IMSLP Forums

Sorry to post again so soon, but I wanted to add what I think is an interesting comparison for this subject, and since I already brought up Sibelius, or more properly Mr. Kiegen did by quoting Mahler, I thought it would be appropriate. Let's take two works of Sibelius, his last Symphony, No.7 and hi...

If a definition does not exist, the word is not a word. The only singular point of language is to communicate, getting rid of meaning, means the word communicates nothing. Doing so is destroying the word. Why do you keep insisting that I am saying to get rid of meaning? Have you actually read my po...

I think I'll try one more time to explain how I think of this, though I probably shouldn't be writing things like this before falling asleep. Oh well, here goes. For me, and when I study other composers this seems to be a widespread idea, if I am going to call a piece that I am writing a Symphony, i...

That's not to ignore symphonies for organ solo, too. That's a good point, I almost forgot about these, the Widor Symphonies for Organ immediately coming to mind. The Alkan pieces also reminded me of some Schumann pieces that might be relevant here, the Symphonic Etudes for piano, implying that Schu...

I thought a "song" requires the presence of a human voice with an instrumental accompaniment. Any music which precludes the human voice, therefore, is not a song in a classical sense. Sorry, but I can't resist, but how about Mendelssohn's (and a others though I think his are the most well...

You still just don't seem to be getting what I am trying to say, and after this post I am just not going to bother trying anymore. It's obvious that you still have a lot to learn about language and meaning as you still seem to be under the mistaken impression that words and definitions are somehow f...

Bad analogy. A rock still containt very similar characteristics to a chair, a piece for Piano and Voice bears no resemblance. If you heard that piece, and didn't know it's name, obviously you'd know it was a symphony right? Bears no resemblance to what? Are you telling me that you would be able to ...

the definition of a symphony is general but it is still a piece for orchestra. I think you just made my argument for me :) Seriously though, what about works that include chorus? Or a quasi-soloist like an Organ? Are some of Mozart's and Haydn's early symphonies for orchestra, or can an orchestra h...

So therefore the definition and classification of a symphony is quite subjective and open to different interpretations? Quite right, let's take some specific, well known cases of pieces that I think most would agree are "Symphonies" but with which we would find it difficult to come up wit...

That isn't defined though, that basically means 'anything'. When applied to everyone, it may seem like it could mean everything, but when applied to a specific composer, it will most likely have some kind of specific definition in their mind. What you have to realize is that words and "classif...

So, the meaning changed to something else, and it is still changing. I would be rather annoyed with music and any art in general if its concepts and definitions remained static over time, especially over such a vast period as you are suggesting (even Haydn and Mozart played around with the standard ...

While searching for specific items in Worldcat, I am often surprised how often the Free Library of Philadelphia shows up as having extremely rare and desirable full scores to pieces that I can't find anywhere else. Upon further investigation, not only does the library itself seem to have an unusuall...

Another example is the B-L-A-F String Quartet by Rimsky, Liadov, Borodin, and Glazunov -- each authoring a single movement. This is definitely interesting, and as I can think of at least two other works that would belong on such a page, it may be worth pursuing a way to be able to list these types ...

That said, we need more. Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration would be nice. Until someone scans this, check this page out: http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77 It includes the full text in the context of a web forum, along with all of Rimsky's examples as rendered by Garritan's orche...

If someone somewhere has access, the time and the inclination to scan the full score to Bantock's massive setting of Omar Khayyám's Rubaiyat, I would be eternally grateful. Getting access to the orchestral score would be great for study as this is a work on the orchestral-size scale comparable to Ma...