Longest symphony in the world - standard repertoire

Mahler 3rd Symphony - Longest symphony in the world (2 hours long), according to standard repertoire.

From Bruno Walter's (famous Mahler conductor) memoir of Mahler: "I arrived by steamer on a glorious July day; Mahler was there on the jetty to meet me, and despite my protests, insisted on carrying my bag until he was relieved by a porter. As on our way to his house I looked up to the Höllengebirge, whose sheer cliffs made a grim background to the charming landscape, he said: 'You don't need to look — I have composed all this away!" The rockface became the introductory theme of the Third Symphony, the unison chant for eight horns, which he dubbed in one sketch "What the rocky mountain tells me."

Last movement - Finale : MySpaceTV Videos: Mahler 3rd Symphony - Finale by Gustav Mahler

Although it's not a symphony, Morton Feldman's 2nd string quartet is 5-and-something hours long

Originally Posted by jujimufu

Although it's not a symphony, Morton Feldman's 2nd string quartet is 5-and-something hours long

Hi there Jujimufu

You want to talk about length... Although it's not a symphony, Richard Wagner's Ring is 15 hours long

Hi there Fredrik

If you want to talk about length... It's a piano piece, not even an orchestral piece, Satie's "Vexations", which was played on the 9th of September of 1963 by a few composers (such as John Cage and Christian Wolff) and performers (such as David Tudor, who was highly associated with John Cage). The performance actually lasted something like 19 hours. Oh, and the Ring is about 15 hours long and is usually spread out in 4 performances of 4 hours each, not played all at once

Do not mess with the wise ass...

Actually, not to waxe too nationalistic, but the longest single work (not consisting of 840 repetitions of a single phrase, nor of multiple operas complete in and of themselves) is probably Canadian composer R. Murray Schaffer's "Ra". Performance starts at sunset, and continues until the sunrise the following morning.

The longest "traditional" work that I know is Bennet's "Victory at Sea" (you may know it as Rodgers's)

Originally Posted by jujimufu

Hi there Fredrik

If you want to talk about length... It's a piano piece, not even an orchestral piece, Satie's "Vexations", which was played on the 9th of September of 1963 by a few composers (such as John Cage and Christian Wolff) and performers (such as David Tudor, who was highly associated with John Cage). The performance actually lasted something like 19 hours. Oh, and the Ring is about 15 hours long and is usually spread out in 4 performances of 4 hours each, not played all at once

Hi again Jujimufu,
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Here is the correct length of the whole Tetralogy which took Richard 27 years to compose.

The Ring should be evaluated as one long story, like Tolkien's Ring!

When I bought the big black box "Wagner's Ring", I listened to all the 15 hours 30 minutes in one session (as a teenager in the 70s).

Oh, I was pretty exhausted But I did it!

Das Rheingold: 2 hours 30 min.
Die Walkure : 4 Hours..
Siegfried : 4 Hours.
Götterdämmerung: 5 hours.

total hours: 15 hours 30 min.

Okay everybody, I'm sure there are other composers who have tried to composed a lot, but we must also take into consideration how often a work is being performed.

Der Ring des Nibelungen is played all the time constantly in most of the big opera houses of today.

One more thing, he wrote the whole libretto himself!

Now back to the root... Gustav Mahler's 3rd symphony is the longest symphony in the world! Almost 2 hours long!

Also one of the most beautiful symphonic pieces in the Viennese music history!

Don't forget to listen,
Fredrik
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Originally Posted by RavingSpleen

The longest "traditional" work that I know is Bennet's "Victory at Sea" (you may know it as Rodgers's)

Hi RavingSpleen,

quote: "Bennet's "Victory at Sea" (you may know it as Rodgers's)".

Sounds interesting, tell me more about it

I'm curious!

Fredrik

Originally Posted by Saiming

Do not mess with the wise ass...

Tjänare Saiming,

Undrar vilken svensk tonsättare som är mest känd utomlands?

Franz Berwald, Hugo Alvén Allan Pettersson, Daniel Börtz, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Lidholm eller Ralph Lundsten... förslag? (du får inte nämna pop kompositörer typ:Waterloo och sånt!


Fredrik