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Intensification, buildup — a passage of increasing intensity leading to a climax.
Steigerung describes the process of building toward a climax through combined crescendo, accelerando, thickening texture, and rising pitch. Bruckner's symphonies are built on massive Steigerungen — long, inexorable buildups to shattering climaxes.
Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, finale — the Steigerung leading to the final peroration is one of the most massive in all orchestral music.
Steigerung is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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