• jmcs
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    1 year ago

    Symphonies still have subdivisions that can stand on their own, so a symphony is more like an album and not a single song. The movements of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony range from slightly more than 10 minutes to slightly more than 20, for example.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, but a symphony is meant to be listened to as a whole much more than an album. It of course depends album to album, some have a tight through line, some don’t as much. But there wasn’t as much of a way to listen to just a single movement before recordings, so you would listen to the whole long thing moreso than the movements individually.

      • jmcs
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        1 year ago

        There are plenty of progressive Rock and Metal albums that are also supposed to be listened to as a whole.

        And people have been playing Ode To Joy on its own long before there were recordings - single instrument renditions of symphonic pieces exist for a reason.

        • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I agree. It’s just easier to split up nowadays.

          I’m glad there is still long form music being made both inside and outside the classical world. I really appreciate when music builds a full world of it’s own.