Synopsis
In the long decade of 1839-1851, we meet symphonies of many names-dramatic symphonies, characteristic symphonies, program symphonies, poetic symphonies, oriental symphonies, symphony-cantatas, symphonic odes, concert dramas, hunting symphonies, historical symphonies, concert ballades, choral symphonies, and others, a fair number of which are hybrid types using choral forces to combine purely musical elements with subject matter that is extra-musical. I have chosen to call this type of symphony the dramatic symphony not simply because Berlioz gave that name to his Roméo et Juliette but because dramatic symphony suggests the active nature of the music a style in which the ultimate goal is not determined solely by musical considerations but by those and by concurrent drama. . . . "It could be argued that the symphony was by its very nature contrasting movements, competing orchestral motives, transitional passages, the development process?already on a dramatic path from its very inception. The chronicle here presented may appear to some therefore as the fulfilling of the symphony's destiny; to others as a losing of the way. I have tried, as much as possible, to avoid such predications and pre-established value judgments in order to present an account of events and the various challenges and responses of contemporaries, a reception history.
About the Author
Robert Tallant Laudon (1920 - ) of the à  Greatest Generation,à  Prof. Emeritus of Musicology and Harpsichord, Univ. of MN, had his studies in science, psychology, and music interrupted by the Great Depression and World War Two. His cycle of poems, Among the Displaced, (Artichoke Press, now sold out) covers the war years in England. After returning from service, he studied music history with Donald N. Ferguson whose text, A History of Musical Thought was standard in the USA. Concerned by an insufficient article on the sixteenth-century chanson, he transcribed three books of chansons and wrote a masterà  s thesis, à  Poetry and Music of the Polyphonic Chanson, circa 1520-1535,à  the size and content of a dissertation: He studied keyboards with Earl Rymer and Rosalyn Tureck. Work toward the Ph.D. at the University of Illinois with Dragan Plamenac and Alexander Ringer culminated in his dissertation, Sources of the Wagnerian Synthesis, recommended by Carl Dahlhaus for publication in Munich. Laudonà  s recent book, a study of the à  fine artsà  as formulated by Batteuxà  The Era after the Baroque, Music and the Fine Arts, 1750-1900 (Pendragon), illustrated by prints of the age, covers the time period of the industrial revolution. A series of essays, Minnesota Musicians of the Cultured Generation became part of local historical studies. Bob Laudon never expected to be publishing a book at age ninety but is thankful for a long life and for the opportunity to enjoy and study the arts.
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