Symphony No. 3 (Harris)

Last updated

Roy Harris's Symphony No. 3 is a symphony written in 1939. It received its world premiere on February 24, 1939, in Boston, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Contents

History

Harris wrote this symphony on a commission from Hans Kindler but he gave it to Serge Koussevitzky instead. [1] It has been described as "the quintessential American symphony", [2] and "the most widely performed and recorded of all American symphonies". [3]

The material that eventually became the opening of the Third Symphony was initially meant to be a violin concerto for Jascha Heifetz, but the commission fell through and Harris decided to turn it into a symphony. The point where the strings enter on middle C was to have been the solo violin's entrance. [4]

The score was published by G. Schirmer in 1940.

Analysis

The music is scored for 3 flutes (the third doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn (cor anglais), 2 soprano clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 euphonium, 1 tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, xylophone, vibraphone and strings.

According to Harris, the symphony is in five connected sections: Tragic, Lyrical, Pastoral, Fugue Dramatic, Dramatic Tragic. "After the first performance, Harris made two cuts" to the Pastoral section, specifically, measures 274–301 and 308–16. [5] Originally the symphony did not end as in the published version, but stopped rather abruptly. At Koussevitzky's suggestion, Harris added a coda. [4]

Critical reception

In 1939, Koussevitzky conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the premiere. While public reaction was initially chilly, the symphony has become more popular. This work uses a number of techniques that have become common in subsequent American classical music works, including "massive but spacious textures; a new emphasis on vital, syncopated rhythms... and a rich harmonic palette". [6]

Koussevitzky made the world-premiere recording in a performance which Harris "regarded ... as the finest interpretation". [3]

Together with "the Second Symphony by Howard Hanson, [and] the Third by Robert Ward ... the Third of Roy Harris" is one of those American symphonies which "are within the capabilities of our [American] community orchestras". [7]

Related Research Articles

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, neoromantic style. She has been called "one of America's most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers." She was a 1994 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Zwilich has served as the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.

Roy Harris American composer

Roy Ellsworth Harris was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3.

William Schuman American composer and arts administrator (1910-1992)

William Howard Schuman was an American composer and arts administrator.

Serge Koussevitzky Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bassist and music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1874-1951)

Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky was a Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.

David Diamond (composer) American classical composer (1915-2005)

David Leo Diamond was an American composer of classical music.

Symphony No. 5 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100, in Soviet Russia in one month in the summer of 1944.

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.

Sergei Prokofiev began his Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, as a concertino in 1915 but soon abandoned it to work on his opera The Gambler. He returned to the concerto in the summer of 1917. It premiered on October 18, 1923 at the Paris Opera with Marcel Darrieux playing the violin part and the Paris Opera Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Igor Stravinsky made his debut as conductor at the same concert, conducting the first performance of his own Octet for Wind Instruments.

Symphony No. 3 was Aaron Copland's final symphony. It was written between 1944 and 1946, and its first performance took place on October 18, 1946 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing under Serge Koussevitzky. If the early Dance Symphony is included in the count, it is actually Copland's fourth symphony.

Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer, conductor, author, and professor. During the course of a professional career which ranges over six decades he has served as a faculty member at both the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. In addition, he is credited with founding and conducting the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra which participated in the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the United States in Germany and throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Adler's musical catalogue includes over 400 published compositions. He has been honored with several awards including Germany's Order of Merit – Officer's Cross.

Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, Op. 22, completed on 27 November 1945, was the second of his three concertos. Barber was commissioned to write his cello concerto for Raya Garbousova, an expatriate Russian cellist, by Serge Koussevitzky on behalf of Garbusova and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Funds for the commission were supplied, however, by John Nicholas Brown, an amateur cellist and a trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The score is dedicated to John and Anne Brown. Barber was still on active duty with the U. S. Army at the time he received the commission, and before beginning work asked Garbousova to play through her repertoire for him so that he could understand her particular performing style and the resources of the instrument. Garbousova premiered it with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, Boston, on 5 April 1946, followed by New York performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on 12 and 13 April. The concerto won Barber the New York Music Critics' Circle Award in 1947.

Symphony No. 3 (Lutosławski)

Witold Lutosławski wrote his Symphony No. 3 in 1973–1983. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Georg Solti, gave the world premiere on 29 September 1983. The work is dedicated to Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It was awarded the Nagroda Solidarności in 1984 and selected for the first Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1985.

Lior Navok

Lior Navok is an Israeli classical composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Tel Aviv. His music has been performed internationally by orchestras and ensembles including the Oper Frankfurt, Nuernberg Opera, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. Amongst the awards he has received are those from the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He has also received awards from the Fromm Music Foundation, Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, and Israel Prime Minister Award. In 2004, he was one of seven composers awarded commissions for new musical works by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation.

The Symphony No. 2 in D-flat major, Opus 30, W45, "Romantic", was written by Howard Hanson on commission from Serge Koussevitzky for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930, and published by Carl Fischer Music.

American composer William Schuman's Symphony No. 3 was completed on January 11, 1941, and premiered on October 17 of that year by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitsky, to whom it is dedicated.

Aaron Copland wrote the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra in 1924. It represents a major work in the composer's oeuvre, as it was his first fully realized orchestral work, his first work for organ, and the first piece whose orchestration he heard. In 1928, Copland re-orchestrated the work without organ as his Symphony No. 1, rewriting the organ part in the brass and adding saxophone.

The Symphony No. 4 is an orchestral symphony by the American composer William Schuman. The work was composed on a Guggenheim Fellowship grant awarded to Schuman in 1939. The piece was given its world premiere by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Artur Rodziński on January 22, 1942.

Symphony No. 11 (Villa-Lobos)

Symphony No. 11 is a composition by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1955. A performance lasts about twenty-five minutes.

Symphony No. 3 (1938) is a symphony in four movements composed by American composer Howard Hanson (1896–1981). The first three movements were finished in 1936, a revision in 1938 added the finale movement to the symphony. A typical performance time is approximately 36 minutes. The work, commissioned by the CBS Symphony Orchestra, was written in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the first Swedish settlement in Delaware in 1638.

The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a musical composition by the American composer Aaron Copland. The work was commissioned by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky who was then music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed on January 28, 1927, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Koussevitzky with the composer himself as the soloist. The piece is dedicated to Copland's patron Alma Morgenthau Wertheim.

References

  1. Stehman, Dan (1984). Roy Harris: An American Musical Pioneer. Boston: Twayne Publishers. pp. 63–9.
  2. Canarina, John (1993). "The American Symphony". In Robert Layton (ed.). A Guide to the Symphony. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 408–10.
  3. 1 2 Butterworth 1998, p. 84.
  4. 1 2 Clark, John W.; Schuman, William (Autumn 1986). "William Schuman on His Symphonies: An Interview". American Music. 4 (3): 328–336. p. 334.
  5. Butterworth 1998, p. 86.
  6. Haskins, Rob (2000). "Orchestral and Chamber Music in the Twentieth Century". In Ellen Koskoff (ed.). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Vol. 3 - The United States and Canada. Routledge (Taylor & Francis). pp. 203–208.
    Reprint 2017. ISBN   9781351544146.
  7. Van Horn, James (1979). The Community Orchestra: A Handbook for Conductors, Managers and Boards. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 74. ISBN   9780313205620.

Further reading