Or as lengthy as a Bruckner symphonic movement. Modernism brought with it a host of problems in composition. One way of handling them was to load everything onto contrapuntal structures which was the tendency of 12-tone music. Though we find in Schoenberg, for example, that a lot of tonal gestures linger here and there. Another strategy was to simply eliminate the concept of narrative shape altogether. This was the approach of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen among many others. Composers like Steve Reich have attenuated the harmonic and motivic aspects in favor of long-range rhythmic structures.
For many of us, the problem of giving the appropriate character to the openings of compositions, to the places where forward movement is needed, to places where something climactic is needed and to places where and ending is sought, remains a difficult one. Often one has to resort to texture, to orchestration, to using a whole bunch of percussion instruments or to other aspects such as timbre. But the problem isn't going away and re-presents itself anew with every new piece. How lucky people like Haydn and Mozart were that they had a well-stocked toolbox with all the things they needed to build well-structured pieces of music. Of course, Haydn actually invented a number of these...
Here is the string quartet by Haydn that I quoted above, the Op. 76, No. 2, nicknamed "Das Quinten" or "The Fifths" because of that opening theme. That incredibly simple motif is the ONLY theme Haydn needs to build an entire movement.
Composition is a concept not just in music, of course, but also painting and writing. Ultimately it means all the parts fit together into a coherent whole, a concept itself open to a very wide range, depending on the subject and subjectivities of the artist.
ReplyDeleteI think the Haydn quartets are a supreme example of composition skill because they do not have orchestral or vocal-textual devices to distract and entertain us, instead giving only the essential lines that convey form...and its melodic, harmonic and rythmic components. Its a little like asking "does your music still sound good naked?"
Absolutely!
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