6/16/2020 Symphony guide: Dvořák's Eighth | Music | The Guardian

Symphony guide: Dvořák's Eighth

Dvořák's musical energy showed a way for the late 19th century symphony to be
both profound and immediate in its joyful communicative power
Tom Service
Tue 7 Jan 2014 07.00 GMT

So much of the symphonic thinking of the late 19th century is bound up with doing so many things at the
same time, through densities of structure and motive, of harmony and counterpoint, that some of the
most obvious yet hardest things to achieve in music can get forgotten in a complex symphonic maelstrom
of ideas and technicalities. I'm talking about the art of writing tunes: not just any old tunes, either, but
composing a whole symphony that teems with tunes that appeal straight to the musical pleasure zones of
any listener, but which can also carry and create a whole symphonic edifice.

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