Article on George F. Bristow

[Alan Howe]

At MusicWeb:
http://musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Aug/Bristow_article.pdf

[Alan Howe]

What interests me is GFB's Symphony No.4 'Arcadian' which, as far as I know, has never made it to CD (Karl Krueger recorded it with the RPO in 1967)...

[Alan Howe]

Here's what the article says about Symphony No.4:

This  symphony  from  1872  has  an  interesting  genesis.  Bristow  had recently completed the large-scale cantata "The Pioneer" for soprano, bass, chorus and orchestra. At the  same  time  he  received  a  commission  from  The Brooklyn  Philharmonic  (of  whom  Bristow  was  a member,  as  he  was  of  the  New  York  Philharmonic),  for  a  symphony.  This  was  apparently  the  first symphony commissioned by an American orchestra from an American composer. Bristow jumped at the opportunity, but it certainly wasn't for financial reasons as the impoverished orchestra could only pay him $100. Wanting to fulfill the commission quickly, and possibly considering that the paltry sum involved  excused  him  from  delivering  a  fully  original  work,  he  decided  to reuse music from "The Pioneer".  Since  the  music  from  his  cantata  was  programmatic,  Bristow  hit  on  the  idea  of  a programmatic  symphony,  almost  a  symphonic  poem  in  four  movements.  He  had  recently  had exposure   to   such   a   program   symphony  when   the   New   York  Philharmonic  had  played  Raff's Symphony # 3 "Im Walde".

The opening movement is titled "Emigrants Journey Across the Plains." It opens with a solo viola meant to evoke the forbidding prairie landscape the pioneers had to cross. After this melody is fully stated by the orchestra, a lyrical second theme arrives as the hope of the pioneers for a new life lifts their  spirits.  Bristow  employs  his  typical  sonata  form  structure  but  ends  the  first  movement  with  a return to the stark solo viola as the exhausted pioneers stop for the night.

The second movement is titled "Halt on the Prairie". This Andante Religioso uses the melody from Tallis' Evening Hymn to depict the spiritual gratitude of the settlers as they give thanks to the Lord for seeing them safely through the day and for the anticipated blessings of the new land.

The third movement is titled "Indian War Dance and Attack by Indians". Here Bristow pulls out all the orchestral  stops  to  graphically  depict  the  whooping  Indians  as  they  conduct  their  war  dance. There are  whirling  strings,  pounding  drums  and  the  tinkle  of  the  triangle  as  the  natives  attack.  A  second theme  depicts  the  heroic settlers as they bravely resist  the natives,  before  the  Indians resume  their attack. It must be said however that Bristow's Indian attack is more light-hearted than bloodthirsty, as if the composer is winking at the listeners and reassuring them that all will be well. It is interesting to think that this symphony premiered four years before Custer's last stand at The Little Bighorn, so the  horrors  of the  Indian  Wars  for  both  sides  were very  immediate  to  the  audience.  Bristow  would have thought it in bad taste to be too realistic.

The finale is titled "Arrival at the New Home, Rustic Festivities and Dancing". After fighting off the Indians,  the  settlers move on  and  arrive  at  their  new  home.  A  joyous  theme  welcomes  them  which develops into a lively dance  of celebration. This enables Bristow  to end his symphony on a cheerful note, despite the serious struggles depicted earlier.

The "Arcadian" symphony is program music at its best. There is always a whiff of the theater about Bristow's music, and I say that in a complimentary way. Music may serve many purposes including intellectual reflection, solace from grief, religious adoration and emotional inspiration but its primary purpose  is  entertainment.  Bristow  never  forgets  this.  After  its  premiere  in  Brooklyn,  the  New  York Philharmonic  played  it,  and  Asger  Hamerik  programmed  it  in  Baltimore  the  following  year.  This symphony,  along  with "The Pioneer", is also his most American piece to date, evoking characters, landscapes and feelings peculiar to the American experience. He would not write another symphony until the 1890s when his choral "Niagara" symphony would be premiered shortly before  his  death. Regrettably this symphony has not been commercially recorded. The "Arcadian" symphony was recorded by the noted American conductor Karl Krueger, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and issued under the auspices of Krueger's "Society for the Preservation  of  the  American  Musical Heritage".  Perhaps  only  the  Louisville Orchestra's First  Edition Recordings has  done more  for American classical music recording.

[eschiss1]

Ah. Maybe "commercially recorded" is not the term I'd really want to use in this context. Wider-distribution, official-not-illegal-air-check (and some "commercial" recordings _are_ those), recording? It's the first thing that comes up when one restricts to LPs @ Worldcat under Bristow - there are copies at some 62 libraries that Worldcat knows of, for example - so whether it was a commercial recording or not...

(After all, no Soviet year Melodiya recordings were in the strictest sense "commercial" recordings either, I guess (ok, that's not true, since state capitalism isn't communism, but what ideologue wants to admit that- it might reflect badly on the former and its relatives, for one thing... never mind.)))

[chill319]

Thanks for the link. Mr. Hartman has provided some nice detail; pity he didn't include Bristow's Symphony 5 in his discussion.

I would add one American composer to the introductory survey part of the essay. Charles Hommann (1803-72, sometimes spelled Homman). His chamber music from 1830s, 40s and 50s Philadelphia and New York is comparable in craftsmanship to, say, Onslow, in my opinion. The music is not folk-artsy like Heinrich, but serious stuff by someone who clearly loved the Rasumovsky quartets.

[Alan Howe]

Well, he does mention Bristow's final (completed) symphony, 'Niagara', Op.62 (i.e. no.5). Presumably he needs a recording to go on...

[eschiss1]

Yes, according to Worldcat, there's an LP of Bristow's 6th also, from the same source. If he doesn't consider those to be commercial recordings because the maker wasn't a commercial entity, at least by non-commercial recording he doesn't mean/connote, as I would tend to think, recording with an off-air broadcast tape as its source / tape-underground thing/... but is rather, as noted earlier, being very literal/strict/something/...

[Gareth Vaughan]

I thought Bristow never finished his 6th symphony. Maybe this is a recording of just those movts. that were completed.

[Alan Howe]

It is as Gareth surmised. The Worldcat entry refers to an LP recording (Krueger/RPO) of two movements of No.6 (Nocturne and Scherzo) - presumably all that was completed.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-vi-nocturne-and-scherzo/oclc/4043652&referer=brief_results

May I please make a plea for links to catalogue entries to be included in posts which refer to them? It saves a lot of subsequent double-checking!

[eschiss1]

Ah sorry. Hrm. Now I'm intrigued, wonder if symphony 5 has been performed since the 1800s.. (it was at least mostly completed in 1893 (date on the 3rd movement of the holograph, Sep 1st (')93), and premiered in 1898; New York Public Library has the orchestral score (only, with only choral cues); and btw in 2016 a Timothy Cloeter wrote, for his dissertation for the U. of Arizona, a "A performance edition of the fourth movement of the "Niagara Symphony""... which can be downloaded completely at the PDF - well, see this link.)

Score, reduction and parts.

Ooh. (Only one movement, but have fun! As usual with downloaded dissertations, It's not Public Domain, don't add it to IMSLP or to your own website (without getting all associated permissions &c &c &c &c), respect Mr. Cloeter's and the uni's rights&c, it's there only for your own enjoyment- but have fun.)

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well the chorus only make an appearance in the last movt. So Mr Cloeter's dissertation gives us at last a full score of that movt.. As a full score exists for the other movts. the work is complete. I long to hear it.

[eschiss1]

On a quick read it does seem one of one's favorite sorts of dissertations, meant to encourage performance (in an active way by clearing away difficulties, creating a performable score from a difficult manuscript, etc.). (Another available online has a performing edition score & parts of Charles Stanford's 4th string quartet in perhaps its first published edition ever. Who said the internet was good for nothing at all ...)

[chill319]

Hopefully Mr. Closter created his score in Finale or Sibelius. If he did we should be able to hear a synthesized version of the symphony at least as listenable as many symphonic movie soundtracks.

The detail on Symphony 6 is appreciated. I had always assumed (wrongly) that "Symphony 6" was a typo where Sympnony 3 was meant, simply because composing two symphonies in F$ minor among six such works  is not all that common. Yet another proof that deductive thinking is not necessarily helpful in ascertaining actual historic events.

[Mark Thomas]

Mr Cloeter's dissertation is a fascinating and, as Eric says, appetising read, but at an estimated 90 minutes duration the Niagara Symphony seems to be a beast of Mahlerian dimensions. It would be wonderful if we could get to hear all five of Bristow's symphonies in modern recordings - his music is always so muscular and direct.  I do hope that New World Records carry through their initial intention of a cycle - the Jullien Symphony and overtures CD which we had a few years ago from Rebecca Miller with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was a splendid start. Neeme Järvi's recording of the third Symphony on Chandos is a little long in the tooth now, but remains another very persuasive advertisement for Bristow's music. I've just listened to a transfer of Krueger's old LP of the Arcadian Symphony and, although one can hear the music's potential, by comparison with Miller and Järvi's interpretations, Krueger's seems heavy-handed and leaden. Even the "Indian" scherzo remains earthbound, which is a disappointment. Also, I wonder if he cut the finale, as the symphony seems unbalanced in a way that its predecessors aren't - movement lengths of: 13:13, 12:32, 5:54 and 6:40. We badly need a new recording of this work. I do have a private recording of a live amateur performance of the First Symphony (the Sinfonia of 1848), but the performance is so dire and the recording so poor than it's impossible to judge anything about the quality of Bristow's music, although I suspect that a professional performance would shave at least a quarter off the 53 minutes it takes them to scrape and squeal their way though the piece.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I had always assumed (wrongly) that "Symphony 6" was a typo where Symphony 3 was meant

I think you assume "rightly" since the middle movts of No. 3 are titled Nocturne and Scherzo respectively. It would be remarkable indeed if Bristow commenced work on a 6th Symphony and completed only two movts of it, these being given the same names as two from his earlier symphony No. 3 - and also in the key of F sharp minor!