On a related subject, does anyone else think it weird to call this piece the "Great Symphony"? For most of my lifetime, and for long before that, it was the "Great C Major" symphony, which distinguished it from Schubert's #6, the "Little C Major". The adjective "Great" referred primarily to its length and secondarily to its majesty. "Great Symphony" a la "New World Symphony" or "Sea Symphony" sounds pretentious and wrong. I think Schubert would be appalled.
I'm with you, Tod: it's nuts. I also believe "Great C Major" is to distinguish it from the "Little C Major."
I did find that Schubert told someone in a letter that he was working on a "grosse sinfonie" (a grand or large symphony), but I'm sure he just meant big or long, not "Great Symphony," as it were.
The mangling of the Schubert work's nickname bothered me more than the wrong photo did.
In Schubert's day, "grosse Sinfonie" was a genre designation. It wasn't the proper name of a work any more than "grand opera" meant the name of the piece was "Grand".
5 comments:
They all look alike?
No. They don't.
On a related subject, does anyone else think it weird to call this piece the "Great Symphony"? For most of my lifetime, and for long before that, it was the "Great C Major" symphony, which distinguished it from Schubert's #6, the "Little C Major". The adjective "Great" referred primarily to its length and secondarily to its majesty. "Great Symphony" a la "New World Symphony" or "Sea Symphony" sounds pretentious and wrong. I think Schubert would be appalled.
I'm with you, Tod: it's nuts. I also believe "Great C Major" is to distinguish it from the "Little C Major."
I did find that Schubert told someone in a letter that he was working on a "grosse sinfonie" (a grand or large symphony), but I'm sure he just meant big or long, not "Great Symphony," as it were.
The mangling of the Schubert work's nickname bothered me more than the wrong photo did.
In Schubert's day, "grosse Sinfonie" was a genre designation. It wasn't the proper name of a work any more than "grand opera" meant the name of the piece was "Grand".
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