Dichten=Condensare

[jayne lee wilson]

To compose is to condense... at least in poetry.
So the great English poet Basil Bunting found in a German-Italian dictionary, and his mentor Pound made it into a slogan for modern versifying...

Oliver Knussen's 3rd Symphony packs a lot into its 14 or 15 minutes, but it's a vast epic compared with Stravinsky's Huxley Variations or Mozart's Symphony No. 32. And what about the amazing War Song of the Franks by Roussel, or Stravinsky's Zvezdoliki, which contain whole worlds in their musical grains of sand.

Let's have your favourite miniature masterpieces, your thimblefuls of melodic gold, your storms in harmonic teacups...

No cheating with excerpted movements now! And no Overtures - we know about them.
Preludes and interludes will only be allowed with written justification of their self-sustainment, and will be adjudicated by a committee of angels on a pinhead. This way to the Tardis Symphony...

[Northender]

Alun Hoddinott's 'Lanterne des Morts' generates tremendous power and tension in some eleven and a half minutes.

[Bryn]

Cage: 4' 33"

"I have nothing to say / and I am saying it / and that is poetry / as I needed it" - JC

[french frank]

To compose is to condense

To compost is to condense?

your storms in harmonic teacups...

Sounds like the quick burst of K. 534 - Das Donnerwetter (48 secs). It's a Contredanse though I should think by the time the dancers had formed fours on the floor it would all be over.

[Serial_Apologist]

Webern - Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 (1909)

[ahinton]

I reckon that some - most, indeed - of Chopin's Préludes qualify here; I remember an obviously enthused Elliott Carter once talking about them and pointing up the fact that, as he saw them, many tell a whole story on a couple of pages or less.

[Rosie55]

Alun Hoddinott's 'Lanterne des Morts' generates tremendous power and tension in some eleven and a half minutes.

I think this piece might well be one of his finest orchestral scores. Well balanced with his 6th Symphony, Scena for Strings and the vivid Contemplation upon Flowers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoddinott-Symphony-No-6-Watson/dp/B000025W7V/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346200643&sr=1-4

[Pabmusic]

I think Roy Harris did a fine job in his Third Symphony - and is still has a tenuous foothold in the repertory.

I'll also add two non-symphonies - Památnik Lidicím (Memorial to Lidice) by Martinu,which manages to achieve an overwhelming climax within eight minutes, and the Fantastic Scherzo by Josef Suk, which is arresting and memorable for every one of its 13 minutes.

[Northender]

I think this piece might well be one of his finest orchestral scores. Well balanced with his 6th Symphony, Scena for Strings and the vivid Contemplation upon Flowers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoddinott-Sy...6200643&sr=1-4

Yes, I have that CD. I think Hoddinott's music deserves to be better known. May I recommend NI 5357 (later orchestral works) and SRCD.330 (4 concerti from his earlier output)?

[jayne lee wilson]

Is it too easy to invoke Ligeti?
Atmospheres and Lontano are hardly compressed symphonies, but they suggest far more than they say...
The Cello Concerto is a bit prolix at 14'22, but opens out onto vast, strange spaces...

The only problem with the Suk Fantastic Scherzo is, once it's in your head...

[Petrushka]

Webern: 6 Pieces for Orchestra.

All over in 12 minutes but it's like you've heard a Mahler symphony.

[Richard Tarleton]

Of all his miniature masterpieces, John Dowland's Fantasia, or Fancy, no 7 in the "Varietie of Lute Lessons", Fantasia P1 in the Diana Poulton catalogue, is the one I love most. In a major key, it's almost a miniature Bach Chaconne, 100 years before its time. In the space of about 4 minutes and 100 bars, and in 10 short sections, it starts with a lovely single line of melody which is developed through harmonic and rhythmic variation, with chordal passages and semiquaver runs. Dramatically, 3/4 of the way through, the common time switches to triplets and the piece advances to a majestic 20 bar conclusion over a running bass. That's just the structure - more importantly it runs a gamut of emotion in its tiny span. It's my favourite piece to play (on the guitar, in my case).

Lots of versions - it's to be found on Vol 1 of Nigel North's complete Dowland lute music on Naxos, on Hopkinson Smith's "A Dream" on Naive and many more.

[MrGongGong]

If brevity is what you seek
there are some interesting things here

http://www.morgan-fisher.com/discogpages_e/miniatures.html

there was also a CM tour in the 1980's (i think ?) entitled Brevity and Length that I recall had some real gems but I can't seem to find anything about it online , so maybe to the loft to dig out the programme

[Serial_Apologist]

there was also a CM tour in the 1980's (i think ?) entitled Brevity and Length that I recall had some real gems but I can't seem to find anything about it online , so maybe to the loft to dig out the programme

Issued as a recording, if it's the same thing we're talking about, iirc.

[Roehre]

Webern: 6 Pieces for Orchestra.

All over in 12 minutes but it's like you've heard a Mahler symphony.

Inbearably long pieces, those pieces opus 6.

The 5 pieces opus 10 last some 4'30 - 5' - and encompass the universe of a Mahler symphony too