Symphony No. 2 ************** in F-major by Joe Monzo compositional history: ====================== 1976.09.28 about 95% of the music composed in my head all themes and bass lines written down continuous from beginning to end 1st movement Exposition and Recap complete 1980.06.07 accompaniments to 3rd movement, section B 1994.02.17 accompaniments to 1st mvt, development accompaniments to entire 2nd movement accompaniments to 3rd mvt, section C 2000.10.04 accompaniments to 3rd mvt, Coda Formal Analysis: ================ minutes.seconds 1st movement - Sonata form ------------ 00.00 Exposition - Theme 1 00.11 Exposition - Theme 2 00.24 repeat of Exposition - Theme 1 00.38 repeat of Exposition - Theme 2 00.51 Development - part 01.03 Development - part 2 01.16 Development - part 3 01.29 Development - part 4 (minor) 01.42 Recapitulation - Theme 1 01.53 Recapitulation - Theme 2 02.07 repeat of Development - part 1 02.19 repeat of Development - part 2 02.31 repeat of Development - part 3 02.45 repeat of Development - part 4 02.58 repeat of Recapitulation - Theme 1 03.10 repeat of Recapitulation - Theme 2 03.24 Coda 2nd movement - Theme and variations ------------ 03.41 Theme 04.05 repeat of Theme 04.29 variation 1 (horn quotes theme, oboe alludes to 1st movement) 04.53 repeat of variation 1 05.16 variation 2 (minor) 05.40 repeat of variation 2 06.02 variation 3 (violin alludes to 1st movement) 06.26 repeat of variation 3 06.50 repeat of variation 2 07:14 repeat of variation 3 07.36 Coda 3rd movement - Rondo ABACA ------------ 08.04 A 08.30 B 08.42 A 08.54 B 09.05 A 09.30 C 09.42 A 09.54 C 10.06 A 10.16 Coda Personal Remarks: ================= The 2nd Symphony was composed in September 1976, when I was 14 & 1/2 years old. I was living in Philadelphia and had just started 10th grade at Lamberton School. My models were obviously Haydn and Mozart, with a few perverse melodic and harmonic twists of my own... I was also a big fan of Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony", which is much in the same vein. I wrote down most of the material that was in my head, but did leave some big holes where I could "hear" the music in my mind but never bothered (or felt like figuring out how) to write it down. In New York in June 1980, a few weeks after finishing my first year at Manhattan School of Music, I sat at the piano and filled in the holes in the "B" section of the 3rd movement. I was interested in completing the score at that time, since it had lain fallow for four years, but got diverted by other projects and left it at that point. At some point around 1988 I entered the notes from my score into a MIDI-file, and tinkered with it from time to time over the next 5 or so years. In December 1994, shortly after my second wedding anniversary, I was working on the MIDI-file and decided to complete the piece once and for all. I was amazed at how well I could remember what I heard in my head 18 years before as I entered notes directly into the staff on my computer. I was also inspired to add a few new touches, the best of which are the surprise slow bit at the very end of the 1st movement, and the Coda of the 2nd movement, which I think is one of the most poetic things I've ever written. I still felt that the final Coda of the 3rd movment needed something more, and finally, in October 2000, I was inspired to add some counterpoint to what was already there, and was more than pleased with the result. All this music had been done in the standard 12-EDO tuning. In May 2001 I sent the MIDI-file to John deLaubenfels , and asked him to retune it in 5-limit and 7-limit adaptive JI, with stiff vertical springs (meaning that melodic "evening out" would be sacrificed in order to achieve JI vertical sonorities). I really liked the 7-limit version, and made the mp3 which is available for listening at . The symphony is very terse, the entire Exposition of the 1st movement being wrapped up in 24 seconds, and the "A" section of the 3rd movement about the same. Because of this brevity, I made more than the usual repeats, as can be seen in the above formal analysis. Upon listening today, I'd probably delete several of those in the 2nd movement. -monz http://www.monz.org "All roads lead to n^0"