# Endings



## LvB (Nov 21, 2008)

Very often the most memorable moment in a piece comes at the end, when the composer unwinds all the structural and emotional energy that has been built up over time. The release can be colossal, as in the finale of Wagner's _Gotterdammerung_, which ties together some 14 hours of preceding music, or delicate, as in Holst's _The Planets_, which does not so much end as dissolve into silence, or eerie, as with the final 'Hop hop' in Berg's _Wozzeck_, and so on.

Here are a few endings which particularly stand out in my mind:

Bruckner: Symphony #8: The coda is Bruckner's greatest; he piles versions of the main themes of each of the four movements on top of each other to create a blaze of sound of incredible grandeur. If I were to be convinced that god existed, it would be by music such as this. Yet the contrapuntal complexity is never forced, and it's quite possible to hear this simply as some very grand music without having the faintest idea what has gone into making it so grand.

Respighi: Sinfonia Drammatica: Almost an hour long, this is an uneven piece, with a fair amount of bombast and padding. But I can forgive it all when the coda of the last movement starts. Over a slow descending scale Respighi piles up increasing sonorities and modulations which give rise to an epic sense of yearning that is quintessentially Romantic; toward the end an almost habanera-like rhythm (BOOM t-thump thump) turns the music into a strange sort of funeral march replete with lots of brass and percussion.

Rubinstein: Polonaise in e-flat minor, Op. 118, #6: The piece begins loudly, but never attains the triumphal clangor toward which it seems to be striving; rather, a sense of despair hovers over the whole thing, and at the end a fragment of the main theme sadly disappears into silence. Very haunting.

Chadwick: _Aphrodite_: The music is designedly episodic (it represents the various events witnessed by the titular statue), and the coda is sheer magic; it might well be the loveliest orchestral music written by an American composer prior to WW1. This symphonic poem deserves to be much better known.

Beethoven: String Quartet #9 in C Major, Op. 59,#3: The whole last movement is a breathless fugal _tour de force_, Beethoven at his most energetic. There's even a little surprise at the very end; a cadence suggests the final chords, or maybe a soft farewell-- but no, suddenly the players are off again and the movement ends with a veritable flurry of notes.

Well, I could go on listing these forever (  ), but here are a few especially vivid endings. What are some endings which stick with you, and what makes them so memorable?


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Dvorak's 9th symphony: The end of that is really cathartic, no matter what one might think of the rest of the piece. There's massive dissonance created by the main theme, which is being "fleshed out" a bit more complexly in its chordal structure, and then the last note is just two notes just fading away. One of the most impactful ending to any symphony... except for

Mahler 2: I shouldn't really need to say anything.

Shostakovich's 8th string quartet: Definitely one of the most haunting endings ever, possibly especially because it doesn't vary much at all from the beginning except for the addition of the "Dies Irae" theme. It says that the whole piece didn't go anywhere, it just dies where it was born.

Sibelius' 6th symphony: The coda of the finale got me hooked on this symphony. Really one of the very best.

Beethoven's 3rd symphony: What's interesting about this is that it's pretty much a _tragic_ ending. The mad dash to an E-flat major chord at the end is just something tacked on the end. What comes right before that is one of the most painful moments in any pre-Romantic symphony I know of.

Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde": The most serene and beautiful five minutes ever to come from the composer's pen (moments in the 8th symphony comes close, but not close enough, and certainly not the end).

Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District": Most terrifying ending to anything I've ever heard... not even Mahler 6 comes close to the sheer horror of this ending.

So on that happy, happy note (or scream, rather...)--Next!


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## mueske (Jan 14, 2009)

Mozart's 41 st symphony, the small fugue or whatever it exactly is, is sublime.

Beethoven's ninth symphony, this huge climax gets me every time.

Beethoven's fifth symphony, of course I mean the whole fourth movement. The transition from the third movement (minor to major) is very exciting.

Tchaikovsky, well I could mention any piece written by him. His codas are always something else. They keep going and never seem to stop. I like the ending to his fourth symphony in particular. Very loud, bombastic, whatever you want, it's there.

Brahm's first symphony, like a lot of Tchaikovsky's works, this one just keeps on going. The brass fanfare gives of a feeling of grandeur before racing into the strings again towards the end.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Ending of first movement of Brahms piano concerto no. 1, let's say the last minute. Simply a knock-out. The same thing about Dvorak's symphony no. 9 and Mendelssohn's violin concerto. First movements as well. 

I also love Beethoven's 4th piano concerto ending in perfomance with Zimerman and Bernstein. Not because of music, but I like how Bernstein takes baton with both hands and make move like it would be a sword and he would deal the powerful blow, during the final chord.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

Mahler 2nd-Ditto as above.

Barber-Violin concerto-I feel this is THE best violin concerto in the repertoire. A delicious ending.

Jim


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Wow, I agree with many of you on this subject.

Yup, Mahler 2. Sibelius 2. Beethoven 5 and 9.

Of course, one of the most distinctive endings in the symphonic repertoire are the hammerblows at the end of Sibelius 5.

I also love the ending of Tchaikovsky's 5th.


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## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Now let me see!!..hmmm

Big heroic or triumphant endings, a few already mentioned, Bruckner 8, Mahler 2 & 3. Beethoven 9.
How about Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Te Deum, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, Tchaik. Symphony 4 and Capriccio Italien. Liszt Les Preludes

Softer endings..Tchaik. Pathetique, last movement..end of Bruckner 9 (Yes I know there should have been a finale, but still it's moving!)..
Barbers Adagio. Allegri Miserere (Late Renassiance sacred piece).


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

What a great topic!

At the moment I can't think of any endings that changed my life or whatever. Oddly enough, though Beethoven is my favorite composer of all time, his endings tend to vex me. Here is what I both love and hate about Beethoven endings if they were words instead of notes:

"It's about to - 
It's about to -
It's about to - 
It's ending -
It's ending - 
IT'S ABOUT TO -
IT'S ABOUT TO -
IT'S ENDING -
IT'S ENDING - 
ITS -

E N D I N G -
E N D I N G -

IT'S ENDING -
IT'S ENtering a totally new direction that doesn't have anything to do with what went before - 
but that was -
but that was -
but that was just a ploy 'cause now -
It's ending - 
IT'S ENDING - 
IT'S 
*ENDING
ENDING
ENDING*
*E-N-D-
E-N-D-
E-N-D-*

*- DING!
*

You just about have to go shower after that.


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## R-F (Feb 12, 2008)

Apart from pieces already mentioned, there's one ending that I never get enough of! Belshazzar's Feast, by William Walton, has one of the most exciting, dramatic and uplifting endings I've ever heard. I recommend the whole oratorio, too. ^_^


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

Weston said:


> Here is what I both love and hate about Beethoven endings if they were words instead of notes:
> 
> "It's about to -
> It's about to -
> ...


This must be the wittiest and most perfectly expressed post I've read on here for many a week. I'm still chuckling at it. Thank you.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

*Elgar's violin concerto.*

He starts to wrap things up after half an hour or so, and you think, OK any minute now that'll be it; and then he has second thoughts. No, he says. There's something about these windflower tunes that I haven't quite got to the bottom of. There's something here that still hurts. Just hang about while I sort this out.

So then he sets the strings thrumming in the background and decides, after all, that we won't have an end yet, we'll have the cadenza that we thought he'd forgotten. And the violin proceeds to wring the heart and soul out of those windflowery themes, and brings the music almost to a dead stop - it very nearly dies in mid-cadenza. But no, it keeps going - just - and then, when we think there's no place left to go with this, he says, wait! I have it! I can accept this aching for the eternal feminine as an essential part of me, and see how by doing so, I've built a whole violin concerto out of it! Thus the inner private me fuels the outer public figure!

So here we go, come on, orchestra, let's wrap this up. Out into the real world once more, at last. _Finis!_ Anyone for golf?


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## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Weston said:


> What a great topic!
> 
> At the moment I can't think of any endings that changed my life or whatever. Oddly enough, though Beethoven is my favorite composer of all time, his endings tend to vex me. Here is what I both love and hate about Beethoven endings if they were words instead of notes:
> 
> ...


Ha! This reminds me of an old Dudley Moore clip made sometime ago (in Black and White).






For those who don't know who he was, A British comedien/actor and very proficient musician...

Take a look...hope the link works..


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I've always been sorely tempted to write a symphony in the style of Beethoven... the whole last half of the last movement being straight C major chords in random inversions and instrumentations and whatnot. 'Twould be fun and immensely entertaining!


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Scriabin's Prometheus, the Poem of Fire. I love how he ends the piece in about the only major chord in the whole work, F sharp major orga... OK, I'll spare you the vulgar language.

I agree with you all: Mahler 2, Bruckner 8... how about Mahler 9 and Sibelius 7?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Elgarian said:


> This must be the wittiest and most perfectly expressed post I've read on here for many a week. I'm still chuckling at it. Thank you.


sheepish bows from me.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

David C Coleman said:


> Ha! This reminds me of an old Dudley Moore clip made sometime ago (in Black and White).
> 
> 
> 
> ...


There's also a really cool link from one of these forums to Glenn Gould's _So You Want to Write a Fugue _. I can't remember who posted that, but it really made me laugh. Maybe I was remembering those links.






I'm getting off topic though. Carry on.


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## bdelykleon (May 21, 2009)

Never be clever of the sake of being clever...


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## bdelykleon (May 21, 2009)

As for endings surely my vote goes to Cunning Little Vixen. The way the harmony bounces with those strange ostinati, the orchestration and the sheer beauty of the melody makes it my personal favorite ending. The monologue is all to beautiful with the apex in Laska (love) but after, the way the little toad say "Totok nejsem ja, totok beli dedosek, onii mne o vas vekladali" and the orchestra fanfarre that follows is a little to much for me, it is perhaps the only piece of music capable of bringing me to tears.

No wonder that Janacek chose it to his own funeral.


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