Horatio Parker Symphony

[eschiss1]

I notice a Symphony (in C, Op.7) listed in Parker's worklist (as compiled/reprinted @ IMSLP etc.), from 1884, and what's more that it still exists in manuscript score and parts at the Fleisher Collection.  Does anyone know anything about this work? News to me. (Ok, it was premiered in Munich in July 1884, but did he withdraw it?)

[MartinH]

Parker is one of those composers whose music had been inexplicably ignored. Maybe it's no good, too derivative, dull...I don't know. The only orchestral works I know are the Northern Ballad and Vathek. The former is on IMSLP, the latter unfortunately not. Based on those two, one wonders what the symphony is like. I love Vathek - it's a real romp! Another American composer that orchestras in the US should have saved from oblivion. Maybe you can nudge Fleisher to scan the symphony for posting on IMSLP (score and parts) and some enterprising amateur orchestra will give it a read.

[eschiss1]

Has Fleisher -ever- done that? They'll help prepare a work for orchestral performance for example- institutional uses- but that doesn't to-the-best-of-my-very-limited-knowledge count... erm. (Then again, what one doesn't _ask_ about, one never finds out, either. And their librarians have been very helpful when it comes to asking about eg missing data in their library catalog entries, and such things.)

[semloh]

I have several of Horatio Parker's orchestral works tucked away on the computer, mostly old recordings but very enjoyable indeed. One could expect a lyrical, engaging symphony, but 1884 is very early in his musical life, so who knows.
(I think Cahal Mór of the Wine-red Hand - rhapsody for baritone & orchestra ., Op.40 (1893) is a little gem, by the way!)

[JimL]

His Organ Concerto is on YT in several posts.  Here, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3psBdm57Z8

[Alan Howe]

Respectfully, so what, Jim?

[JimL]

So here's another major orchestral work of his that at least gets some exposure online, if not in the hall.

[eschiss1]

For one thing, the organ concerto's been commercially recorded- I remember reading the review...

[Alan Howe]

...and with that, back to the Symphony!

[Gareth Vaughan]

For one thing, the organ concerto's been commercially recorded- I remember reading the review...

As has his oratorio "Hora Novissima" (a very attractive work); the Northern Ballad (twice), his Suite for Piano Trio (Naxos) and various other shorter choral, vocal and instrumental pieces - a trawl through CDs on Amazon will show what is available.
Additionally, among more large-scale orchestral works performances of the following are on YouTube: Vathek, Cahal Mor of the Wine Red Hand (baritone & orchestra), The Fairyland Suite (in rather poor sound), Count Robert of Paris overture (radio recording with a fair bit of hiss), and the "Mona" Prelude (from a Mercury LP).

These works all show a competent craftsman, melodist and orchestrator, which suggests the Symphony might be well worth resurrecting, if one could interest a conductor & orchestra. Maybe Leon Botstein?...

[Alan Howe]

That's a good suggestion.

[chill319]

I recommend the 2008 CD American Orchestral Song (Bridge 9254), which includes the 14-minute orchestral song Cahál Mór. Elsewhere I've called it "a well-wrought mash-up of Wagnerian method and Celtic subject-matter, less original than MacDowell's somewhat better-known solution to the same challenge, but never unimaginative or undramatic." That work was completed 9 years after the symphony Eric calls attention to, which Wikipedia says was written while Parker was a student of Rheinberger in Munich -- and thus would presumably have less of Wagner in it. Still, as with early symphonies by Bizet, Saint-Saens,  and Grieg, it could well be enjoyable!

[SebastiaanG]

His symphony might be of some interest, but do be aware its a very early work.

Works existing in recordings are all much much later, his above mentioned concerto and both tone poems A northern Ballad (I think one of his best works) and Vathek are mature works.

His piano trio is somewhat thin in my opinion.

On the other hand, there exists a radio recording of Count Robert of Paris, which might give you a taste of what level the symphony could be. Keep in mind though that the Overture is written 5 years after the symphony!