand a chance of remembering if I heard it often enough is Langgaard's 11th Symphony ('Ixion') - at just over 6 minutes in duration there has been debate as to whether it should be considered a symphony at all rather than an overture or possibly a tone poem. I suppose another candidate would be Webern's if we are talking about brevity. Mozart's early symphonies are also very short but the childhood ones are hardly what you could call worth memorising.


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## Edward Elgar

At a stretch I can whistle Der Ring Des Niberungen if you have 16 hours.


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## tahnak

Manxfeeder said:


> Wow.
> 
> One time I had to take a midnight flight on a private plane from New York to Tennessee, and it was too noisy in the plane for conversation and too dark to look at the scenery, so I played Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in my head the whole time. So I know I can do it, if I have to.


This is brilliant as Missa Solemnis is bloody difficult. Hats off to you!


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## Manxfeeder

tahnak said:


> This is brilliant as Missa Solemnis is bloody difficult. Hats off to you!


Yeah, back then I was listening to it a lot and studying the score.


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## Ravellian

I have Tchaikovsky's 6th almost completely memorized - I've definitely listened to it more than any other classical symphony


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## Almaviva

Whistlerguy said:


> Is there any symphony which you know so well that you could play it in your head in its entirety ?


I know every single note of all movements of Beethoven's 5th by heart; I've been listening to it since I was about 7 years old.


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## SalieriIsInnocent

It's a shame that I can't list a Mahler symphony, but his are too long to remember every detail. 

Beethoven's 6th 
Rimsky-Korsakov's 2nd Symphony 
Mozart's 29nth Symphony


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## vlmt

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Op. 35! More like the Violin part because I was so obsessed about how crazy it is to play it after watching Sarah Chang play it on Youtube.

Sometimes snippets do randomly pop out in my head and I'll have to go listen to it straight away


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## LindenLea

That's a difficult one. There are many symphonies that, when I play a recording or attend a performance, I know exactly what's coming next and can anticipate each bar of music, but that's not to say that I would have the same success if I tried doing it without the help of a recording/performance! Probably Vaughan Williams' London Symphony I could go through in my head, and maybe Beethoven's Pastoral and the 5th, possibly even Mahler 2, but it would be an interesting experiment. I think you could probably memorise anything note-for-note with enough practice, a bit like an actor can memorise a part he/she is playing, or a singer can memorise an entire operatic role.


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## Olias

LvB 5th and 7th and Dvorak's 9th. Also Mozart's 40th. Even though they aren't symphonies I know the four Mozart Horn Concertos by heart and have played them so much I could probably write out the horn part.


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