Six Great Eighth Symphonies

[vandermolen]

I haven't done one of these for a while:

Vaughan Willliams
Havergal Brian
Bruckner
Pettersson
Shostakovich
Glazunov

Can be 'favourite'.

[Biffo]

Bearing in mind this is 'favourite' -

Beethoven
Bruckner
Dvorak
Vaughan Williams
Shostakovich

After that I begin to struggle. I suppose the elephant in the room is Mahler 8 but it is my least favourite of his symphonies though many find it great; probably it is but I have problems with it.

[bwv 1080]

The lists are so inherently biased against 20th century orchestral music, numbered symphonies being such an anachronism

but here goes

Henze
Schnittke
Schubert

that is all I can come up with

[Mahlerian]

Beethoven
Bruckner
Dvorak
Haydn
Mahler
Schubert

[kyjo]

Atterberg
Bruckner
Dvorak
Holmboe
Mahler
Shostakovich

Honorable mentions: Beethoven, Glazunov, Schubert, Vaughan Williams

[relm1]

Vaughan Willliams
Havergal Brian
Bruckner
Shostakovich
Mahler
Beethoven
Sibelius 

[André]

The lists are so inherently biased against 20th century orchestral music, numbered symphonies being such an anachronism

but here goes

Henze
Schnittke
Schubert

that is all I can come up with

I don't think there's any bias, just that, post Mahler, symphonies became the province of composers writing in a mostly tonal idiom, which somewhat went against the prevailing grain. The steady stream became a trickle. Exceptions such as Henze or Hartmann are few and rather far between.

One could also consider Simpson, Jones, Lloyd, Hovhaness, Schuman and Harris among composers who wrote 8 symphonies. All are very interesting, but are less frequently played or recorded.

[vandermolen]

Bearing in mind this is 'favourite' -

Beethoven
Bruckner
Dvorak
Vaughan Williams
Shostakovich

After that I begin to struggle. I suppose the elephant in the room is Mahler 8 but it is my least favourite of his symphonies though many find it great; probably it is but I have problems with it.

They sound pretty great to me! 

[vandermolen]

The lists are so inherently biased against 20th century orchestral music, numbered symphonies being such an anachronism

but here goes

Henze
Schnittke
Schubert

that is all I can come up with

Thank you! Don't know the first two I'm ashamed to say but totally agree about Schubert which I should really have included myself.

[vandermolen]

VMT ( very many thanks) for all responses. I should have included Atterberg for the wonderful slow movement and the Holmboe is my favourite of his great cycle (although I like 4,7 and 10 very much as well)

[Biffo]

I had forgotten about Schubert as well but not sure which of his 8th Symphonies to include as the Great C major (formerly No 7 & 9) now seems to have been renumbered as 8, in Germany at least.  In my collection I also have 8th symphonies from Arnold, Brian and Tubin but don't know them well enough to include them in my list.

[Draško]

Dvorak
Bruckner
Schubert (however numbered)
Beethoven
Henze
Mennin

[vandermolen]

I had forgotten about Schubert as well but not sure which of his 8th Symphonies to include as the Great C major (formerly No 7 & 9) now seems to have been renumbered as 8, in Germany at least.  In my collection I also have 8th symphonies from Arnold, Brian and Tubin but don't know them well enough to include them in my list.

I meant the 'Unfinished'.

[relm1]

I don't think there's any bias, just that, post Mahler, symphonies became the province of composers writing in a mostly tonal idiom, which somewhat went against the prevailing grain. The steady stream became a trickle. Exceptions such as Henze or Hartmann are few and rather far between.

One could also consider Simpson, Jones, Lloyd, Hovhaness, Schuman and Harris among composers who wrote 8 symphonies. All are very interesting, but are less frequently played or recorded.

More symphonies have been written in the 20th century than any other century.

[schnittkease]

More symphonies have been written in the 20th century than any other century.

What makes you say that? Due to the likes of Hovhaness and Brian, I think you're right, but the sheer number of composers writing symphonies must have been far greater in the 19th century.

EDIT: Turns out I've been proven wrong...

[kyjo]

What makes you say that? Due to the likes of Hovhaness and Brian, I think you're right, but the sheer number of composers writing symphonies must have been far greater in the 19th century.

Hmmm...I'm not so sure. There were a bewildering number of composers writing symphonies in the 20th century, most of whom are criminally under-appreciated today. Wikipedia's "List of symphony composers" confirms that there were quite a few more composers writing symphonies in the 20th century than in the 18th or 19th : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_symphony_composers

[relm1]

Hmmm...I'm not so sure. There were a bewildering number of composers writing symphonies in the 20th century, most of whom are criminally under-appreciated today. Wikipedia's "List of symphony composers" confirms that there were quite a few more composers writing symphonies in the 20th century than in the 18th or 19th : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_symphony_composers

Even this list undervalues 20th century composers because they are categorized by birth year.  So Prokofiev or Vaughan Williams who are 20th century composers are listed as 19th century composers.  So from this list you should add roughly half of the 19th century composers to the 20th category.  Yeah, no doubt 20th century was a very good century for symphonies.

[Cato]

Even this list undervalues 20th century composers because they are categorized by birth year.  So Prokofiev or Vaughan Williams who are 20th century composers are listed as 19th century composers.  So from this list you should add roughly half of the 19th century composers to the 20th category.  Yeah, no doubt 20th century was a very good century for symphonies.

And the 21st as well, because of two words...at least in regard to quantity, if not necessarily quality. 

First word....


Leif


Your turn for the second word!   

[Maestro267]

Vaughan Williams
Havergal Brian
Mahler
Villa-Lobos
Bruckner
Rubbra

[André]

More symphonies have been written in the 20th century than any other century.

A cousin of mine has attempted to compile a list of all symphonies ever written (he never finished the task)f. His conclusion is that the 19th century saw a lot less works written than the 2 centuries it is sandwiched in. In the 18th, over 10000 sinfonias, symphonies or sinfonia concertantes were written. The 20th century saw an explosion in the number of composers (I'm quoting his email on this), conservatories could not keep up with the demand.

So it seems I was quite wrong. If a flood turned to a trickle, it happened in the 19th century, not the 20th. I blame the « Beethoven effect » for that composing drought .