The Months Ahead

I hope you have been enjoying Classical Music Breakfast. As for me, I enjoy sharing with others the significance of classical music in our lives. Over the next three months, however, I will be embarking on a new, more ambitious project that will require some of the time I previously spent here. Therefore, from now until the end of June, I plan to post occasionally, but certainly not every day. Take care, and merry listening!

The Purpose

Whether I'm driving home after a long day at work, feeling depressed over life's seemingly dwindling possibilities, or witnessing something ugly in the world, I'm always grateful that there is music. It is the most reliable and efficient means of lifting myself up after feeling down. Classical music, in particular, tends to inspire me more than any other kind. It reminds me of the very best moments I've ever experienced. It reminds me of what is possible and why I should keep trying.

Recently, I was posed the question: What is the purpose of listening to classical music? My answer: I listen to classical music as a way of asking my soul to be mindful of the best in existence and to guide me accordingly.

Television

Maryland Public Television (MPT) aired an all-Gershwin concert tonight. An American in Paris, the Cuban Overture, and Rhapsody in Blue were all performed by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, under the conducting of Giancarlo Guerrero. The performances, in my opinion, were average, but, still, it was nice to see a classical music performance on cable TV.

It is unfortunate that there are so few cable television stations dedicated to the fine arts. I have noticed that public networks, particularly not-for-profit ones such as MPT, are more likely than others to air fine arts programs, evidently because such broadcasting is not very profitable.

Hopefully, the Internet will not end up like cable television. There are already a good number of classical music radio stations available on the Internet, and I have high hopes for Internet television.

Modern Culture

On this same day in 1721, some two hundred and eighty-eight years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated his completed Brandenburg Concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt. The dedication (which Bach wrote in French) is not so much a reflection of Bach's character as it is a reflection of the time period, when such dedications were the norm . In the first sentence alone, Bach manages to squeeze in no fewer than nine "Your Highnesses." It began thus:

"As I had, a couple of years ago, the happiness of appearing before Your Royal Highness, on your orders, and that I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the little talents that Heaven has given me for Music, and that in taking leave of Your Royal Highness you were willing to do me the honor of commanding me to send you some pieces of my Composition: I have therefore according to your gracious orders, taken the liberty of offering my very humble duties to Your Royal Highness, with the present Concertos, which I have adapted for several instruments [...]"

The margrave did not have the proper ensemble for performing the concertos, and so they were hardly performed for decades, if at all. It is not until 1835, a full century after their composition, when there is finally a record of a public performance of a Brandenburg Concerto.

In contrast, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 last Sunday in Berkeley, California. This coming Sunday, the Academy of Ancient Music will perform all six concertos in Morrow, Georgia.

Communication

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." --Aldous Huxley

The Source

Spring is here, so it seems like an appropriate time to honor Vivaldi's Spring from The Four Seasons and to point out that it consists of more than just the one part you always hear in the movies. For example, did you know that a segment of Spring is played in a minor key?

It can be surprising the first time you listen to a full work of which only a small piece appears in popular culture. Usually, the familiar tune is far less integral to the score than you expect it to be. It can be challenging to try to gain an appreciation for the work given this bias.

Other examples of works misrepresented in popular culture include Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet overture, Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, and, sadly, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

The Last Day of Winter

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 came on the radio today. I've listened to this symphony many times now, and it is one of my favorites. Much like the Nutcracker, it contains as many memorable melodies as you are likely to find in a single work. One particularly dear moment is when the melancholy opening theme of the second movement is replaced, almost out of nowhere, by a hopeful melody. Later, the same movement's opening theme is repeated, only this time it soars and beckons your soul to dance.

Virtuoso Composers

Rachmaninov's piano music is known for its virtuosity. Here are the first eight bars of his Piano Concerto No. 2.

The music begins in the key of F Minor, but by the end of bar 8, the full transition to the movement's true key of C Minor is now all but complete. From here, the music lashes out in C Minor like the onset of a storm. This is an effective way to establish the tonic because even before hearing the C Minor triad for the first time, the listener suspensefully anticipates it for a full bar.

Rachmaninov, besides being a composer, was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time. Other composers who were virtuosos at the keyboard include J.S. Bach and Franz Liszt. It seems obvious that being a virtuoso on an instrument would be an advantage for a composer. This is based on the idea that a greater mastery of an instrument makes it easier to explore the full expressive range of the instrument, thus expanding the composer's compositional palette.

As Liszt put it, "Virtuosity is not an outgrowth, but an indispensable element of music.

Richard Wagner, however, warns us that, "The real dignity of the virtuoso rests solely on the dignity he is able to preserve for creative art; if he trifles and toys with this, he casts his honor away. He is the intermediary of the artistic idea."

Having a composer's ear for music, Rachmaninov probably would have been the type of virtuoso of whom Wagner approved. Hence, virtuosity and composition truly go hand in hand.

A Lost Art

Of Opera America's 20 most performed operas in North America, only one premiered after the onset of modernism in classical music, and that was Puccini's final opera, Turandot (1926). Of the same 20, the opera with the second most recent premiere is Puccini's Madama Butterfly, which happens to be the #1 most performed opera in North America. It premiered in 1904.

Opera was once known for its songs and its soaring melodies. Turandot features the famous tenor aria Nessun Dorma. Before that, there were Dvorak's enchanting Song to the Moon from Rusalka (1901) and Bizet's lively Habanera from Carmen (1875). Back then, opera was virtually synomynous with powerful, melodious arias. In fact, opera began that way. So, I must ask the question: Is Berg's opera Wozzeck really an opera? Being that it lacks opera's quintessential property, should not we have invented a new term for such a work? I do not mean to deprive Wozzeck of value; I am simply stating that it seems counter to definition to call it an opera. And if this is the case, then how many operas have truly been composed since Turandot? Thus, Opera America's list does not surprise me.

Nowhere did the modern trends of atonality, serialism, and minimalism have more of an effect than on opera, which, by its nature, lends itself to the expression of beautiful melodies by human voices, the most natural of all solo instruments.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition, composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874, is the rare work of music where the individual musical ideas are not terribly impressive on their own but the work as a whole, by virtue of its conceptual foundation and subsequent construction, is ingenious. While perhaps not perfectly entertained throughout, when finished listening, one is left with the idea that any changes to the score would reduce it.

I wish not to ruin the surprise for anyone who might decide to listen to this work, because the journey of hearing it for the first time is not something I would want you to miss. Therefore, I will refrain from giving my account of that journey, the account that I gathered from my first listen and that I later confirmed to be accurate. The work's title is the only hint you will need.

Finally, this is an example of music one must listen to from start to finish and with no interruptions, lest its meaning be lost. It is program music, as opposed to absolute music, meaning that the music is supposed to evoke a particular sequence of events or personal experiences. The wonder is that the music's program is both powerful and unmistakable.

You can listen to the full work at naxos.com, Catalogue No. 8.550044. This CD contains the original piano version, which I recommend listening to first. There is also a popular version arranged for orchestra by Maurice Ravel.

The Symphonists

Based on CDs and other media containing symphonies at ArkivMusic.com, I have identified the symphonists from among all classical music composers.

The Master

Beethoven (846)

The Major Symphonists

Mahler (540)
Mozart (540)
Bruckner (420)
Haydn (412)
Brahms (390)
Tchaikovsky (368)
Shostakovich (344)
Dvorak (290)
Schubert (284)

Other Symphonists

Sibelius (158)
Schumann (124)
Prokofiev (124)
Mendelssohn (118)
Vaughan Williams (100)
Nielsen (84)
Berlioz (75)
Rachmaninov (51)

Minor Symphonists

Saint-Saens (31)
Franck (31)
Elgar (30)
Stravinsky (24)
Ives (24)
Britten (21)
Hindemith (20)
Honegger (20)
Bernstein (15)
Rimsky-Korsakov (12)

Lists No More

Following the sage advice of a friend, I have turned the lists appearing on this blog into distributions. Please feel free to revisit old posts containing lists, for they now contain information you might find interesting. For example, in Deutsche Grammophon, I no longer merely rank composers according to number of CDs - I now actually provide the number of CDs in the catalog for each composer.

The affected posts are, in reverse chronological order, Deutsche Grammophon; Conductors; Geography (cont.); Composers, Revisited; Classical WETA, Part 2; Classical WETA; and Composers.

Note: This post is primarily for subscribers who would not otherwise see this message at the blogspot webpage.

The Symphony

A symphony is a long, complex musical composition for orchestra or similarly capable ensemble that does not feature a soloist and that follows a certain rough structural outline. Having no soloist distinguishes the symphony from the concerto, and having a certain kind of structure distinguishes the symphony from the symphonic poem or suite.

Most commonly, a symphony is written as four movements, with the first movement being in sonata form. Sonata form consists of an optional introduction, followed by an exposition of thematic material, followed by a developmental section during which the previously introduced themes are expanded upon, followed by a recapitulation of the thematic material, followed by an optional coda.

It could be argued that the symphony is the quintessential form of classical music. At minimum, it is one of the most important. Composers have used various other forms to produce interesting and complex music, but the symphony has proven to be a particularly good one. Why this is the case is a subject for scholars, but three centuries of music has left us with no doubt.

There might yet be undiscovered forms of music that offer composers the same kind of expressive power as that of the symphony, but, lacking those forms, Bruckner was still able to create his Eighth, Dvorak his Ninth, Mozart his 41st, and Beethoven his Fifth. Given that these, some of the greatest works of music known to the world, were written as symphonies, we should be careful not to view established forms as being generally restrictive to the creative mind. Indeed, providing a composer with an effective high-level structure to follow reduces the problem of composing to a more manageable size; approaching the composition of a symphony, the composer has a head start on figuring out either how to tell a certain story or how to effect a certain emotion. The alternative approach of devising an entirely new form for each composition does not seem promising if the composer's ambitions lie above simply creating new musical forms.

So, let us celebrate the symphony. And, let us also tip our hats to Joseph Haydn, the first master of the form.

Deutsche Grammophon

In my rankings of composers' legacies based on number of recordings at ArkivMusic.com, there was a serious flaw I noticed almost right away. That is, a composer who composed a famous song (such as Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Schubert's Ave Maria, Gounod's Ave Maria, and many composers' opera arias) would have an inflated total due to the multitude of compilation albums including only that one song by that composer; this, while many CDs contain over an hour of music by a single composer.

Deutsche Grammophon is one of the largest classical music record labels in the world. Also, they do not release many compilation CDs that would tend to give the previously described advantage to minor opera composers and other composers of "hit songs." The following list ranks composers' legacies, as determined by number of CDs in the current Deutsche Grammophon catalog. This list corrects a few errors from before but also surely has some of its own.

1. Mozart 310
   
2. Beethoven 261
   
3. Bach 170
   
4. Brahms 116
   
5. Schubert 106
   
6. Tchaikovsky 82
   
7. Handel 79
   
8. Mahler 72
   
9. Schumann 69
   
10. Verdi 69
    
11. Wagner 67
    
12. Strauss 66
    
13. Haydn 63
    
14. Chopin 62
    
15. Vivaldi 42
    
16. Dvorak 41
    
17. Ravel 41
    
18. Stravinsky 41
    
19. Mendelssohn 38
    
20. Bruckner 36
    
21. Prokofiev 35
    
22. Debussy 34
    
23. Liszt 32
    
24. Shostakovich 31
    
25. Puccini 28
    
26. Sibelius 28
    
27. Rachmaninov 27
    
28. Bartok 26
    
29. Rossini 25
    
30. Berlioz 23
    
31. Grieg 20
    
32. Strauss II 18
    
33. Messiaen 17
    
34. Saint-Saens 17
    
35. Bizet 16
    
36. Berg 15
    
37. Smetana 15
    
38. Mussorgsky 14
    
39. Paganini 14
    
40. Schoenberg 14
    
41. Monteverdi 13
    
42. Purcell 13
    
43. Bernstein 12
    
44. Elgar 12
    
45. Henze 12
    
46. Orff 12
    
47. Donizetti 11
    
48. Telemann 11
    
49. Webern 11
    
50. Boulez 10
    

Bruckner's Symphonies

Nearing the end of a self-devised exploratory project, I have finally encountered the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. Perhaps they were the last great surprise awaiting me in mainstream classical music.

In my view, Bruckner, and not Brahms or Mahler, is the symphonic successor to Beethoven. If you like the grand scope, the mature sound, and the serious, urgent tone of Beethoven's later symphonies, consider listening to Bruckner's Seventh and Eighth, if you have not already.

Classical Kings

Just for fun, I decided to invent a fictional line of "Classical Kings," composer kings of the classical music world throughout history. For this, I used the rankings of legacies from my post Composers, Revisited. For each year, the composer who is highest on the rankings and who was alive and at least 18 years old is considered the king for that year. (A little computer program made this task a lot easier...)

Over a period of 300 years, the classical music world has seen 20 kings. Johann Sebastian Bach, who "ruled" for 48 years, is the King of Kings!

1677: Purcell -------------------
1696: Vivaldi -------
1703: Bach ------------------------------------------------
1751: Handel ---------
1760: Haydn --------------
1774: Mozart ------------------
1792: Beethoven ------------------------------------
1828: Schubert -
1829: Schumann --
1831: Verdi --------------------
1851: Brahms -----------------------------------------------
1898: Verdi ----
1902: Debussy -----------------
1919: Puccini ------
1925: Ravel -------------
1938: Rachmaninov ------
1944: Strauss ------
1950: Prokofiev ----
1954: Shostakovich ----------------------
1976: Britten -

Conductors

A conductor does more than just keep the beat and cue entrances. Given a composition, the conductor shapes the music according to a unique vision and lends an interpretation to the work. A large part of a conductor's work takes place during rehearsals and even prior to rehearsals, when the conductor researches the composition. Thus, when you attend a performance or listen to a recording, the conductor is a critical part of the music making, as are the composer, ensemble, and individual performers.

Just as I have done for composers and ensembles, I have done now for conductors. The following list ranks conductors based on number of recordings available at the website ArkivMusic.com. Curiously, the number of conductors meeting the criterion for inclusion in the list (having a number of recordings that is at least one tenth of the #1 conductor's total) was 102, which is almost exactly double the number of composers appearing on the composers list (50) and only slightly more than double the number of ensembles appearing on the ensembles list (46). Could this be because there have been about two generations of conductors since classical music recording became widespread?

Conductors' legacies, as measured by number of recordings appearing at ArkivMusic.com:

1. Karajan, Herbert von (924)
2. Marriner, Sir Neville (585)
3. Bernstein, Leonard (469)
4. Abbado, Claudio (408)
5. Solti, Sir Georg (373)
6. Ormandy, Eugene (372)
7. Davis, Sir Colin (358)
8. Mackerras, Sir Charles (335)
9. Levine, James (334)
10. Böhm, Karl (334)
11. Mehta, Zubin (323)
12. Järvi, Neeme (315)
13. Hickox, Richard (299)
14. Previn, André (272)
15. Muti, Riccardo (271)
16. Maazel, Lorin (266)
17. Giulini, Carlo Maria (260)
18. Bonynge, Richard (256)
19. Haitink, Bernard (255)
20. Ozawa, Seiji (248)
21. Gardiner, John Eliot (241)
22. Barenboim, Daniel (238)
23. Barbirolli, Sir John (235)
24. Masur, Kurt (227)
25. Rilling, Helmuth (215)
26. Furtwängler, Wilhelm (212)
27. Szell, George (209)
28. Rattle, Simon (202)
29. Dutoit, Charles (201)
30. Kubelik, Rafael (200)
31. Chailly, Riccardo (197)
32. Schwarz, Gerard (197)
33. Serafin, Tullio (196)
34. Doráti, Antal (193)
35. Stokowski, Leopold (192)
36. Harnoncourt, Nikolaus (189)
37. Boult, Sir Adrian (186)
38. Gavazzeni, Gianandrea (186)
39. Hogwood, Christopher (179)
40. Klemperer, Otto (178)
41. Slatkin, Leonard (177)
42. Beecham, Sir Thomas (176)
43. Sawallisch, Wolfgang (171)
    
44. Leinsdorf, Erich (169)
45. Boulez, Pierre (164)
46. Pretre, Georges (163)
    
47. Wordsworth, Barry (161)
48. Toscanini, Arturo (160)
    
49. Walter, Bruno (158)
50. Leppard, Raymond (156)
51. Reiner, Fritz (153)
52. Zinman, David (152)
53. Ashkenazy, Vladimir (151)
54. Handley, Vernon (149)
55. Sargent, Sir Malcolm (148)
    
56. Sinopoli, Giuseppe (144)
57. Wit, Antoni (142)
58. Thomas, Michael Tilson (141)
59. Norrington, Roger (133)
    
60. Fiedler, Arthur (130)
61. Munch, Charles (130)
    
62. Lopez-Cobos, Jesús (129)
63. Halász, Michael (129)
64. Wildner, Johannes (129)
65. Cleobury, Stephen (125)
66. Davis, Sir Andrew (123)
    
67. Kunzel, Erich (122)
68. Shaw, Robert (119)
    
69. Segerstam, Leif (117)
70. Rozhdestvensky, Gennadi (115)
    
71. Gergiev, Valery (114)
72. Molinari-Pradelli, Francesco (113)
    
73. Jansons, Mariss (111)
74. de Fabritiis, Oliviero (111)
75. Votto, Antonio (110)
    
76. Gunzenhauser, Stephen (109)
77. Pinnock, Trevor (109)
78. Kempe, Rudolf (109)
    
79. Jochum, Eugen (107)
80. Plasson, Michel (107)
81. Willcocks, Sir David (107)
    
82. Herreweghe, Philippe (106)
83. Knappertsbusch, Hans (106)
    
84. Christophers, Harry (104)
    
85. Litton, Andrew (103)
86. Gardelli, Lamberto (103)
87. Kondrashin, Kiril (103)
88. Nagano, Kent (103)
89. Svetlanov, Yevgeny (103)
    
90. Leaper, Adrian (100)
91. Tate, Jeffrey (100)
    
92. Kegel, Herbert (99)
93. Lenard, Ondrej (98)
94. Pritchard, John (97)
    
95. Vänskä, Osmo (96)
96. Cluytens, Andre (96)
97. Schippers, Thomas (96)
    
98. Blomstedt, Herbert (95)
99. Dohnányi, Christoph von (95)
100. Erede, Alberto (95)
101. Järvi, Paavo (94)
102. Pesek, Libor (93)

Geography (cont.)

Now that we've seen where the music came from, I thought I'd take a look at where the recordings came from. Using a system similar to that used for the posts Composers and Composers, Revisited, I arrived at the following list of ensembles, ranked by number of recordings at the website ArkivMusic.com. From this, London is officially the classical music recording capital of the world. Other major countries besides England that have produced classical music recordings include Germany, USA, Austria, and Italy.

Ensembles' legacies, as measured by number of recordings appearing at ArkivMusic.com:

1. London Symphony Orchestra (1,834)
2. Philharmonia Orchestra (incl. New Philharmonia Orchestra) (1,816)
3. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (1,378)
4. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1,220)
5. London Philharmonic Orchestra (1,051)
6. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (923)
7. English Chamber Orchestra (806)
8. Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (670)
9. Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra (625)
10. New York Philharmonic (538)
11. Chicago Symphony Orchestra (500)
12. Philadelphia Orchestra (489)
13. Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (456)
14. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (447)
15. Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus (443)
16. Vienna State Opera Chorus (414)
17. Boston Symphony Orchestra (399)
18. Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra (388)
19. BBC Symphony Orchestra (365)
20. Dresden Staatskapelle (360)
21. Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (356)
22. Cleveland Orchestra (316)
23. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (295)
24. Vienna Symphony Orchestra (286)
25. Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (266)
26. National Philharmonic Orchestra (256)
    
27. Bavarian Radio Chorus (252)
28. Capella Istropolitana (250)
29. Royal Scottish National Orchestra (239)
30. Berlin State Opera Orchestra (233)
    
31. Royal Opera House Covent Garden Chorus (231)
32. Vienna State Opera Orchestra (231)
33. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (213)
34. Rome Opera House Orchestra (209)
35. BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (206)
36. King's College Choir, Cambridge (202)
37. Cologne West German Radio Symphony Orchestra (200)
    
38. Bayreuth Festival Orchestra (193)
39. Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (192)
40. Suisse Romande Orchestra (191)
41. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (190)
42. London Symphony Chorus (187)
43. NBC Symphony Orchestra (187)
    
44. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (186)
45. Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra (186)
    
46. Florence Maggio Musicale Orchestra (184)

Edit: Due to oversights, I have added six ensembles to the list since the original post, and the list is now complete.

Geography

As a result of the list from the previous post, it seems safe to say that there are six major countries associated with the classical music tradition. These are Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Russia, and England. I will now list the top 5 composers for each country, and you can think about which list comes closest to your musical tastes (for me it's very close, but I'd have to go with Russia). One final note: I assigned composers to countries based on Merriam Webster dictionary entries. Sometimes, a composer is by consensus associated with one country even though he was born in another. An example is Handel, who was born in Germany but is considered an English composer.

Germany:

1. Bach
2. Beethoven
3. Brahms
4. Schumann
5. Mendelssohn

France:

1. Debussy
2. Ravel
3. Bizet
4. Saint-Saens
5. Gounod

Italy:

1. Verdi
2. Puccini
3. Vivaldi
4. Rossini
5. Donizetti

Austria:

1. Mozart
2. Schubert
3. Haydn
4. Mahler
5. Strauss II

Russia:

1. Tchaikovsky
2. Rachmaninov
3. Prokofiev
4. Shostakovich
5. Rimsky-Korsakov

England:

1. Handel
2. Elgar
3. Britten
4. Vaughan Williams
5. Purcell

Composers, Revisited

If you listen to a piece on Classical WETA and want to buy the recording, you can do so by clicking on the provided link on the playlist. The link takes you to the website ArkivMusic.com. Here you will find Naxos recordings as well as recordings from many other (both major and minor) classical music labels. The website contains an impressive number of recordings - close to 10 times what Naxos alone offers, including recordings by famous artists.

It occurred to me that ArkivMusic might serve as a better source of data for a list of composers ranked by number of recordings in a large classical music catalog (see Composers). It turns out my intuition was correct. The following list of rankings seems far more accurate as a measure of composers' legacies. Grieg and Strauss II, to give only two examples, are closer to where I believe they should be on the list.

As before, I chose to include a composer only if that composer's number of recordings was within one order of magnitude of the #1 composer's total. This time, that approach left exactly 50 composers. (Sorry Bruckner, but someone had to be #51.) So, without further ado...

Composers' legacies, as measured by number of recordings appearing at ArkivMusic.com:

1. Mozart 6,168
2. Bach 5,519
3. Beethoven 4,606
4. Brahms 3,184
5. Schubert 3,137
6. Verdi 3,054
7. Tchaikovsky 2,793
8. Handel 2,370
9. Schumann 2,170
10. Mendelssohn 2,116
11. Wagner 2,052
12. Debussy 1,975
13. Chopin 1,944
14. Puccini 1,923
15. Haydn 1,796
16. Liszt 1,750
17. Vivaldi 1,686
18. Dvorak 1,612
19. Ravel 1,587
20. Rossini 1,579
21. Rachmaninov 1,511
22. Strauss 1,506
23. Bizet 1,398
24. Saint-Saens 1,323
25. Donizetti 1,273
26. Prokofiev 1,199
27. Gounod 1,173
28. Shostakovich 1,140
29. Faure 1,131
30. Massenet 1,108
31. Grieg 1,025
32. Mahler 984
33. Elgar 917
34. Stravinsky 878
35. Strauss II 850
36. Berlioz 764
37. Bellini 742
38. Britten 740
39. Sibelius 740
40. Vaughan Williams 734
41. Rimsky-Korsakov 732
42. Franck 730
43. Mussorgsky 707
44. Gershwin 701
45. Bartok 693
46. Weber 675
47. Telemann 666
48. Purcell 666
49. Leoncavallo 629
50. Mascagni 627

Relief

Just as the sun is better appreciated when seen through clouds, experiencing joy is always better appreciated directly following a period of sadness.

There are moments in music when emotion shifts on a dime. A skilled composer can make such a moment quite dramatic. For an example, we may turn again to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, the transition from the third to the fourth movement.