American Music

[shamokin88]

Sorry. It gets too hot to think sometimes. I'll have it sorted out by my bedtime. I had a phone conversation with her this afternoon about her work.

It should be all right now.

[Dundonnell]

Thank you for fixing the Harberg Viola Concerto, Edward

And what a lovely piece it is At times reminiscent of Vaughan Williams but, obviously, with a much more modern twist.

If you are in contact with her again please pass on my very best wishes to her and for her future as a composer and my thanks for the opportunity to hear a piece which in the normal course of events none of us would ever have come across.

[jowcol]

Let me add to that.  It is gorgeous.  My daughter is playing the viola, and I look forward to exposing her to it.

[minacciosa]

The Harberg Concert is beautiful! I've alerted a violist friend of mine in the market for recording repertoire.

[karl.miller]

There have been several comments about duplication of repertoire. In particular mention was made of the Vincent Symphony in D. It might be worth mentioning that sometimes, an upload of the same repertoire might be a better sounding version of a particular performance. Hence, is such duplication to be discouraged?

And, as to the Vincent Symphony, there are two versions of the work. The Louisville recording features the original ending of the piece and the Ormandy performance, the revised ending.

Karl

[Dundonnell]

I know that as the indexer of the American Music uploads one of the aims of the index was to avoid members duplicating works already posted...but I did also add to my posts the additional point that if the recording was of superior quality then that would, of course, be a desirable addition. I only requested that if this was the case then the poster should indicate that in their post

[jowcol]

The Harberg Concert is beautiful! I've alerted a violist friend of mine in the market for recording repertoire.

I've gone to her website- she has written several works for viola--  I liked everything I've heard so far.

[jowcol]

Dance Preludes for Piano, by Alex North


Radio Intro
Dance Preludes for Piano
Radio Outro

Joan Schlesinger, Piano

From the collection of Karl Miller

Something different from an American Composer that was best known for his film scores.


Wikipedia Bio for ALex North

Died   September 8, 1991 (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California

Spouse   Gladlynne Sherle Treihart (1941–1966)
Annemarie Hoellger
Anna Sokoloff

Alex North (December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire) and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood (Viva Zapata!).

Born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania to Russian Jewish parents[1], North was an original composer probably even by the classical music standards of the day. However, he managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, "Unchained Melody". Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).

His best-known film scores include The Rainmaker (1956), Spartacus (1960), The Misfits (1961),The Children's Hour (1961) Cleopatra (1963), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Devil's Brigade (1968), and Dragonslayer (1981). He composed the music for "The Wonderful Country" in a Mexican and southwestern US motif.

His commissioned score for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is notorious for having been discarded by director Stanley Kubrick. North reused themes from the rejected score for The Shoes of the Fisherman, Shanks (1974), and Dragonslayer, but the score itself was unheard until composer Jerry Goldsmith rerecorded it for Varèse Sarabande in 1993. In 2007, Intrada Records released North's personal copies of the 1968 recording sessions on CD.

North was also commissioned to write a jazz score for Nero Wolfe, a 1959 CBS-TV series based on Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe characters, starring William Shatner as Archie Goodwin and Kurt Kasznar as Nero Wolfe.[2] A pilot and two or three episodes were filmed, but the designated time slot was, in the end, given to another series.[3][4] North's unheard score for Nero Wolfe and six recorded tracks on digital audio tape are in the UCLA Music Library Special Collections.[5]
Though North is best known for his work in Hollywood, he spent years in New York writing music for the stage; he composed the score, by turns plaintive and jarring, for the original Broadway production of Death of a Salesman. It was in New York that he met Elia Kazan (director of Salesman), who brought him to Hollywood in the '50s. North was one of several composers who brought the influence of contemporary concert music into film, in part marked by an increased use of dissonance and complex rhythms. But there is also a lyrical quality to much of his work which may be connected to the influence of Aaron Copland, with whom he studied.

His classical works include a Rhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his score for the 1976 television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. North is also known for his opening to the CBS television anthology series Playhouse 90 and the 1965 ABC television miniseries FDR.

Awards
The American Film Institute ranked North's score for A Streetcar Named Desire #19 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:
•   Cleopatra (1963)
•   The Misfits (1961)
•   Spartacus (1960)
•   Viva Zapata! (1952)
•   Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

[jowcol]

Music of John Williams

John Williams and Ann Hobson-Pilot

1. Radio Intro
2. Fanfare for a Festive Occasion
3. Esplanade Overture
4. Radio Outro
Boston Pops
John Williams, Conductor
(Source- Radio Broadcast, Early 80s?)

5. Radio Intro
6. On Willows and Birches (Concerto for Harp)-I
7. On Willows and Birches (Concerto for Harp)-II
8. Radio Outro
Ann Hobson Pilot, Harp
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Danielle Gatti, Conductor
October 1, 2009

(Note, this is NOT the October 3, 2009 performance that the BSO has released as a commercial download.)

All from radio broadcasts.
From the collection of Karl Miller

Some comments.  Williams may not be an "unsung" composer.   The first two works are pretty typical Williams in an extroverted mode.   The work for Harp is much more "artsy", but the second half has some of the typical Williams flair to it, and I've enjoyed the work.  It's certainly worth a listen if you like that sort of thing.


There is a LOT of source material about this work, I'll share some with you. 


First of all, we have a video interview with the composer about the work,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6OsY5C6mYA

Of all the written descriptions, this one by Joseph  Dalton seems the most complete:

By JOSEPH DALTON
Special to the Times Union

The harp is typically an elusive, soft spoken star set amidst the more brash instrumental characters that make up a symphony orchestra.   The sounds of its strings, plucked or strummed, become precious moments within a more grand and sweeping score. As if for added mystic, the instrument is often entirely absent form the proceedings, since so much repertoire just leaves it out entirely.

Yet the harp will be fully in the spotlight this Saturday night when the Albany Symphony Orchestra presents "On Willows and Birches," a recent concerto by John Williams.  The soloist will be Ann Hobson Pilot, who was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 40 years, serving 28 years as principal.  The piece was commissioned by the BSO to honor her retirement in 2009.

"James Levine said they've like to give me a retirement gift and I thought a new concerto would be good to add to the repertoire," explains Pilot.  "Then he asked who I'd like to ask to write it."

Such an opportunity doesn't come often and Pilot says she spent about a week considering some of the big composers names of today.  When she settled on Williams, he actually turned her down, at least a first.

"He's an extremely modest man and said it would be too intimidating for him," recalls Pilot. "Eventually he said something like I'll give it a try and if you don't like it then put in the fireplace."

Pilot was confident that Williams would deliver something suitable.  Having also been a member of the Boston Pops, she worked extensively with Williams and knew his sensitivity to the instrument, as both composer and conductor.

"He seems to understand the instrument, but some composers maybe should be intimidated by the instrument because of the pedals," she explains.  "Lots of composers write at the piano, where all the notes are right in front of you. But the harp has white keys and the pedals make the black keys.  And there are certain things you cannot or should not do."

As for the title "On Willow and Birches," Williams has a famous fascination with trees.  A number of his other concerto works bear similar names, including the bassoon concerto, "Five Sacred Trees," and the violin concerto "TreeSong."

The 15-minute concerto is in two movements, as suggested by the species in the title, first willows, then birches.  The opening was suggested by a line from Psalm 137, which begins "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept."  It continues, "We hanged our harps upon the willows."

"In the process of my reading about trees, which I do fairly frequently, I came upon a quote from the Bible," explains Williams in a program note for the piece.  "This fascinated me, the picture of harps hanging on the trees with the wind wafting through the strings making, one can imagine, a beautiful, very delicate, subtle sound."

That's followed by a more rhythmically charged second movement.  It also takes an image from poetry, this time that of Robert Frost, who wrote, "One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."

"'Swinger' in our language has a lot of connotations," says Williams.  "I remember in my mind the picture of the little boy swinging on the birch branches."
The debut of the concerto in 2009 occurred during a troubled time for the Boston Symphony, just as its music director James Levine (who has since left the orchestra) suffered a health setback just after conducting the debut at Symphony Hall.  Two additional performances that week, including in a concert at Carnegie Hall, were led by two different conductors.

"It was challenging enough to be at Carnegie, and my first time as a soloist there," recalls Pilot.  The third performance, back in Boston, was her farewell performance and featured her as soloist in two additional works."

[Amphissa]

Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) is best known for his operas. But he did write a few orchestral works. I've added a few to the collection.

[jasthill]

The  mediafire link(s) both download the same piece, i.e. Apocalypse

Apocalypse, symphonic poem for orchestra (1951)
I. Improperia
II. La citta celeste
III. Gli angeli militanti
New York Philharmonic
Thomas Schippers, conductor
14 March 1966
From radio broadcast
http://www.mediafire.com/?18sdtp4aq5rtzli

2 Symphonic Interludes from The Island God 
New York Philharmonic
Leopold Stokowski, conductor
16 January 1949
From radio rebroadcast [date unknown, probably in the 1950s]
http://www.mediafire.com/?9c2r21xwl3f2eu0

[Amphissa]

Well, that's because I uploaded Apocalyse twice! hahaha

Thanks for catching that. I've corrected the link to the Interludes -- I think. Try again now.

[JimL]

You wouldn't happen to have Menotti's Piano Concerto too, would you, Dave?  Maybe this should go in the requests, but...

[Amphissa]

No, the only recording of the Menotti piano concerto I've heard is the one by Earl Wild, which is available commercially. There are other orchestral pieces that I'd like to hear, like the Sebastian Ballet Suite.

[JimL]

I saw an LP of the PC decades ago, but I forget who the performers were.  Is the Wild performance (I presume available on CD) a re-release of that?