The story of the symphony, part 3: from Mahler to the moderns

Jonathan James
Monday, April 1, 2019

In part two to this three-part resource (Music Teacher, March 2019, with part one February 2019), we saw how Romantic composers of all creative persuasions, whether nationalist or individualist, took up the challenge of extending Beethoven's legacy. Some, like Schumann and Brahms, innovated within the constraints and conventions of the form; others such as Tchaikovsky and Dvořák, used it to explore issues of nationhood and cultural identity; while others still, such as Liszt and Berlioz, reimagined both its structure and scope, blurring the boundaries between the symphony and tone poem.