jmc's classics
There was a legend about the "Curse of the Ninth" Beethoven wrote 9 Symphonies plus an unfinished 10th and a Wellington Symphony. Schubert stopped at nine. His Eith is called "Unfinished" Bruckner wrote an unfinished Ninth Symphony. Mahler wrote nine completed symphonies and an incomplete 10th. Dvorak stopped at nine. His Ninth is his most famous. His Seventh and eight are also popular. His early ones are not as popular.
Mahler wrote several song cycles. His Second, Third, Fourth and Eigth symphonies all make use of choral and soloists. So does Beethoven's Ninth. His song cycle Das lied von der Erde is a symphony in all but name. He disguised is as a song cycle. It is a setting of Chinese poems set to music. Many recent composers such as Shostakovich have wrote more that 10 symphonies. Haydn and Mozart wrote many. Haydn stops at 102. Mozart wrote 41. His final symphony. #41 named Jupiter was one of the first symphonies that I remember as a child. Haydn was born in 1732 the same year as George Washoington the Father of our country. Haydn is considered to be the "father of the symphony" and the "father of the string quartet" he was instrumental in the development of both genres. Both Mozart and Haydn were friends.. Mozart and Beethoven were Hayden's students. I like Dvorak's seventh and eight Symphonies plus his String serenade which is my favorite Dvorak work. The Ninth is called "From the New World" He spent time in America in Iowa and used some American themes in it. there are similar melodies in this work to the Negro Spiritual "Goin Home" in the work. This song was not published until 1922, 18 years after Dvorak's death. He wrote it in 1892 in Spillville Iowa which had a large Czech community. There is also a Dvork museum there which I have yet to visit. American composer Alan Hovhannes(1911-2000) wrote around 60 symphonies. He was also conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He was born in Somerville MA (a surburb of Boston) to parents of Scottish and Armenian decent.It looks like the curse of the ninth is not vlid today.
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