I've been looking primarily at melodies and harmonies so far, and I feel like I've learned a lot. I'm seeing how he doesn't develop the melodies very much*, and tends to just layer a bunch on top of each other near the end of a movement. I'm seeing how he often uses chromatic lines to activate a dissonant texture. I'm seeing how he builds up dissonant chords by juxtaposing a consonant chord in one orchestral section with a different consonant chord in another section.**
* And a lot of the melodies are really just short motives rather than fully formed melodies.
* A great example of this is the beginning of the Introduction to Part 2; the flutes are alternating between D-sharp minor and C-sharp minor chords, and the horns are holding a D (natural) minor chord. Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwFOcaBwCWc.
I haven't done a detailed deep dive like this into too many pieces before, and it's proving inspiring as I gain insight into how the piece works and get ideas for techniques I could use in my own music. (Which, of course, is the whole point!)
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