Re: GG: Beethoven/Liszt Fifth Symphony

[jerbidoc@jaws.greatwhite.com (jerry and judy)]

>Hello Junichi,
>
>>     With this oft-stringent note let man now pause,
>>     That who shall hear it, sounding thus, shall see,
>>     That euphony's the one, sure, sacred cause,
>>     And taking leave of octave doublings, flee
>>     To that secured and effortless repose
>>     Upon that tintinnabulating(*) key,
>>     And with that quiet confidence which knows
>>     Here was a note, here was a middle C.
>>
>>     *(ringen, klingen)
>>                               'The Collected Klopweiser'
>>                                           (Dent and Dent)
>
>My impression is that here GG is at his most whimsically ironic. He's not
>really saying much more than 'be safe when orchestrating -- and when
>composing if possible stick to C-major'. GG seems to be putting very
>English words into the Germanic mouth of Prof Dr Heinkel, the words being
>a pastiche-parody of Poe ('To the tintinnabulation that so musically
>wells/ From the bells, bells, bells, bells'), Browning and similar 19th
>Century poets, all of whom took more words than necessary to get their
>message across. GG is saying 'be euphonious, don't use empty harmonies
>such as double octaves'.
>
>I haven't listened to the Liszt 5th Symphony for a while but I think it
>contains a number of double-octave passages, and no doubt Bradley Lehman
>can tell us which keys it roves through. In other words, the review is
>against Beethoven, Liszt and Gould, although it takes several readings to
>glean that meaning.

 I just played through it (1st mvmnt), a little tiring, physically and as
music (for the piano).  The dbl octaves start at the end of the long
transition back to Cm from Gflat!  after the repeat.
 Beethoven gets to Gflat from C7/Fm and by imitation to Bflatminor from
Cdim/F7.   Then through Cflat, Dflat and then lingering in F#m and then the
same phrase in D and the same lingering in Ddim, on to the restating of the
theme in Fm (with Liszt's dbl octaves till the fermata) resolving to Cm
through G7.

Just before the pp before the closing, there's 8 bars of dbl octaves!
This is probably what he's (GG's) alluding to.   It's a *platitudinous*
gimmick on the piano (the whole attempt of reducing an orchestra to a piano
was problematic as Liszt was well aware).   Transcriptions of symphonies
filled a need and pianists of today are grateful.