One More Work

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:09 pm

Mr. Magic Greenman from Betelguese IV appears on your doorstep one day and announces you can have one new instrumental work (not opera or choral) by the composer of your choice in the form of your choice.
Beethoven's 10th, Bach's Mass in X Major, Sibeluis' Second Violin Concerto, or etc. What will it be?

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:39 pm

That's a no-brainer for me: Beethoven's 10th.

Blip · Post by **Blip** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:45 pm

When Carl Nielsen died, he had plans for a series of wind concertos, one for each intrument of a wind quintet. He completed two — one for flute and one for clarinet. I'd like to hear another one, either for horn or oboe, but since this is a fantasy, I'll ask for the whole cycle: horn, oboe and bassoon.

And Barry, thanks for the link to Ken Miller's site!

PJME · Post by **PJME** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:23 pm

I'd ask for a large scale concerto for organ and orchestra by Benjamin Britten

(And another choice,in another category : Edgard Varèse's "Bourgogne" - one of several large scale works he destroyed...)

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:44 pm

For me, Brahms' 5th Symphony. Another long excursion through the Romantic landscape, full of oaks and beeches, with paths bordered by masses of flowers, pleasant byways and surprise turns, everything redolent of the scent of nature at its fullest ripeness, with autumn about to encroach...

greymouse · Post by **greymouse** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:53 pm

For me, Brahms' 5th Symphony. Another long excursion through the Romantic landscape, full of oaks and beeches, with paths bordered by masses of flowers, pleasant byways and surprise turns, everything redolent of the scent of nature at its fullest ripeness, with autumn about to encroach...

I was going to say Brahms' 5th, but I couldn't have said it so gracefully ... what Charles said!

Following the Jupiter key pattern, we know it would have been in A of course ... but would it have been as lovely as the 3rd?

Haydnseek · Post by **Haydnseek** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:02 pm

Gershwin had plans for a string quartet, a symphony and another opera. I choose the symphony.

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:05 pm

It is hard to disagree with Barry's choice, but I would be satisfied if the alien handed me Mozart's Requiem as he would have completed it and the concluding contrapunctus of the Art of Fugue as Bach would have completed it. Also, on only a very slightly lesser plane, Bartok complained that he was leaving with his bags packed, meaning, he had a lot of great compositions in mind. And unlike the died-young composers of the previous two centuries, he probably would not have changed music history through the anxiety of influence if he had been allowed to complete them. We'd just have more masterpieces.

Harvested Sorrow · Post by **Harvested Sorrow** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:13 pm

Barry Z wrote:That's a no-brainer for me: Beethoven's 10th.

Agreed. Although Brahms' 5th also sounds wonderful.

Ralph · Post by **Ralph** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:01 pm

One more glorious orchestral piece by Dittersdorf.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:18 pm

Ralph wrote:One more glorious orchestral piece by Dittersdorf.

Pelleas and Melisande and Hugh Grant

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:19 pm

Blip wrote:When Carl Nielsen died, he had plans for a series of wind concertos, one for each intrument of a wind quintet. He completed two — one for flute and one for clarinet. I'd like to hear another one, either for horn or oboe, but since this is a fantasy, I'll ask for the whole cycle: horn, oboe and bassoon.

if I had to choose one, though, I should easily select a Nielsen Horn Concerto

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:23 pm

Charles wrote:. . . the composer of your choice in the form of your choice.
Beethoven's 10th, Bach's Mass in X Major, Sibeluis' Second Violin Concerto, or etc. What will it be?

Hi, Charles! I should send you a tape of the anthem we sang on the Sunday that you visited.

On topic, though: it would have to be the work pulled out from the flames: the Sibelius Eighth Symphony

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:32 pm

A very subjective opinion (as if everything here were not): I find it difficult to imagine a Brahms fifth symphony. If ever a composer sang his swan song at exactly the "right" time it was Brahms. In fact, I don't feel an urgent need for a Beethoven's tenth, though we know he was working on one; that knowledge may be why we covet having it. We do know that Bach and Mozart left an important work unfinished, and we do know, though we could not predict the consequences to music if they had survived, that Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin all died before their time, and we imagine they would have given us more masterpieces.

Of course, there is nothing in music to compare with the situation in painting regarding Titian, who painted arguably his greatest work, The Flaying of Marsyas, when he was 85.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:39 pm

jbuck919 wrote:A very subjective opinion (as if everything here were not): I find it difficult to imagine a Brahms fifth symphony.

Of course, that is true, John. We cannot any of us imagine the heights to which an artist will reach.

If Beethoven had died after writing his eighth symphony, none of us could "imagine" his Opus 125.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:36 pm

I would have Bach write up a new, 6 hour "Mass for 3 Preachers". It would be dedicated to Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell, and Jimmy Swaggart.

They then could cut it up into little snippets and force all Roman Catholic services to use the music. The idea would be to displace the ungodly, secular, squealing music that we now have to listen to on Sunday.

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:41 pm

Can I slip in two "Unfinished" symphonies for the price of one whole work?

Completed Schubert 8th (if only one allowed) and Mahler 10th for me.

DavidRoss · Post by **DavidRoss** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:02 pm

I'll take Bizet's next opera.

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:45 pm

Another ballet by Tchaikovsky.

RebLem · Post by **RebLem** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:17 pm

I hear that after his death, people found plans in Beethoven's sketchbooks for a second opera based on the Faust legend. This would be my choice.

val · Post by **val** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:36 am

Schubert, a 16th string Quartet.

rogch · Post by **rogch** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:01 am

Not easy to pick just one wish, but i would love to hear another symphony by Mozart. His symphonies just got better over the years, and his last three are all legendary. But when he died he hadn't written one for three years.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:58 pm

karlhenning wrote:
Charles wrote:. . . the composer of your choice in the form of your choice.
Beethoven's 10th, Bach's Mass in X Major, Sibeluis' Second Violin Concerto, or etc. What will it be?
Hi, Charles! I should send you a tape of the anthem we sang on the Sunday that you visited.

On topic, though: it would have to be the work pulled out from the flames: the Sibelius Eighth Symphony

Do you mean me? Visited? I do not remember this. I have heard tell there are other Charleses in the world, though I have no direct proof of this. Here, however, you must be speaking of one of these putative (potential? osetensible?) other Charleses, sir, because I don't recall having had the honor of making your acquaintance...

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:13 pm

Charles wrote:. . . because I don't recall having had the honor of making your acquaintance...

Sorry for the confoundation! :-)

MaestroDJS · Post by **MaestroDJS** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:21 pm

jbuck919 wrote:Of course, there is nothing in music to compare with the situation in painting regarding Titian, who painted arguably his greatest work, The Flaying of Marsyas, when he was 85.

Wellll, arguably Giuseppe Verdi composed his greatest work when he was 80: Falstaff.

rogch wrote:Not easy to pick just one wish, but i would love to hear another symphony by Mozart. His symphonies just got better over the years, and his last three are all legendary. But when he died he hadn't written one for three years.

Agreed. And in Haydn's case, 100-plus symphonies aren't quite enough. His 12 London symphonies reached new heights, and then he just stoppped. This was after about 35 years of writing symphonies, and he still had 14 years to live. According to H. C. Robbins Landon Haydn: A Documentary Study (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York, NY, 1981): A. Haydn stopped writing symphonies after 1795 principally because his patron, Nicholas II Esterházy, moved from Esterháza to Vienna and imposed only one formal duty on Haydn: he was to compose a now setting of the Mass each year to celebrate the name day of Nicholas II’s wife, the princess Marie Hermenegild. Haydn wrote six great masses between 1796 and 1802 (he skipped 1800). B. On 12 January 1795, Johann Peter Salomon announced the cessation of his London concerts at which Haydn’s symphonies had been performed. And, C. Haydn left England in August 1795 for Hamburg and then Vienna to take up his duties at Prince Nicholas II Esterházy’s Vienna residence. Haydn took with him the libretto for The Creation which Salomon had procured for him.

All of the above candidates for "one more" are great choices, but I'd probably vote for composers to complete works that were left incomplete at their deaths, or lost, and which have been conjecturally completed by other hands. Some choices:

Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge
Mozart: Requiem
Berwald: "Symphonie Capricieuse" (discovered among his papers in short score but with indications for its orchestration)
Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 and 10
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
Borodin: Prince Igor
Puccini: Turandot
Mahler: Symphony No. 10
Busoni: Doktor Faust
Bartók: Viola Concerto

Dave

David Stybr, Engineer and Composer: It's Left Brain vs. Right Brain: best 2 falls out of 3
http://members.SibeliusMusic.com/Stybr
Andante Cantabile for String Orchestra (5:00)
http://www.SibeliusMusic.com/cgi-bin/sh ... reid=83856

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Post by **Lance** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:31 pm

What a great and novel idea for a subject on this board! [Thank you!]

Can we imagine any symphony of Beethoven's being greater than his Ninth? Still, a tenth might be my first choice. After Sibelius's Violin Concerto being the breathtaking beautiful work that it is, it would be hard to imagine if there could be a second, but I would opt for it if it were possible.

amadeus · Post by **amadeus** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:00 pm

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:05 pm

Ah, yes, one more set of three German dances :-)

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:30 pm

Ok, after a little thought (all I can manage) I've decided to go over-the-top with this concept. One more work, eh? If I think of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs as one work, how about one more Wagner work of an even more monumental scale (this being Fantasyland and all)?

A Wagner opera of the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments plus Apocrypha. Probably give the guy fits, but this is, after all, Fantasyland for what I want!

hautbois · Post by **hautbois** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 8:36 pm

Stravinsky Concerto for wind quintet and wind machine.

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