Great Symphonies made memorable

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Wed Apr 19, 2017 10:08 am

I had heard of things like this, but I hadn't seen the book before.

Great Symphonies. How to Recognize and Remember Them (1936) Sigmund Spaeth

The author has helpfully added words to all the finest symphonies so that you may now more easily distinguish them from one another.

sample:

Quote From the New World, From the true world,
This symphony is bound to be a mystery to some.

and...
(spoiler)
QuotePapa Haydn wrote this tune,
And a chord is coming soon,
It will be a big surprise,
Open sleepy eyes. Bang!

Also interesting is his index of composers at the back where he manages to say something nice about nearly everyone who had ever written symphonic music, even Americans like George Gershwin and William Grant Still.

He notes that "Mahler and Bruckner remain the most ambitious and least appreciated symphonic composers."

ttf_BGuttman · Post by **ttf_BGuttman** » Wed Apr 19, 2017 10:34 am

I remember one other one (maybe it's in that book too):

Mozart is locked in a closet
Let him out, let him out, let him out

(to the tune of the opening of the 40th Symphony)

and

This is the Symphony
That Franz Schubert left unfinished...

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Wed Apr 19, 2017 11:21 am

Quote from: BGuttman on Apr 19, 2017, 10:34AM
I remember one other one (maybe it's in that book too):

Mozart is locked in a closet
Let him out, let him out, let him out

(to the tune of the opening of the 40th Symphony)

Official version

QuoteWith a laugh and a smile like a sunbeam,
And a face that is glad, with a fun-beam
I like yours better.

ttf_djdekok · Post by **ttf_djdekok** » Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:21 pm

Mahler 1, first movement:

"Brevity's the soul of wit",
Mahler was well aware of it,
Still he did not know when to quit.

ttf_SilverBone · Post by **ttf_SilverBone** » Wed Apr 19, 2017 6:49 pm

Morning is dawning
And Peer Gynt is yawning

ttf_SilverBone · Post by **ttf_SilverBone** » Wed Apr 19, 2017 7:00 pm

Anybody figure out how to download the entire PDF at once?

ttf_LowrBrass · Post by **ttf_LowrBrass** » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:59 am

Quote from: SilverBone on Apr 19, 2017, 07:00PMAnybody figure out how to download the entire PDF at once?

UNZ probably wants to prevent that from being too easy. It's one thing to make information and knowledge accessible to everyone, but it's another thing to give away complete copies of publications free of charge (see: copyright, everyone who makes money from selling books, etc).

That said, it shouldn't take more than a dedicated evening or so to download and combine all the chapters into a single PDF.

(...Which I might do, because I love this idea! Just like the preface describes, I have no memory for instrumental works [and yet I'm an instrumentalist. Go figure]. But I have a special compartment of my brain dedicated to "stuff I can sing along to." I want this book handy for the next time I play with an orchestra! Maybe I can stop being the person who realizes, halfway through listening to a piece, "Wait, did I play this...? Six months ago...? I think I so...?")

ttf_SilverBone · Post by **ttf_SilverBone** » Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:30 pm

Quote from: LowrBrass on Apr 20, 2017, 05:59AM
That said, it shouldn't take more than a dedicated evening or so to download and combine all the chapters into a single PDF.

Yes, of course. They have it set up so there's no way to download the PDF files with a batch download (at least no way I can find).

ttf_SilverBone · Post by **ttf_SilverBone** » Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:30 pm

Quote from: LowrBrass on Apr 20, 2017, 05:59AM
That said, it shouldn't take more than a dedicated evening or so to download and combine all the chapters into a single PDF.

Yes, of course. They have it set up so there's no way to download the PDF files with a batch download (at least no way I can find).