The most influential piece of 19th century music?
I played the LSO Live recording of Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique at work recently and had one customer tell me that visitors to the Naxos website had voted it the most influential piece of 19th century music. I've been unable to find any reference to this on the website, but who cares? It's food for thought.
I disagreed with this customer there and then, suggesting that Beethoven's 9th would be a better contender: never mind its influence on music (Wagner springs immediately to mind), its humanitarian message has extended far and wide. It's no coincidence that it's invariably performed after world-changing events, from the BBC Proms after 9/11 and in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall, complete with the word Freiheit (freedom) substituded for the original's Freude (joy) in the choral finale.
True, the Symphonie fantastique is the first piece of true programme music - the depictions of nature in The four seasons aren't quite in the same league, more like still life paintings than the evolving portrait of Berlioz' artist - which in itself makes it a key work in the history of music, but that's just it. Berlioz' influence doesn't extend beyond the purely musical.
I disagreed with this customer there and then, suggesting that Beethoven's 9th would be a better contender: never mind its influence on music (Wagner springs immediately to mind), its humanitarian message has extended far and wide. It's no coincidence that it's invariably performed after world-changing events, from the BBC Proms after 9/11 and in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall, complete with the word Freiheit (freedom) substituded for the original's Freude (joy) in the choral finale.
True, the Symphonie fantastique is the first piece of true programme music - the depictions of nature in The four seasons aren't quite in the same league, more like still life paintings than the evolving portrait of Berlioz' artist - which in itself makes it a key work in the history of music, but that's just it. Berlioz' influence doesn't extend beyond the purely musical.
posted by Anthony at
22:58
2 Comments:
Ummmm, no. Not by a long shot. Prelude to the first act of Tristan und Isolde.
By
Andy, at 11/8/05 01:37
There's a piece you could almost describe as the first impressionistic music - distinct shades of Debussy, if with rather heavier orchestration - but again, I don't see its influence spreading beyond music.
Feel free to argue the point!
By
Anthony, at 11/8/05 07:43
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