Why does so much classical music sound unfinished?

[Magic]

Sometimes composers actually want their music to sound incomplete, says Ivan Hewett.

You might ask why composers would do such an odd thing, and one straightforward answer is; to keep people listening. It’s been a common trick in pop music every since A Hard Day’s Night to keep the listeners hanging on for the next track on an album, by fading out a song rather than ending it. Jazz musicians do something similar, by ending a piece on a surprising harmony.

Schumann was a master of this effect. The first song in Dichterliebe circles round on itself, and at the end we’re left hanging.



Why does so much classical music sound unfinished? - Telegraph

 

[Vehicle]

Why does so much classical music sound unfinished?

There's no lyrics.

 

[Mr. Shadow]

Not enough cow bell.

 

[Vehicle]

Not enough cow bell.

You win.

 

[LG]

Won't bother trying to match wits with Shadow and Vehicle......but ending a song is one of the most difficult things for anyone to manage. How many rocks songs repeat the same chorus/verse at the end and the producer just fades it out to silence? More than I can count.

It's like an artist painting, deciding when it's finished is excruciating for a lot of them

I'm a big classical fan but not of 'lieders or opera', for me it's the symphonies, concertos and sonatas that I listen to. Robert Schumann gets overlooked by many, but his 4 symphonies and cello concerto are excellent.