Deryk Barker writes:

>Thus spake Bob Draper
>
>> Conversely the Eroica whilst it is an heroic work is still a
>> straightford classical symphony.
>
>Really? And here I was thinking it was a major breakthrough formally
>and everywhichway.

Yep this gets me reaching for the CD to play again.  It certainly is a
wonderful work.  However, I still think it's a classical symphony.  Sure
there's a schertzo in place of the minuet but the other movements represent
an enlargement of the typical Haydn London symphony.

I was struck though by how little evolution has occured by the time of
Bruckner between a Bruckner schertzo and a Beethoven one.

The first movement has several thematic elements which could easily be
atributed to Haydn or the big M but it does dispense with that slow late
Haydn introduction.  The finale whilst marked allegro still has a lot of
similarity to a typical late Haydn rondo.

I guess the slow movement you have have cited below represents a departure
from the norm.  Yet I find it fliting in and out of tradition.  Here we are
seeing the rumblings of changes to come.  But as yet just rumblings.

Why do you find it such a formal breakthrough Deryk?

>>There is no musical journey of the type I have described.  Indeed, this
>>is a work that is on a cheerfull emotional level throughout.
>
>You think the Marcia funebre is CHEERFUL?

This movement in common with the rest of the symphony does have an
emotional effect.  But it is not of the spine tingling nature of the
fifth (for me).  I believe the reason for this is that I have not been
emotionally wound up enough by the first movement in the work.

Let me reinterate though that both works offer a very high enjoyment
level.

Bob Draper
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