# Personal joy ζ



## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Choose whichever three you consider most interesting and if you please, tell us why. You will be wondering wandering either way.


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2014)

Of these, I went with Mahler 3, Sibelius 4, and Nielsen 5.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The only one there I would choose is Sibelius 6, a highly original work and very beautiful too.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I picked Mahler 3 because of the philosophical progression; Szymanowski because of the sounds, Bax No. 2 because you have to listen pretty closely to follow what he's doing.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

From this list: Mahler's 7th and Sibelius 6th.
I haven't listened to Nielsen symphonies for a long time but I remember I preferred the first three.

Worthy mention not on the list: Beethoven's 3rd.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Duplicate post of what I indicated above.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Weird choice of symphonies.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Arsakes said:


> Worthy mention not on the list: Beethoven's 3rd.


With the exception of Mahler's third, all of the symphonies on the list where written in the first half of the 20th century.



bigshot said:


> Weird choice of symphonies.


The appropriate symphonies for the proposed question. They all have things in common though, and there is also the chronological aspect of it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't know what they all have in common, my guess is it something to do with their first performance?
Anyway, I get the most joy out of Mahler's 7th, Sibelius's 6th and Shostakovich's 2nd.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> The appropriate symphonies for the proposed question.


Szymanowski's 3rd is so essentially sensual work that I don't see how it makes good choice for "waking up your intellect". You'd have to be musicologist... NO OFFENCE!


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I don't know what they all have in common, my guess is it something to do with their first performance?
> Anyway, I get the most joy out of Mahler's 7th, Sibelius's 6th and Shostakovich's 2nd.


I shall explain myself:

All of them represent a (more or less) noticeable change or evolution in the style o the composer, were composed in the first half of the 20th century and none of them are first or last symphonies. Many tend towards a dissonant or ambiguous harmonic (and/or melodic as far as one can separate these elements) language (with some of them sharing the same to a certain extent). Others are structurally bizarre.

In terms of chronology (year of completion):

Mahler 3 (1896)
Mahler 7 (1905)
Sibelius 4 (1911)
Szymanowski 3 and Nielsen 4 (1916)
Nielsen 5 (1922)
Sibelius 6 (1923)
Prokofiev 2 (1925)
Bax 2 (1926)
Shostakovich 2 (1927)
Vaughan Williams 4 (1934)
Bax 6 (1935)
Shostakovich 4 (1936)
Vaughan Williams 6 and Prokofiev 6 (1947).


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Ah - understand more (a little !) what you were getting at; will have to, like 'Composer of AvantGarde', stick with what 'wakes up' my enjoyment: Szymanowski 3, Nielsen 4, Bax 6...though everything's very much my era and I'd happily sit through them all !


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I like all of Mahler's but intellect doesn't come into play. I am a simple man, you see.


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