Abstract
In 2004, Canadian composer Malcolm Forsyth (1936–2011) stated publicly that the simplest compositions, if genuine, often achieved the greatest profundity. He described the Adagio from his Double Concerto for Viola and Cello (2004) as “the greatest departure, for me, to this realm of a very, very simple and harmonious music.” This article explores Forsyth’s conception of simplicity by placing a close harmonic, motivic, and structural analysis in several contexts: the work’s history of revisions, what Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms reveal about musical simplicity, the debate on profundity in music, the discourse on “late style,” and personal anecdotes.
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Reference28 articles.
1. Bell, Allan Gordon. 2019. “Sonorous Pleasure: Portrait of a Master Orchestrator as Pedagogue.” In Reflections on Malcolm Forsyth, edited by Mary Ingraham and Robert Rival, 17–22. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.
2. Blom, Eric, ed. 1956. Mozart’s Letters, Selected from the Letters of Mozart and His Family, translated by Emily Anderson (1938). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books.
3. Davies, Stephen. 2002. “Profundity in Instrumental Music.” British Journal of Aesthetics 42 (4): 343–56.
4. Delannoi, Gil. 2001. “Mozart ou le génie de la discrétion.” Esprit 275 (6): 46–68.
5. Forsyth, Malcolm. 2003–4. Double Concerto for Viola, Cello, and Orchestra. Boxes 1, 3, and 5, Malcolm Forsyth fonds (F0182), Archives and Special Collections, University of Calgary.