It’s time to get out from the ultra manipulation of Webern to the (apparently) neutral symphony! The first movement’s sudden modulation are always so magical! And that celesta like an eagle squeak! That klangfarbenmelodie of the wind combining the magical nuances of harp and celesta is really mysterious and fairy like. This type of klangfarbenmelodie is real one which really let each member speaks their own unique voice out. Really feel like the world depicted more fantastical than Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. (Btw does anyone say you look like Gandolf?) The term dialectic form in the 2nd mov is unheard of! It’s a nice term to describe multiple fugues when each subject is stated independently and then later combined and counterpointed! That’s what fugue means for: every appearance of the fugue subject is given new context and thus new meaning! The 1st fugue subject is so pure, almost pentatonic like! The 2nd is energetic. Much like a fast version of the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s op.132, even though they are very different but I don’t know why I think of the linkage. That Phrygian cadence ending is so apt here! The 1st return of theme A returns the harmonic progression of the 1st movement as well which makes it sound magical again! The ending is so great. Much like the Mahlerian Magical wisdom of life. What’s magical isn’t that faraway mountain or God but always human beings who live in the world with their own categorical imperative Thanks very much for introducing a great masterpiece!! Learn so much from it. Henry
So much to address here, Henry - wonderful comment as usual! Yes, I really needed this break from Webern's Opus 24, and your comment about the very different use of Klangfarbenmelodie here compared to Webern's is most apt and had not occurred to me! I suppose I might be the first ever to describe that fugue as being in a kind of Hegelian form, but it's not the only one I've dealt with that behaves that way. Paul Hindemith constructed the final movement of his Symphony in B flat (the one for wind band) in very much the same way, and the dialectic language first occurred to me while I was studying that fugue, although I don't recall that I used the term in describing it. Your final comment rings truest of all: "What’s magical isn’t that faraway mountain or God but always human beings who live in the world with their own categorical imperative." Resoundingly, YES! (I have been compared to Gandolf occasionally, and Dumbledore as well. For a while there was a Facebook group, organized by my students at the University of Arkansas: "Dr. Goza: mild-mannered conductor, or powerful wizard?")
@@David_Goza After your innovative use of the term dialectic form, I realise many of Bach’s fugues with more than one subjects always are in that form… each subjects having their own independent section and developing in their own isolation, and later with masterful hand and mind the subjects are combined together to synthesize a universe of subjects. I always love his C# minor fugue from WTC I and contrapunctis XIV in his Art of Fugue for this reason!
