Movement Lengths?

I was recently presented with the following statement as part of a comment on a piece, and I thought that it merited a closer look and some discussion:

...These days I think audiences prefer shorter orchestral works to colossal beasts...-neuhausen

What do you guys think? I would personally tend to agree with neuhausen here.

As the world gets smaller and people move faster, it seems that the general amount of patience people have has subsided dramatically. What does this mean for those who write full concert works though? Does it destroy their ability to effectively convey their musical message or does it simply force them to be more like us incidental music composers (:)) who need to make our statements just as effectively in a much smaller amount of time?

Discuss.

Nico, you are forgetting about the music that has brevity and intelligence, which I think is what Marius seems to favor. I myself favor intelligence in music over all other aspects, so if a piece needs to be an hour long to keep its effect in focus, intelligence and power, then so be it.

But of course there is plenty worth in a piece that is short, as long as it does not lack too greatly in other areas of musical achievement. It is true that audiences would prefer a work not to exceed 20 minutes in entirety, I've seen reactions of audience members who shun composers who are known to be long winded. (Mahler, Bruckner, Sir William Walton, and even a professor at my school, Nicholas Maw)

I think it is also an issue of certain audiences not knowing how to listen to classical music, especially pieces of great length and depth. I love presenting classical pieces in concert to audiences and communities that wouldn't normally listen to classical music. When I do so they enjoy the pre-performance chats that I give. After explaining what to listen for in terms of themes, familiar variations and emotional content the audiences are totally engulfed in the music. Classical music is not a part of cultural upbringing for most. Therefore it is easy to see why today's generation is so easily turned off. I don't think its all due to laziness. Even some of Bach's fugues can be a turn off if you don't know how and what to listen for. For example, The ears of some won't always grasp the fact that the same theme is entering over and over again in different keys and aspects of the theme are being used in various ways. So, with a little explaination I find people tend to be a little more receptive.

A composer should write music of a length (and style and form and content) of entirely his or her own choosing, or at least as much as is possible (commissions and other obligations sometimes require a specific length or something like that). If this means that the music that is inside of you aching to get out is a 45-minute long symphony (though that is highly doubtful), it means you should write a 45-minute long symphony.

Of course, as several have already remarked, we live in a faster-paced world. We live in a world of news bytes, readers' digest, google, mapquest, and a bunch of things that make it possible to do a large amount of tasks in a ridiculously short amount of time (at least compared to when before the technological advances came out). Since art reflects the culture in which it was produced (or is it the other way around?--ha, we all wish) it is only natural that in classical music we would see a push towards shorter pieces -- pieces that say more in less time.

And yet there is nothing that can replace a Mahler symphony. No five-minute piece, no matter how well-written or well-performed, will ever come anywhere close to the massive buildup and release of ecstatic emotion in store at the end of Mahler's third symphony. It's the great romantic dilemma of our time: something in us aches to return to the romantic ideal (whatever that may be) and yet the very constitution of our world often prevents that.

Thus in the 21st century where there is no specific 'movement' to speak of but many composers doing many various things, we need the composers who are writing the hour-long opuses just as much as we need the composers writing the five-minute whiz-bangers. This is why I say that a composer must write what he/she feels compelled to write. It takes all types to keep the art form alive.