A note on pedals.

[Enrique]

We are listening to Kommt, ihr Tochter, the first number and introduction of Matthaus Passion. There comes the moment when Bach places a B in the basses, which lasts for many bars, and, in my version, the tempo, complicated word for speed, rises in one part in a hundred, which is sufficient for the ear to detect it. Then you know that something is about to happen. Besides, the music is now heard in the tonality of B, so that that B note is the tonic. And the tonic remains until it goes first to C, then F#, then B and now you are in E minor, the tonality of this introduction and only two bars are left for the music to end and never come back.

Well, it's a personal feeling. I know that long B in the bass and that infinitesimal speeding up of the tempo is signaling the end. But you do not want the music to end. But she nevertheless will terminate in a few seconds, which makes you stay very alert. (In fact, what happens with the tempo is that it has slowed down somewhere before and now the conductor returns to the "main tempo". It's very rare to have it played that way nowadays, I mean with slight changes of tempo, and I hated this when my aunt gave me the record set, only to understand years later the immense poetry of Mengelberg's version.)

Enough poetry. The long B note is a pedal, and you'll find pedals in the music of Beethoven too. They are an essential element of music in the whole period of common harmonic practice. As for me, they must be the reason why I like organ works so much, and the first movement of the Ninth too, and so many adagios in Mozart symphonies and concerti where these pedal are many times found in the woodwinds. Or may be its the other way around. Because I like organ, I like pedals and, consequently, certain parts in Beethoven and Mozart.

[Sorrano]

You would like Bruckner, too!

[Enrique]

I had the Ninth and the record broke (vinyl (sic)). And then a version of the Romantic (no.4?) I used to listen to all the time. In radio they sometimes transmitted the Seventh. Now, with handy youtube, I'll listen to more Bruckner. Thanks, you gave me the idea.

[Enrique]

Tell me, Sorrano, has Bruckner composed important pieces for the organ?

[Sorrano]

Tell me, Sorrano, has Bruckner composed important pieces for the organ?

Bruckner was one of the great organists of the 19th Century, unfortunately, he left very little for the organ, nothing major. His improvisations were said to be phenomenal, but sadly, there are no examples to posterity.

[Enrique]

It's a matter of getting Huxley's time machine. Well, that IS a pity. I new he was an organist before daring with a symphony. I read in Wikipedia Mahler said of him: half simpleton, half God but, believe me, I had read a little about him before.

[Sorrano]

When you study and analyze his music you begin to realize that the "half simpleton" does not really fit him. He might have been socially inept, but he was not a simpleton.

[Enrique]

When you study and analyze his music you begin to realize that the "half simpleton" does not really fit him. He might have been socially inept, but he was not a simpleton.

I once read his symphonies are like giant architectures. You can't appreciate a cathedral by standing close to it. You must step back and take a distance in order to gain the right perspective. The same happens with Bruckner, said the writer, but in regard to time instead of space. Of course, to do this takes a good memory. If you stay too close, you'll perceive repetition and willthink that's all there is to it.

[Sorrano]

Space and time have a different meaning, altogether, in Bruckner's symphonic output than in that of his contemporaries. Typically, we listen to the dynamic development of a theme and are carried from the beginning to the end by the music itself, as though it were a raging current in a river. Bruckner's music is different. There are moments in which time itself seems to stop and the journey through the symphony explores the very colors and ranges of the instruments. It is like being inside a cathedral and exploring the various parts, frescoes, etc.

[Enrique]

I see. First bear in mind my familiarity with Bruckner reduces to the Romantic Symphony, the ninth and the seventh. The mere combination of a symphonist and a postromantic, however, in the same person is already a sufficient cause for the result to be imposing. Of course not anyone can be a symphonist or my statement would have little meaning. Also I do not say postromanticism is good music (nor that it is bad). But every thing in it is, I'll use the word again, gigantic.

I only wanted to say I improperly used "repetition" in the post before this. I think that, for people with little contact with Bruckner, the smaller elements into which his music may be broken are already of a good size. But you must have all the elements in front of you simultaneously, I mean, present in your conscience at one time in order to understand the whole. And this is difficult if each element is very large. This is what I wanted to say, instead of "repetition".

[Sorrano]

Don't let Bruckner's title Romantic fool you, nor let the time period in which he lived influence your opinion. Bruckner, in my opinion, would be better characterized as a post Baroque composer, living in the 19th Century.

[Enrique]

Don't let Bruckner's title Romantic fool you, nor let the time period in which he lived influence your opinion. Bruckner, in my opinion, would be better characterized as a post Baroque composer, living in the 19th Century.

I post Baroque adoring Wagner?