The great codas

[Thropplenoggin]

- for some reason, it hadn't occured to me to think outside the "Symphony" envelope. Now that I have -

Bach: Goldberg Variations; Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos K448 (Second movt); Stockhausen: Mantra.

And as for the end of Mahler's Ninth ...

I'm rather glad he didn't have a chance to hear this symphony, as he would surely have reorchestrated chunks of it. I love this spartan end. Wisps of sound from another world.

--

The final movement of Beethoven's Appassionata.

[HighlandDougie]

Am I allowed to mention the slow movement of Bruckner's 7th and, fresh in my mind from listening to it, the end of Shostakovich's 4th?

[Petrushka]

Surprised that no-one has mentioned the great codas or epilogues, if you will, that are such a feature of Richard Strauss's tone poems. Particularly moving in those great wind-downs are the endings of Ene Alpensinfonie, Ein Heldenleben and Don Quixote. The Alpen is my favourite ending of these by some margin. What a master Strauss was at these epilogues! He does something similar in Der Rosenkavalier.

The coda to the first movement of Bruckner's 9th is one of the most magnificent in all music, full of fear, terror, the awe and majesty of life and death. The most heart-stopping performance I heard of this was Haitink and the Concertgebouw at the 1983 Proms. On disc, the most serious contender is VPO/Karajan in a 1976 Salzburg performance.

[mathias broucek]

...The digested choice...HAS to be Honegger 3, shafts of light and birdsong among the smoking ruins...

Can't believe I didn't mention that in the first post. Simply stunning.

[mathias broucek]

Surprised that no-one has mentioned the great codas or epilogues, if you will, that are such a feature of Richard Strauss's tone poems. Particularly moving in those great wind-downs are the endings of Ene Alpensinfonie, Ein Heldenleben and Don Quixote.

...

On disc, the most serious contender is VPO/Karajan in a 1976 Salzburg performance.

Yes,Steauss's endings are great, aren't they? And I spent over £20 on the HVK 1976 9th and it was well worth it!

[EdgeleyRob]

What's a coda ? (only kidding)

Bruckner was particularly good at Codas - the ends of the First and Second movements of the Sixth; the slow movements of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth; the Finales (the Coda of the finale of the Fourth is the best thing in the whole work): superb.

Equally wonderful, completely different, are the "Epilogues" to the RVW Symphonies. And, somewhere between the two, the coda that ends Elgar's Second Symphony. (If it's Barbirolli's Live recording with the Hallé, add the coda of the slow movement of the First Symphony, too. )

Can't argue with those ferny.

The last movement codas to Rubbra's 2nd Symphony and 1st Piano Trio (I know they are codas because Edmund tells us so).

Are the final moments of Arnold 9 a coda ?,they sound like it to me.

[Alison]

Can I chuck in Mahler 7 ? The final chord seems to have a slightly different feel in every performance.

[gurnemanz]

Can I chuck in Schumann Lied postludes (sort of codas) eg the exquisite one for "Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen" in Dichterliebe and of course at the end of the whole cycle.

[Alison]

The end of Chopin's Third Sonata op 58 is a thing of wonder. It's almost reassuring in these days of high octane virtuosity that few if any pianists make it sound a comfortable ride.

[Sir Velo]

The end of Chopin's Third Sonata op 58 is a thing of wonder. It's almost reassuring in these days of high octane virtuosity that few if any pianists make it sound a comfortable ride.

If you want high octane virtuosity how can anyone fail to mention the coda to the Precipitato of Prokofiev 7th sonata?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can't argue with those ferny.

I read this as "can't agree with those"! I nearly fainted.

Some great Codas from Stravinsky - Petrushka; Les Noces (and its "revisit" in the Requiem Canticles); Symphonies in C in 3, of Psalms and of Wind Instruments ; Apollo - and, perhaps my favourite, that of the Octet: urbane, wry and with that chic little "pop" of a chord at the very end: the sound of a pen placing the final full stop precisely on the page.

[Thropplenoggin]

I read this as "can't agree with those"! I nearly fainted.

Some great Codas from Stravinsky - Petrushka; Les Noces (and its "revisit" in the Requiem Canticles); Symphonies in C in 3, of Psalms and of Wind Instruments ; Apollo - and, perhaps my favourite, that of the Octet: urbane, wry and with that chic little "pop" of a chord at the very end: the sound of a pen plcing the final full stop precisely on the page.

Your last line reminded of that wonderful passage by Primo Levi from The Periodic Table. Here the subject is 'carbon':

'It is again among us, in a glass of milk. It is inserted into a very complex, long chain, yet such that almost all of its links are acceptable to the human body. It is swallowed; and since every living structure harbours a savage distrust toward every contribution of any material of living origin, the chain is merticulously broken apart and the fragments, one by one, are accepted or rejected. One, the one that concerns us, crosses the intestinal threshold and enters the bloodstream: it migrates, knocks at the door of a nerve cell, enters, and supplants the carbon which was part of it. This cell belongs to a brain, and it is my brain, the brain of the me that is writing, in a gigantic minuscule game which nobody has yet described. It is that which at this instant, issuing of of a labyrinthine tangle of yeses and nos, makes my hand run along a certain path on the paper, mark it with these volutes that are signs: a double snap, up and down, between two levels of energy, guides this hand of mine to impress on the paper this dot, here, this one.'

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Your last line reminded of that wonderful passage by Primo Levi from The Periodic Table. Here the subject is 'carbon':

'It is again among us, in a glass of milk. It is inserted into a very complex, long chain, yet such that almost all of its links are acceptable to the human body. It is swallowed; and since every living structure harbours a savage distrust toward every contribution of any material of living origin, the chain is merticulously broken apart and the fragments, one by one, are accepted or rejected. One, the one that concerns us, crosses the intestinal threshold and enters the bloodstream: it migrates, knocks at the door of a nerve cell, enters, and supplants the carbon which was part of it. This cell belongs to a brain, and it is my brain, the brain of the me that is writing, in a gigantic minuscule game which nobody has yet described. It is that which at this instant, issuing of of a labyrinthine tangle of yeses and nos, makes my hand run along a certain path on the paper, mark it with these volutes that are signs: a double snap, up and down, between two levels of energy, guides this hand of mine to impress on the paper this dot, here, this one.'

- brilliant quotation.

[LeMartinPecheur]

...

3. The moment at the end of Berwald's Sinfonie sérieuse where we reach the home key of G minor and a hooligan bass trombonist (sometimes doubled by naughty conductors) comes crashing in on an E-flat.

This reminded me instantly of Nielsen with his 'hooligan' timpanist in Symph 5, bass trombonist in the Clarinet Concerto, and perhaps side drummer in the Flute Concerto. Any chance of a direct influence?

I don't find any mention of Berwald at all in Robert Simpson's study. The Nielsen Companion does however quote a letter of 27/1/1911 from N to Stenhammer: "It [good art] will always discover some simple, good artist who is searching around and uncovering and who stands up for his work. You Swedes can put up the finest example of this: Berwald." So clearly he knew enough of B's music to form an opinion.

Ph D thesis on B's influence on N, anyone?

[mathias broucek]

This reminded me instantly of Nielsen with his 'hooligan' timpanist in Symph 5, bass trombonist in the Clarinet Concerto, and perhaps side drummer in the Flute Concerto. Any chance of a direct influence?

I don't find any mention of Berwald at all in Robert Simpson's study. The Nielsen Companion does however quote a letter of 27/1/1911 from N to Stenhammer: "It [good art] will always discover some simple, good artist who is searching around and uncovering and who stands up for his work. You Swedes can put up the finest example of this: Berwald." So clearly he knew enough of B's music to form an opinion.

Ph D thesis on B's influence on N, anyone?

You can certainly hear bits of Berwald in Sibelius.