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7/7/2025, 2:49:44 AM
>My teachers were primarily Bach and Mozart, and secondarily Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner.
>From Bach I learned:
>1. Contrapuntal thinking; i.e. the art of inventing musical figures that can be used to accompany themselves. 2. The art of producing everything from one thing and of relating figures by transformation. 3. Disregard for the 'strong' beat of the measure.
>From Mozart:
>1. Inequality of phrase-length. 2. Co-ordination of heterogeneous characters to form a thematic unity. 3. Deviation from even-number construction in the theme and its component parts. 4. The art of forming subsidiary ideas. 5. The art of introduction and transition.
>From Beethoven:
>1. The art of developing themes and movements. 2. The art of variation and of varying. 3. The multifariousness of the ways in which long movements can be built. 4. The art of being shamelessly long, or heartlessly brief, as the situation demands. 5. Rhythm: the displacement of figures on to other beats of the bar.
>From Wagner:
>1. The way it is possible to manipulate themes for expressive purposes and the art of formulating them in the way that will serve this end. 2. Relatedness of tones and chords. 3. The possibility of regarding themes and motives as if they were complex ornaments, so that they can be used against harmonies in a dissonant way.
>From Brahms:
>1. Much of what I had unconsciously absorbed from Mozart, particularly odd barring, and extension and abbreviation of phrases. 2. Plasticity in moulding figures; not to be mean, not to stint myself when clarity demands more space; to carry every figure through to the end. 3. Systematic notation. 4. Economy, yet richness.
>I also learned much from Schubert and Mahler, Strauss and Reger too.
>From Bach I learned:
>1. Contrapuntal thinking; i.e. the art of inventing musical figures that can be used to accompany themselves. 2. The art of producing everything from one thing and of relating figures by transformation. 3. Disregard for the 'strong' beat of the measure.
>From Mozart:
>1. Inequality of phrase-length. 2. Co-ordination of heterogeneous characters to form a thematic unity. 3. Deviation from even-number construction in the theme and its component parts. 4. The art of forming subsidiary ideas. 5. The art of introduction and transition.
>From Beethoven:
>1. The art of developing themes and movements. 2. The art of variation and of varying. 3. The multifariousness of the ways in which long movements can be built. 4. The art of being shamelessly long, or heartlessly brief, as the situation demands. 5. Rhythm: the displacement of figures on to other beats of the bar.
>From Wagner:
>1. The way it is possible to manipulate themes for expressive purposes and the art of formulating them in the way that will serve this end. 2. Relatedness of tones and chords. 3. The possibility of regarding themes and motives as if they were complex ornaments, so that they can be used against harmonies in a dissonant way.
>From Brahms:
>1. Much of what I had unconsciously absorbed from Mozart, particularly odd barring, and extension and abbreviation of phrases. 2. Plasticity in moulding figures; not to be mean, not to stint myself when clarity demands more space; to carry every figure through to the end. 3. Systematic notation. 4. Economy, yet richness.
>I also learned much from Schubert and Mahler, Strauss and Reger too.
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