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Arts & Communication Artists recreating our world

strike from the instrument, he adds further strikes at the “growth” and “efficiency;” it has become the purpose of
beginning of each chord as if to reinforce that the end is business leaders. However, the hubris attached to notions
coming. Where listeners might enjoy sonic subtleties, the of success inures us against the rich learning that failure
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effect Rachmaninoff achieves is bloating. What may have can bring. As McGrath observes about entrepreneurs
seemed like a good idea during the conceptualization learning their craft,
of the work becomes a distraction in its realization. For “One reason why failure offers benefits is because it is
Tchaikovsky, the gong is a comma in the musical line, often easier to pinpoint why a failure has occurred than
whereas for Rachmaninoff, it is a repeated exclamation to explain a success, making failure analysis a powerful
mark! mechanism for resolving uncertainty.” (p. 28) 34
It is in these final chords that Rachmaninoff ultimately The learning for Rachmaninoff was in the power of
loses his courage. He finishes the work on 11 repeated suggestion. Overstatement can eventually cause listeners
D notes prepared by a semi-tone figure C –D–E –D–B. to disengage and ignore what they can come to perceive as
#
b
However, instead of leaving us with the tonal mysteries a nagging voice. Rachmaninoff had to learn to open space,
and ambiguities inherent in this figure, he reconciles and to leave blanks in his texts, and to invite perceivers to
resolves all questions with a final tripartite repetition of the creatively invest in engaging with his work. Furthermore,
tonic, dominant relationship D–A, thereby reinforcing a D Rachmaninoff was intent on separating himself from
tonality. his mentor and father figure, Tchaikovsky, as Garcia
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I think that, ultimately, it was this ending (Figure 1) that claims and the repeated gong was a bold statement of his
finally sent Rachmaninoff running out into the anonymity individuation. However, he failed to pull it off.
of the evening streets as he sought relief from his acute As a student, Rachmaninoff had learned intellectually
sense of failure. how to deal with the orchestra’s sonorities; now, as a
practitioner early in his career, he discovered esthetically the
6. After failure…falling forward powerful resources that were under his command. Through
Success is a very poor tutor, and her influences are his failure, he learned the power of understatement, and
sometimes blinding; whereas failure, although painful at this is revealed in his second symphony of 1907.
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the time, is by far the better teacher. We so hate failure that Comparing the openings of both symphonies reveals
we have all but eliminated the idea from our contemporary considerable learning on Rachmaninoff’s part. Where
rhetoric. ‘Success’ is the mantra of business along with in the first, he is bold and declamatory; in the second

Figure 1. The comparison of the closing page of Symphonies 1 and 2.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.2126