In Reply to: Structure posted by Chris from Lafayette on April 19, 2012 at 22:59:49:
Well, yeah, "structure" is probably a misnomer in this context in that all music has structure -- melody is structure, songs are structured, even a single note has structure. And I agree that structure can have many different functions and many different effects, e.g., the progression of keys i the Well-Tempered Clavier has a different role than the key changes in a sonata form movement.
But I think that when we say that Tchaikovsky had no understanding of structure, we mean that he never mastered the uniquely sophisticated large-scale structures of German art music. This is the great weakness in his compositions. His structures are in his melodies, while Brahm's structures were in the development of his themes. Tchaikovsky's music was I think in a sense more typical of the romantic period, but also, it wasn't German. Brahms was a classicist at heart; he works with themes rather than melodies, and achieves his effects through the development and juxtaposition of the themes within a tonal framework. And nobody ever did structure like the Germans. To me, Tchaikovsky's most successful works are the ones in which he isn't trying to ape the German forms.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Structure - josh358 06:25:53 04/20/12 (11)
- I don't want to be limited by Germanic-only concepts of structure - Chris from Lafayette 13:41:29 04/20/12 (10)
- Leonard Bernstein 1953 American Decca Recordings - AlanPre 12:50:09 05/14/12 (0)
- RE: I don't want to be limited by Germanic-only concepts of structure - josh358 15:18:26 04/20/12 (8)
- Just to be clear. . . - Chris from Lafayette 17:43:56 04/20/12 (7)
- RE: Just to be clear. . . - josh358 18:48:01 04/20/12 (6)
- Thanks for the link, but. . . - Chris from Lafayette 23:14:38 04/20/12 (5)
- RE: Thanks for the link, but. . . - josh358 05:23:05 04/21/12 (4)
- RE: Thanks for the link, but. . . - Chris from Lafayette 08:37:18 04/21/12 (3)
- RE: Thanks for the link, but. . . - josh358 08:52:44 04/22/12 (2)
- Interesting - I never met Jonathan Berger - Chris from Lafayette 13:50:50 04/22/12 (1)
- RE: Interesting - I never met Jonathan Berger - josh358 14:41:35 05/18/12 (0)