Edgar Stillman Kelley - New England Symphony in B-flat minor (1913)

[adt]

A curious programmatic work in the late Romantic style, Edgar Stillman Kelley's New England Symphony was acclaimed as one of the most important American symphonies of its day when it premiered shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, but it quickly disappeared from the repertoire after the onset of the Great Depression.

The first movement is based around two contrasting themes labelled 'Duty' and 'Love of Life.' The pastoral second movement uses various birdsongs collected by Kelley as the main source for its musical material. The funereal third movement first revisits the 'Duty' theme from the first movement, then continues with a theme and variations section revolving around a popular New England hymn: 'China' by Timothy Swan. The fourth movement has a similar marital spirit to the first and concludes with a treatment of the 'Duty' theme in the parallel major.

My NotePerformer simulation of the 18-minute long opening movement (which features can be heard on the work's IMSLP page.
https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.2,_Op.33_(Kelley,_Edgar_Stillman)

[Alan Howe]

The file doesn't seem to be accessible at the moment...

Thanks, by the way, for doing this work.

[adt]

There was an issue with the way the link was automatically formatted when I posted it. Should be fixed now.

[mjkFendrich]

I have posted a historical (complete) performance of this symphony recorded in 1936 with the Eastman Rochester SO conducted by Howard Hanson. See our downloads section.

[Mark Thomas]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[adt]

Well, that's a bunch of time and effort on my part that been wasted. 
At least you can hear the subtleties of the instrumentation in my realization.

[MartinH]

"The fourth movement has a similar marital spirit...". Along the lines of Strauss' Symphonia Domestica?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, that's a bunch of time and effort on my part that been wasted.

Not at all. As you rightly say, in your realisation we can hear much more clearly the orchestral subtleties. The sound of the 1936 recording, though not too bad, still leaves much to be desired - and perhaps your efforts will stimulate some interest in a modern performance and/or recording.

[Reverie]

adtminimal

Your efforts have not been wasted. On IMSLP the link works fine and I think your version is a lot sharper.

Thank you for completing the movement. It's a quite masterly work isn't it. I managed to complete the first 4 minutes or so as a taster. It has the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxsvhrduCg4&t=75s

It's at 15.15 mins

Many thanks for your hard graft!

[Alan Howe]

I agree! This is a thoroughly worthwhile piece of work.

[Richard Moss]

The (historical) recording I've just downloaded has, as downloaded, an mp3 file indication that the work is Op. 32 in a key of E-flat but the overall heading of this thread is B minor.  If possible, could someone please confirm the correct key?

Tks

Richard

[eschiss1]

Well, of Kelley's 2 symphonies, symphony no.2 Op.33 is in B-flat minor but I think No.1, which is Op.32, is in E-flat major. To find out which one you're listening to you can do one of two things:
"does this sound like a major- or minor- mode symphony?"
or compare it to the complete score of symphony no.2 as published by Schirmer in 1915.

[Richard Moss]

Eric,

Many tks for the quick reply.

I'm not an expert listener but they sound very much like the same work to me. The MIDI version has a much richer tone (the old 78 sounds very thin and tinny) so I guess the downloaded mp3 has a mis-labelled file and should be re-labelled Op. 33 in B-flat minor (Op. 32 in E-flat major being Sym 1).

Best wishes

Richard

[Holger]

Your guess is perfectly right, Richard. The mp3 is simply mislabeled.

Eric, I am not sure where you got your information about Kelley's First from. To my best knowledge, his First is his Op. 15, subtitled "Gulliver: His Voyage to Lilliput", a work from 1900 whose key is sometimes given as F Major.

[eschiss1]

ah, my mistake. You're right. Symphony  no.1 "Gulliver" Op.15 in F. Symphony no.2 op.33 in B-flat minor 1913. Also, Symphony no.3? (premiered April 9 1937, published 1936, 161 pp in full score) I think "Gulliver: His Travels in Lilliput". It's possible that symphony no.1 op.15 is the same as symphony "no.3" (my insertion, not theirs) and that it just wasn't published until 1936 (without opus number...) nor premiered until 1937, which would go aways to explaining why there's no PD-US version (actually no version at all, though it could be PD-EU and CA) at IMSLP of symphony no.1!

Ok, going to have a look at
https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/browse/displaypages.php?display[]=0049&display[]=68&display[]=77
this article which may clear things up... (copy and paste the whole line. Hrm. Maybe I should have used an Archiver )

Ok, this article has him having -sketched- the symphony earlier, but not having completed it, so "1900" as a date is incorrect.

so: Kelley's first is his Op.33 in B-flat minor of 1913; his second is his "Gulliver" of 189x-1936. Note that neither was published with a "no.1" or "no.2" and for good reason