Every subsequent listen of each of these movements brings greater rewards and admiration for the skillful incremental development displayed (the first movement does this so well)...the natural unfolding of the music without being boring or repetitious. So wise and expert. So relaxed and assured. You manage to hold back the full forces until the time is right giving this movement the feeling of calm waters becoming a whelming flood of roiling emotions in a wonderful and satisfying arc..this very organic sounding and gradual veering toward the catastrophic is handled with a Sibelian sense of drama...the aftermath with the beautiful viola solo is notable as is the exclamatory coda, brisk with agitation. Even while your own voice gets stronger...this is a great example of how you have absorbed an influence (Sibelius) that has helped you figure out how to handle large scale forms effectively while establishing a very individual footprint and personal dramaturgical structure. The Romanza is simply a masterpiece of deeply absorbing and beautiful music, uttered with a simplicity and power from which we can all learn. When simplicity is done well (as Bruckner shows us) it's power can bowl us over. With it's bitter tinged dissonances, we could never mistake it for a work of classicism, but there is a purity in this music that is rarely seen today. Once more this mood is maintained for a long time without recourse to boring repetition. The coda is moving. Some young composers mime great emotion....these are the authentic existential pains of love and loss. The finale erupts out of the quiet despair of the Adagio with a Petterssonlike obsessiveness and agitation yet with a more developmental ear than Pettersson...the harmonic world maintains its consistency with the rest of the symphony despite the radical change in mood and sheer velocity...the reference to the Wedding March I have taken as having personal meaning...but just on its surface it exists as a cultural reference; its sudden appearance in the full melee feels like a life ring of some romantic ideal tossed into a churning ocean...only to be swallowed. A brief snatch of the 1st movement is also heard and is overwhelmed preceding the symphonies wrenching climax. What the revision has given this movement and the symphony on the whole was the one thing it lacked in the original...a summation greater in power than either of the previous movement's climaxes, a palpable zenith of focus. The quiet coda is of deeper feeling and firmer focus than the original. First rate all the way, Jackson.
I have long admired the work of Sibelius. We share a similar idea about taking little bits of things and using them developmentally. The romance is my favorite movement. G# minor is one of my favorite keys but one mustn’t overdo it especially not in an orchestral context. Another example of sad G# minor that comes to mind is the old castle from pictures at an exhibition. I really do thank you so much for taking the time to listen and really hear the music for what it has to say. It is so hard to find people willing to do that in today’s musical environment.
That's really a wonderful symphony! I love coming back to it after your revision. Everything I already said in my comments to the first version is still true. Even before the revisions I considered the whole thing to be a perfectly rounded piece that doesn't leave any wishes open. Congratulations to the whole work, which is wellcrafted, meticulously executed, with a sense for slow developments with a strong direction. It's masterful how in the first movement you're slowly boiling up the energy, the excitement, the joy, but incrementally also building up tensions and drama from the first innocent beginning. Really awesome! There is so much evocative story telling going on without being placative, the story lies in the convincing development of the musical structures and orchestral situations---for example the wonderful viola (?) solo in dialogue with the woodwinds at around 13:00 after the big climax of the first movement: So much of a fading away melancholy! And so incredible how suddenly there is a last outburst of swirling energy leading the movement to its fast and swiping end surprisingly fast. So delicious! The calm and solemn, very sad and forlorn beginning of the Romanza is breathtaking in its quiet and holy sadness. It's incredible how much you're able to trust these simple but loaden long notes and lines. Every note sits right in its place and is packed with emotions and meaning, there is nothing larmoyant and superficial in this pure and honest music! Magnificent! And what a powerful climax at around 29:00 and ongoing. Wow, simply wow! I bow in admiration for the strength of your formal consequence and emotional impact! The dramatic opening of the third movement perfectly serves as the logical outburst from all of the tensions that arose and built up in the first two movements. They are now brought to their final solution. I'm still puzzled by the Mendelssohn Wedding March quote. What could that mean? All these highly aggressive machine gun-like "shoot outs" are insane in their sense of existential danger and threat. What a powerful idea! So again: My sincerest kudos to you for this excellent job!
Thank you so much for your comments! It’s a gift to a composer to have someone who actually listens to and digests their music in a meaningful way. I really appreciate your taking the time. The “shoot outs” and “existential dread” come mostly in part from my admiration of the music of Allan Pettersson. The wedding march quote is not so important as the fact that it is almost immediatly obliterated.
Every subsequent listen of each of these movements brings greater rewards and admiration for the skillful incremental development displayed (the first movement does this so well)...the natural unfolding of the music without being boring or repetitious. So wise and expert. So relaxed and assured. You manage to hold back the full forces until the time is right giving this movement the feeling of calm waters becoming a whelming flood of roiling emotions in a wonderful and satisfying arc..this very organic sounding and gradual veering toward the catastrophic is handled with a Sibelian sense of drama...the aftermath with the beautiful viola solo is notable as is the exclamatory coda, brisk with agitation.
Even while your own voice gets stronger...this is a great example of how you have absorbed an influence (Sibelius) that has helped you figure out how to handle large scale forms effectively while establishing a very individual footprint and personal dramaturgical structure.
The Romanza is simply a masterpiece of deeply absorbing and beautiful music, uttered with a simplicity and power from which we can all learn. When simplicity is done well (as Bruckner shows us) it's power can bowl us over. With it's bitter tinged dissonances, we could never mistake it for a work of classicism, but there is a purity in this music that is rarely seen today. Once more this mood is maintained for a long time without recourse to boring repetition. The coda is moving. Some young composers mime great emotion....these are the authentic existential pains of love and loss.
The finale erupts out of the quiet despair of the Adagio with a Petterssonlike obsessiveness and agitation yet with a more developmental ear than Pettersson...the harmonic world maintains its consistency with the rest of the symphony despite the radical change in mood and sheer velocity...the reference to the Wedding March I have taken as having personal meaning...but just on its surface it exists as a cultural reference; its sudden appearance in the full melee feels like a life ring of some romantic ideal tossed into a churning ocean...only to be swallowed. A brief snatch of the 1st movement is also heard and is overwhelmed preceding the symphonies wrenching climax. What the revision has given this movement and the symphony on the whole was the one thing it lacked in the original...a summation greater in power than either of the previous movement's climaxes, a palpable zenith of focus. The quiet coda is of deeper feeling and firmer focus than the original.
First rate all the way, Jackson.
I have long admired the work of Sibelius. We share a similar idea about taking little bits of things and using them developmentally.
The romance is my favorite movement. G# minor is one of my favorite keys but one mustn’t overdo it especially not in an orchestral context. Another example of sad G# minor that comes to mind is the old castle from pictures at an exhibition.
I really do thank you so much for taking the time to listen and really hear the music for what it has to say. It is so hard to find people willing to do that in today’s musical environment.
That's really a wonderful symphony! I love coming back to it after your revision. Everything I already said in my comments to the first version is still true. Even before the revisions I considered the whole thing to be a perfectly rounded piece that doesn't leave any wishes open. Congratulations to the whole work, which is wellcrafted, meticulously executed, with a sense for slow developments with a strong direction.
It's masterful how in the first movement you're slowly boiling up the energy, the excitement, the joy, but incrementally also building up tensions and drama from the first innocent beginning. Really awesome! There is so much evocative story telling going on without being placative, the story lies in the convincing development of the musical structures and orchestral situations---for example the wonderful viola (?) solo in dialogue with the woodwinds at around 13:00 after the big climax of the first movement: So much of a fading away melancholy! And so incredible how suddenly there is a last outburst of swirling energy leading the movement to its fast and swiping end surprisingly fast. So delicious!
The calm and solemn, very sad and forlorn beginning of the Romanza is breathtaking in its quiet and holy sadness. It's incredible how much you're able to trust these simple but loaden long notes and lines. Every note sits right in its place and is packed with emotions and meaning, there is nothing larmoyant and superficial in this pure and honest music! Magnificent! And what a powerful climax at around 29:00 and ongoing. Wow, simply wow! I bow in admiration for the strength of your formal consequence and emotional impact!
The dramatic opening of the third movement perfectly serves as the logical outburst from all of the tensions that arose and built up in the first two movements. They are now brought to their final solution. I'm still puzzled by the Mendelssohn Wedding March quote. What could that mean?
All these highly aggressive machine gun-like "shoot outs" are insane in their sense of existential danger and threat. What a powerful idea!
So again: My sincerest kudos to you for this excellent job!
Thank you so much for your comments! It’s a gift to a composer to have someone who actually listens to and digests their music in a meaningful way. I really appreciate your taking the time.
The “shoot outs” and “existential dread” come mostly in part from my admiration of the music of Allan Pettersson. The wedding march quote is not so important as the fact that it is almost immediatly obliterated.
this is my orchestra playing this Third Symphony (from part lll measure 882 revised version)
th-cam.com/video/VehZOB50FXo/w-d-xo.html