Note 47 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Even great composers have at times made this mistake, e.g., Mendelssohn in the first movement of the Scotch Symphony, where the interminable length of the portion in A minor (of all keys!) is simply deadening in its effect. Compare also the Prelude to the Rheingold; where, however—for dramatic purposes—to depict the world as "without form and void" Wagner remains in the key of E-flat major for some 150 measures!