[MiNe 109]

In article ,
(paul packer) wrote:

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:31:26 GMT, MiNe 109
wrote:

In article ,
(paul packer) wrote:

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:00:47 GMT, Jenn
wrote:


Well, we just disagree then. That's why I call him a "bridge composer".
I would agree that most of the symphonies are a bit more 20th century in
their use of harmonic language, but his most performed works would be
considered darned conservative 20th century music! ;-)

Still disagree. One of his most performed works is the Tallis
Fantasia, and that in fact is quite a progressive work owing very
little to the 19th century. I genuinely believe that listening too
much to the few (too few) performed works at the expensive of his
entire oeuvre leads to a quite wrong notion about RVW, and you're
certainly not the first to hold it.

I doubt Jenn has too narrow an experience of RVW,

I'm not convinced, Jenn's rather vague replies suggest that her
knowledge of RVW's harsher works is far from "note perfect". I'd like
to ask her, for one, what she makes of the Piano Concerto.

I think it's time to abandon the "19th century" vs "20th century" part
of the debate. A work can be harsh as can be and look backwards in its
compositional process or be bland and forward-thinking.

Stephen