MatthiasRat here! I have some music I want to share with you, my fellow Furry Classical Music Lovers!

Henri Dutilleux's Symphony No. 1: http://youtu.be/hhcHRS3NIcI

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013) was a French composer most of whose works are considered modern masterpieces. His music is predominantly atonal though he did not use the serial technique of Schoenberg to achieve his harmonic language. Probably his two primary influences are Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky (shades of which you can hear in his first symphony).

Dutilleux's Symphony No. 1 was written in 1951 and immediately became a masterwork of the twentieth century. It is tautly constructed, brilliantly orchestrated with special attention to tamber and color (a hallmark of the French compositional technique) and designed with an almost symmetrical arch.palindrome structure. It is in four movements.

I. Passacaille (0:00): The first movement begins quietly, with double-bass plucking out the Passacaglia theme (ala Jazz), but grows more intricate with the additional of more instruments. It builds and builds like a wave nearing shore and then settles down into quiet reflection.

II. Scherzo molto vivace (07:07): The second movement follows without a break with a skittering theme that propels the listener forward in a way anyone familiar with movie music would appreciate. The intensity persists for the duration of the movement, rushing oneward to a dramatic fortissimo exclamation point.

III. Intermezzo (13:11): This movement is the central section of the symphony and is the only true slow movement. The melody moves between the orchestral sections, always changing and never once repeating itself. Close your eyes and allow yourself to be carried along.

IV. Finale con variazioni (19:07): The final movement is the mirror to the first two movements. It begins with a dramatic fortissimo series of chords before settling into a rigorous set of varitions which proceed at a pace only slightly less frenetic than the Scherzo. A little over halfway through the violence dissipates into the other-worldly calm evinced by the opening of the first movement. The final string chord settles the music quietly in D flat Major. It has been called the most beautiful conclusion in all modern music.

I fell head-over-paws in love with this piece the first time I heard it. I hope that you will too!

Dominus vobiscum