| Symphony No. 3 | |
|---|---|
| by Peter Maxwell Davies | |
 The composer in 2012 | |
| Recorded | 19 February 1985 |
| Movements | 4 |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 19 February 1985 |
| Location | Free Trade Hall, Manchester |
| Conductor | Edward Downes |
| Performers | BBC Philharmonic |
The Symphony No. 3 by Peter Maxwell Davies was composed in 1984 on a commission from the BBC Philharmonic, who gave the world premiere on 19 February 1985, at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, with Edward Downes conducting.
The form of the symphony, along with those of its predecessors, owes a great debt to the symphonies of Sibelius. [1] A second influence came from Renaissance architecture, particularly the churches of Filippo Brunelleschi. Davies explains that his use of Fibonacci numbers to proportion the symphony was modelled directly on Brunelleschi's structures. [2]
The symphony is scored for 3 flutes (second doubling alto flute, third doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, double bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. Unlike the preceding two symphonies, the only percussion instruments employed in the Third are the timpani. Here they often assume a solo role (even more than in the Second Symphony) in order to emphasize the focal pitch classes. [3]
The symphony is in four movements:
Each of these movements is based on the same architectural outline, but expresses it with a different constructional technique. In addition, this same outline informs the construction of the symphony as a whole, and is also used as the basis of subdividing sections of each movement. [4]
The symphony begins with a movement approximating the traditional sonata-allegro form. [5] It begins in slow tempo in the tonality of D, quoting in the flutes a plainsong addressed to the Archangel Michael, "Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio", and the movement becomes progressively faster until the opening material and tonality returns and "the music is blown right away, as if it were on scurrying air-currents". [2] The pitches of the chant are first "sieved" by to retain only the first occurrence of pitch classes. This results in a seven-note sequence, which is expanded to an eight-note set by the arbitrary addition of D. This set is then arranged in an 8 x 8 transposition square (where the row is transposed successively to begin on each of its eight pitches), and this square is manipulated according to the 64-element Magic Square of Mercury. [6] At the same time, durations are built according to Fibonacci numbers descending from 21 downwards, with each number representing a multiple of a breve unit. [7] Within this process of acceleration the pitch material converges onto a centre of F which, together with B and A-flat, forms an alternative tonal centre to the tonic D throughout the symphony. [8]
The second and third movements are a pair of scherzos. The composer likens the second movement to the visual experience of contemplating a Brunelleschi church nave from a fixed central point. In addition, there was a "physical inspiration", of nesting seabirds wheeling around a towering cliff face. [9]
The second of the pair of scherzos distorts the perspective of the first, as if the same nave were being seen from one side. In this movement, the composer consciously borrows a device from the "Burlesque" movement of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, "where the tumult stops and the composer lets in 'windows'", through which slow passages of the adagio finale are glimpsed. [9]
The form of the third movement affects the finale in three ways. First, the "windows" disrupt the musical continuity of the previous two movements, and thereby "reducing, but not totally avoiding, the likelihood of an archetypal formal design being used in the finale". [5] Second, the windows' tonality of C♯, the modal dominants G♯ and F, and the diatonic dominant A (all established by the timpani), anticipate the finale. Thirdly, the windows sections, characterised by texture rather than by motif, recur twice in the finale. [10] [11]
The finale then returns to the material of the first movement, and develops it more amply. [9]
On the largest scale, the four movements of the symphony combine into a single, overarching "meta-sonata form". [12] All four movements, however, resist structural closure by denying the tonic's usual function of asserting its superiority at the end, and an important aspect of the formal unfolding of the entire work is the oscillation between sections having tonal focus on the one hand with others of a tonally ambiguous polyphony. [13]
Robert Wilfred Levick Simpson was an English composer, as well as a long-serving BBC producer and broadcaster.
The Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39, by Jean Sibelius is a symphony started in 1898, and finished in early 1899, when Sibelius was 33. The work was first performed on 26 April 1899 by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in an original version which has not survived. After the premiere, Sibelius made some revisions, resulting in the version performed today. The revised version was completed in the spring and summer of 1900, and was first performed in Berlin by the Helsinki Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Kajanus on 1 July 1900.
The Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, WAB 105, by Anton Bruckner was written in 1875–1876, with minor changes over the next two years. It came at a time of trouble and disillusion for the composer: a lawsuit, from which he was exonerated, and a reduction in salary. Dedicated to Karl von Stremayr, education minister in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the symphony has at times been nicknamed the "Tragic", the "Church of Faith" or the "Pizzicato"; Bruckner himself referred to it as the "Fantastic" without applying this or any other name formally.
Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107, is one of the composer's best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885. It is dedicated to Ludwig II of Bavaria. The premiere, given under Arthur Nikisch and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the opera house at Leipzig on 30 December 1884, brought Bruckner the greatest success he had known in his life. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Lyric", though the appellation is not the composer's own, and is seldom used.
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The Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 4, B. 12 was composed by Antonín Dvořák between August and October 1865. Dvořák sent the score to be bound, but could not pay the binder, who kept the score. A friend of his, with whom he was sharing lodgings, Moric Anger, lent Dvořák the money to pay off the binder and retrieve his score. Later, when Anger asked for repayment of the debt, Dvořák was again unable to pay, so Anger took the score as security and only returned it when Dvořák retracted a previous threat to destroy it, something Anger had always advised against. In 1887 Dvořák revised the score, thinning out the rather dense orchestration.
The Symphony No. 3 by Robert Simpson was written in 1962 and dedicated to veteran composer Havergal Brian. The premiere was given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 14 March 1963 under the conductor Hugo Rignold. Its BBC Proms premiere was given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 21 August 1967 under the conductor Charles Groves. The US premiere was given by the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra on 8 December 1974 under its then Music Director, Ainslee Cox.
The Symphony No. 3 in C major of the Swedish composer Franz Berwald, nicknamed the Singulière, was written in 1845. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings. It is about a half-hour in length and is in three movements:
Marcel Tyberg was an Austrian composer, conductor and organist. His music is late-Romantic in style.
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