In contrast to the symphonies of Haydn, a much freer use of

not too comfortable with " In contrast to Haydn's symphonies, Mahler's " just sounds incomplete to me.

Comparison is correct in both C and D. The problem is with the change i posted in the earlier reply.

not too comfortable with " In contrast to Haydn's symphonies, Mahler's " just sounds incomplete to me.


It is clear from the first part that we are comparing (contrasting) haydn's symphonies with someone else's .. In the second part it is clearly mentioned that hayden's symphonies are being contrasted with those of mahler (mahler's ..) .. We need not mention the word symphony again , or resort to writing a larger sentence such as ... In contrast to haydn's symphonies, the symphonies of Mayhler .....

example

Version 1 . In contrast to Ralph's jumpshot, the jumpshot of kobe is better..

Version 2. In contrast to ralph's jump shot, kobe's is better....

Version 2 sounds better, conveys the meaning and is shorter ..

Option D & E are grammatically correct. Since we are emphasizing the differences between the two musicians' symphonies, shouldn't the correct option be E?
Experts?

According to Platinum GMAT, "In contrast with X, Y" and "In contrast to X, Y" are both idiomatically correct. Is there another reason we would eliminate E?

In contrast to the symphonies of Haydn, a much freer use of dissonance is evident in the symphonies of Mahler.

the comparison is b/w Symphonies of Haydn and Symphonies of Mahler . In ans .choice we can expect the comparision b/w Haydn and Mahler but the intended meaning should not change .

Also note that in GMAT noun's noun and can not be parallel to noun of noun as in- Ram's book can not be parallel to Book of ram

(A) In contrast to the symphonies of Haydn, a much freer use of dissonance is evident in the symphonies of Mahler. - wrong construction the better idiom is In contrast to X,Y
(B) In contrast with Haydn's symphonies, Mahler uses dissonance much more freely.-wrong comparison -Haydn's symphonies is contrasted to Mahler
(C) In contrast to those of Haydn, the symphonies of Mahler demonstrate a much more free use of dissonance.-- here the comparison is corrected but intended meaning is changed by introducing much more free use of dissonance - more then what???? -more should be followed by than what????
(D) In contrast to Haydn's symphonies, Mahler's demonstrate a much freer use of dissonance.---correct comparison
(E) In contrast with Haydn's symphonies, those of Mahler use dissonance much more freely.---noun's noun can not be parallel to noun of noun

IMO ,Grammatically both D and E are correct . Those can create a copy of the noun it is referring to , but there is a meaning error in E.
E suggests that Symphonies themselves use dissonance . It is the composer who has used dissonance not the symphonies.
@sayantanc2k,@chetan2u - experts Any thoughts?

E is missing the evidence or (demonstration) of use

the meaning is slightly altered.Hence wrong

Hi Experts,

Is "those of" in the beginning incorrect? Or choice C is incorrect because of wordiness. Thanks

Choice C is incorrect because of wordiness. Had d been wrong, we would have chosen C the correct answer.

Kaplan advanced has confirmed that D is OA.
This is official explanation from Kaplan.
Lesson: in contrast to is a correct idiom.
Also, the object in D can be implied.

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

This sentence compares the use of dissonance in the symphonies of Mahler and Haydn. The original sentence compares Haydn's symphonies to a freer use of dissonance, but comparisons must compare like objects (symphonies to symphonies, dissonance to dissonance). Eliminate (A) and (B) for breaking that rule. Focus on the different endings in the three remaining choices: Is a much more free use of dissonance, a much freer use of dissonance, or using dissonance much more freely correct? The first wrongly replaces freer with more free, so eliminate it, but the remaining options are both acceptable. (D) and (E) differ with respect to the initial phrase, so should it be in contrast to or in contrast with? The first is the correct idiom, so (D) is the right answer. Notice that the object of the comparison can be implied as long as the structure is parallel (Mahler's in (D) equals Mahler's symphonies).

magoosh. com /gmat/2013/gmat-idioms-of-comparison

It is clearly mentioned in the article above that both in contrast to and in contrast with are correct idiom. Could it be that D uses similar construction and hence is correct

Posted from my mobile device

Ay macarena, I think this prolblem was quite a challenge.

I was able to eliminate some points due to wrong idoms as wrong comparisions. In the end I chose the shorter of my two remaining choices and got lucky.

A and B have comparison issues. A compares ‘’the symphonies of Haydn’’ to “use of dissonance”.
B compares “Haydn’s symphonies” to “Mahler”
C is poorly constructed, as is leaves “those” ambiguous, until later in the sentence.
E is incorrect because it implies that the symphonies use dissonance. Symphonies cannot use something, the person who wrote the symphony will use dissonance.

So D is the correct answer

Can we use much freer? Sounding odd to my non-native ears.

Hi

"Free" has the comparative and the superlative "Freer" and "Freest", but the use of "more/most" are more common with free when indicating the comparative and superlative comparisons. So, both are correct, though "more free" is much more common than "freer".

Hope this helps