Few symphonies are as logically constructed as the C Minor of Beethoven, and as a rule new themes are chosen for each movement. Each movement is complete in itself, but sympathetically related to the others. The great thing in listening to a symphony movement is to listen for repetitions of the chief themes or melodies. These themes are often greatly changed in various ways in the course of a movement, as it is part of the composer’s task to get variety of treatment with unity of idea. But he invariably contrives to give due prominence to his chief themes, and half the joy of listening to a symphony lies in recognizing the principal themes as they emerge from the mass of sound, clothed perhaps in new harmonies, or new instrumental effects.
As to “color”—we are told that all the colors we see are mere vibration. We realize easily enough that music is vibration, and it doesn’t require any very great stretch of the imagination to see the difference in (tone) color between the violin and the piccolo.
When you can recognize these various elements in their varied forms and recognize the different “voices” of the orchestra, you will have learned how the musical “fans” derive the maximum of mental satisfaction from the symphony and for the reason that any obscure passage may be repeated as often as necessary it is obvious that the Victrola must be of great assistance in developing a genuine sense of discrimination.
Among the Symphony Orchestra records listed in the Victor Catalogue, we suggest that you make a point of hearing the Lohengrin Prelude, the Tschaikowsky Symphony in F Minor, the Brahms Hungarian Dances, the Surprise Symphony, the Poet and Peasant Overture, the Mozart G Minor Symphony and the “Invitation to the Waltz.”
Band Music
Strange—but in all the varied development of music and musical instruments nothing quite touches our primeval spirit like the beating of the drum. Rhythm—it was the first music and it will be a dominant factor in the last, no matter how we may dress it up or refine it to suit our “civilized” ears.
The small boy deaf to any other musical appeal, races down the street at the first blare of a band. In some measure we are all children to the last, and so it is that the music of the band sets our hearts and feet to beating out its gallant measures. Moreover such music produces definite measurable effects on the body, and it is well known that men march further and with less fatigue to the music of a band than they can without it.
In composition the band is not far removed from the orchestra, except that woodwind instruments, such as flutes and clarinets, take the place of strings, but the result is that the band in its own field of music more particularly stimulates activities of the body where the symphony orchestra makes a stronger appeal to mental activity.