6 favourite works in B minor

Started by Maestro267, December 03, 2016, 11:27:43 AM

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Jo498

I wonder why there is no somewhat well known piano concerto in that key (I think there is one by Hummel).
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Mahlerian

Quote from: Jo498 on December 14, 2016, 06:04:50 AMYes, I also discounted that mass because while the first Kyrie is certainly a most impressive piece very little in what follows is in b minor...

The Qui sedes, one of my favorite arias from anything by Bach, is also in B minor, as is one part of the Credo.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

Mahlerian

Quote from: amw on December 14, 2016, 05:27:45 AMThere aren't a lot of significant string quartets in B minor: two by Haydn, one by Bloch (No. 1) and one by Barber and I'm not aware of any others off the top of my head. Obviously, B minor isn't a great key for string instruments since the tonic note falls a semitone below the lowest strings of the viola and cello.

Prokofiev's First as well.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

amw

Quote from: Brian on December 14, 2016, 07:11:14 AM
So...no Borodin fans here?
Way too much good stuff tbh. Was on my shortlist

Quote from: Jo498 on December 14, 2016, 07:17:22 AM
I wonder why there is no somewhat well known piano concerto in that key (I think there is one by Hummel).
There's also one by Eugen d'Albert, and Martinů's Concerto for Double String Orchestra, Piano and Timpani (not strictly a piano concerto), but yeah, weird that there are no well-known concertos. It's such a good key for the piano. Seems to be overshadowed by B-flat minor I guess, which, to be fair, is an even better key for the piano.

Jo498

Quote from: Mahlerian on December 14, 2016, 07:35:51 AM
The Qui sedes, one of my favorite arias from anything by Bach, is also in B minor, as is one part of the Credo.
You are of course right that each section has about one piece in b minor, the Qui tollis and Qui sedes in the Gloria, the Et incarnatus in the Credo and the Benedictus. Five overall, compared to 10-12 depending how one counts in D major.

I always thought that in orchestral (or any "mixed music", not for piano or strings only) music the minor keys on the "left" would be favored (they very clearly seem to be up to Beethoven, I think) because than the relative major gets fewer flats and this is usually easier to play for the woodwinds. In b minor one will always have lots of accidentals an b major has of course five sharps. Of course, the situation for b flat minor is almost the same but that key used to be very rare before ca. Chopin, actually I cannot think of anything well known except for the respective pieces in the WTC. (There is one late Haydn trio in E flat minor, though.)
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

ahinton

Surprised that almost 30 posts contain not one reference to Reger's Variations and Fugue on theme of Bach...

Mahlerian

Quote from: Jo498 on December 14, 2016, 08:35:42 AM
You are of course right that each section has about one piece in b minor, the Qui tollis and Qui sedes in the Gloria, the Et incarnatus in the Credo and the Benedictus. Five overall, compared to 10-12 depending how one counts in D major.

Still, pieces are generally designated in the key that they begin in.  To this day people regularly (and against the composer's wishes) say that Mahler's Fifth Symphony is in C# minor, despite the fact that D major takes up more time in the work than any other key (and the sonata-allegro movement of the work is in A minor!).
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

(poco) Sforzando

Next thing, it'll be 17 favorite works in E-flat minor . . . .
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

SharpEleventh

I'm not sure if there's anything interesting about what is the tonal center of a piece. Though I do have a lot of favorites in E-flat major. As for B minor, Berg's Piano Sonata immediately comes to mind, though I have to confess that when I first heard it I thought it was a 12-tone piece and not in any key :D Absolutely gorgeus piece. Definitely one of my favorite solo piano pieces ever.

Holden

Rachmaninov Op 32/10 Prelude
Liszt B minor sonata
Schubert Unfinished
Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony
Hummel Piano concerto Op 89
Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King
Cheers

Holden

Maestro267

Quote from: Jo498 on December 14, 2016, 07:17:22 AM
I wonder why there is no somewhat well known piano concerto in that key (I think there is one by Hummel).

Yes, that's one. I know of a few others, but none could be described as well-known: Hamilton Harty, Henri-Charles Litolff, Erno Dohnanyi all wrote piano concerti in B minor. And there's Moritz Moszkowski's recently rediscovered concerto (released a few months ago on Hyperion).

Symphonic Addict

There are some stupendous symphonies in B minor I love unrestrictedly:

Glière: Symphony No. 3 Ilya Muromets
Tubin: Symphony No. 2 The Legendary
Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 Klippepastoraler
Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 22 Symphony-Ballad
Lyatoshinsky: Symphony No. 3
Atterberg: Symphony No. 1

Honorable mentions: Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 and Casella's Symphony No. 1


Non-symphony works:

Dvorak: Cello Concerto
Sibelius: Tapiola
Liszt: Piano Sonata
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
Schmitt: Piano Quintet
Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3
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Noam Chomsky

Florestan

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 2 "La campanella"
Schubert - The Unfinished Symphony
Chopin - Scherzo No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 3
Saint-Saens - Violin Concerto No. 3
Tchaikovsky - Pathetique
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Karl Henning

Liszt Piano Sonata
Shostakovich Sixth Symphony
Haydn Piano Sonata H. XVII/32
Elgar Vn Cto
Barber String Quartet
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mirror Image

Some of my choices (in no particular order)

Berg: Piano Sonata
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Sibelius: Tapiola, Op. 112
Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61
Respighi: Violin Sonata in B minor, P 110

DaveF

Quote from: Brian on December 14, 2016, 07:11:14 AM
So...no Borodin fans here?

Yes, one big one - no.2 is definitely my fave B minor symphony.  Roll over, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich...
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison