# Most brilliantly crafted polyphonic passages



## eric1 (Oct 27, 2020)

For me, there are two passages in classical music that stand out above all others in terms of brilliant polyphonic craftsmanship: the six part fugue (Ricercar a 6) in Bach’s Musical Offering, and the last minute or so of Mozart’s Symphony #41 (Jupiter), combining five themes into one. Do you agree? Has anyone encountered this level of craftsmanship in romantic or 20th century classical music?


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

To my memory, one of the most impressive piece is Ave Verum Corpus by Orlando di Lasso, it sends thrills upon me.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

This is a good example of 21st century crafted, dense, polyphonic composition that I enjoy (begin at 7:30):


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

eric1 said:


> For me, there are two passages in classical music that stand out above all others in terms of brilliant polyphonic craftsmanship: the six part fugue (Ricercar a 6) in Bach's Musical Offering, and the last minute or so of Mozart's Symphony #41 (Jupiter), combining five themes into one. Do you agree? Has anyone encountered this level of craftsmanship in romantic or 20th century classical music?


I think that the way that the orchestral and sung voices are constructed in Gotterdammerung and the last act of Siegfried is worth thinking about in this context. But your two examples are formal counterpoint, if that's what you're after and if by _brilliantly crafted_ you don't mean _complex_, I think you should also think about Beethoven op 131/i.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

First movement of this











Starting at 1:03


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## Ravn (Jan 6, 2020)

Most brilliant? The finale of Bruckner's fifth. No question.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

eric1 said:


> Mozart's Symphony #41


I personally find this just as satisfying:

*[ 8:47 ]*


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## Grimalkin (Nov 12, 2020)

In my opinion, id say definetly The finale of Bruckner’s fifth


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## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

Ravn said:


> Most brilliant? The finale of Bruckner's fifth. No question.


yeah.. this one's pretty difficult to dispute.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

> the six part fugue (Ricercar a 6) in Bach's Musical Offering


Yes, and the opening chorus of BWV 80.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

consuono said:


> Yes, and the opening chorus of BWV 80.


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## GucciManeIsTheNewWebern (Jul 29, 2020)

I think the fugues from the Bachianas Brasilieras are beautifully crafted. 

I appreciate the tremendous compositonal ability behind the Große Fugue and the finale Bruckner's 5th and have watched videos by that guy Richard Atkinson breaking each down bar by bar (some of his vids are posted above, its an awesome channel), but they don't translate into a totally enjoyable listening experience to me. My ears must be missing something other people aren't because they don't have any contrapntual clarity to me and sound like a congested mess with so much going on that the counterpoint cant be properly discerned.

In terms of the Große Fugue, I can appreciate it from the angle of simply embracing the chaos as if one was listening to free jazz but as a whole I can't say I really connect with it. Bruckner 5 finale has been growing on me a bit lately but its still hard for me to properly hear all the lines being intertwined.


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