a r t i s t : Roy Harris (Colorado Symphony Orchestra)
t i t l e : Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Naxos
g e n r e : Classical
r l s. d a t e : Feb/2007
t r a c k s : 08
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 77,1 MB
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Roy Harris (1898-1979)
Symphony No. 3 (1938) [2, 3]
Symphony No. 4 "Folk Song Symphony" for Orchestra and chorus
of mixed voices (1939) [1, 2, 3]
Choir(s):
Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus (1)
Orchestra(s):
Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2)
Conductor(s):
Alsop, Marin (3)
For extended information and reviews:
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559227
Sung texts can be found at:
http://www.naxos.com/libretti/royharrisfolksongsymphony.htm
---
Born originally LeRoy and, reputedly, in a log cabin in the
state of Oklahoma, Roy Harris was raised by farmers of
Scottish and Irish descent whose pioneering forebears were
stagecoach riders. Moving from this remote frontier territory
to California at the age of five, Harris eventually took up
the piano and clarinet. Following a period at the University
of California in the early 1920s he studied composition
privately in the evenings and drove a dairy truck by day.
After moving eastwards to New York he met Aaron Copland who
recommended further study in Paris with the distinguished
teacher Nadia Boulanger who was to generate, in 1927, his
first significant work, a Concerto for Clarinet, Piano and
String Quartet. Compositions in almost every genre followed
(the exception was opera), and while he was notably active as
a choral and orchestral composer, it is his thirteen completed
orchestral symphonies1 spanning the years 1933 to 1976 that
form the backbone of his output.
Written in 1938, Symphony No. 3 incorporates material
refashioned from his first String Quartet (1929), the Second
Symphony (1936) and an aborted Violin Concerto (1937), and was
the result of a commission from the National Symphony
Orchestra. Its premiΦre, however, was given in February 1939
by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor, Serge
Koussevitzky, called it æthe first great symphony by an
American composerÆ. The Boston Globe admired æits unflagging
vitalityÆ, while the twenty-year-old Leonard Bernstein
described the work in Modern Music as æmature in every sense,
beautifully proportioned, eloquent, restrained, and
affectingÆ. The symphony immediately established itself in the
repertory of American music and was to propel the 41-year-old
composer to international prominence.
Cast in a single movement, a design shared with the Seventh,
Eighth and Eleventh symphonies, the workÆs creative stimulus
derives variously from plainsong, Renaissance polyphony,
hymnody and folk-song. These elements Harris welds into his
own distinctive voice. From the opening long-limbed and
intensely lyrical cello theme, fresh melodic shoots develop
(as of life awakening) and the overall effect is an
extraordinarily well-crafted and expressively powerful whole.
Instead of the traditional symphonic notion of opposing themes
and tonalities with their development and recapitulation,
Harris creates a work of continuous organic growth with superb
economy of means. The scoring, with its conventional woodwind,
brass and string forces, calls for a second tuba, and the
percussion group includes bass drum, cymbals, triangle,
xylophone and vibraphone.
The composer provided his own notes for the Boston premiΦre
and outlined its five linked sections: Tragic, Lyric,
Pastoral, Fugue û Dramatic, and Dramatic û Tragic. The opening
paragraph is characterized by irregular phrases, spacious
textures, bare fourths and fifths in a quasi-medieval style
and a major tonality that is undermined by increasing modal
and minor nuances. The lean scoring gives way to a striding,
chorale-like violin theme where parallel rhythms in horns and
woodwind add rich sonorities. A solo flute marks the beginning
of the Pastoral section where woodwind and later brass
punctuate a shimmering, polytonal string background (the parts
distributed over fourteen staves) with numerous short variants
on the triadic material in HarrisÆs characteristic block-like
scoring. This leads to an assertive five-bar fugue theme
(first heard by the strings) of ambiguous metre. A series of
brass exchanges over dominating percussion gathers momentum
and builds to a climax. Tension is released in a sonorous
restatement of the opening themes above a fragmented version
of the fugal idea in the brass and a relentless timpani pedal.
The workÆs dramatic conclusion and drawn out final bars is
utterly convincing. æMade in the USAÆ is stamped on every
page; its broad, sweeping melodies evoking vast landscapes, a
sense of endeavour and of a nation on the threshold of
something momentous.
Misnamed by the composer æFolk Song SymphonyÆ (Symphony No.
4), this work is really a fantasia for chorus and orchestra.
It began life in the late summer of 1939 and was first
performed in April the following year at the American Spring
Festival in Rochester, New York, conducted by Howard Hanson.
The original outline of five choral movements was revised and
two orchestral interludes were added, and it is in this form
that it was premiΦred on 26th December 1940 by the Cleveland
Orchestra. This was by no means his first attempt at writing a
large-scale choral work: five years earlier he had completed
an unaccompanied, threemovement Whitman-inspired Symphony for
Voices. Indeed, his interest in choral singing led to a period
of intensive research and a two-volume anthology of choral
works (of the European masters) entitled Singing Through the
Ages. From his university teaching experiences in the summer
of 1938 at Princeton, New Jersey, Harris developed the idea of
a folk-song symphony, commenting that it served æthe practical
purpose of bringing about a cultural co-operation and
understanding among high school, college and community
choruses à that are too remote socially from their communityÆ.
In sourcing ideas for the new work Harris draws on an eclectic
mix of folk material from a variety of regional and ethnic
roots that include cowboy songs, frontier ballads, spirituals
and marching songs. The first movement, The Girl I Left Behind
Me, is a rousing Civil War song whose buoyant orchestral
introduction, high spirits and marching rhythms recall the
confidence of young soldiers leaving home. Its large-scale
scoring incorporates an extensive percussion section including
piano and marimba. The main tune soon emerges sung in unison
by alternating menÆs and womenÆs voices. A solo horn sets the
mood for Western Cowboy û a movement featuring the traditional
songs: æOh bury me not on the lone prairieÆ and æThe Streets
of LaredoÆ, this last tune eventually being heard in canon. In
the spare orchestral writing with its sustained woodwind and
brass chords, its abrupt major/minor shifts and wandering
tonality of æno fixed abodeÆ, Harris attempts to mirror the
loneliness and hardships of life in an unforgiving and untamed
landscape reflected in the words.
There follows the first orchestral interlude in which strings
and percussion (including vibraphone) bring a more carefree,
outdoor character. Its ternary structure (ABA) encompasses
original material based on hoedown dance patterns and a jig
The Irish Washerwoman. The second interlude, again in
unbuttoned mood, continues the use of dance-based tunes and
incorporates amongst further original string melody the tune
æJump Up My LadyÆ.
The central Mountaineer Love Song is a nostalgic melody from
the South, based on the ballad æHeÆs gone awayÆ, characterized
by expressive writing with rich choral and orchestral textures
(with divided violas and cellos) that provide pathos. After an
extended introduction, almost in the manner of a slow funeral
procession, The Negro Fantasy incorporates the soulful tunes
æLittle boy named DavidÆ and æDe trumpet sounds it in my
soulÆ. The concluding movement, Johnny Comes Marching Home, is
another rousing Civil War song. In writing this upbeat finale,
(adapted from an earlier American Overture of 1934) Harris
said, æI hoped to capture the spirit of exhilaration and joy
which our people would feel when the men came home from warÆ.
David Truslove
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01-Symphony No. 3 [18:03]
02-Symphony No. 4 - I. The Girl I Left Behind Me [03:50]
03-Symphony No. 4 - II. Western Cowboy [10:23]
04-Symphony No. 4 - III. Interlude: Dance Tunes for [03:03]
Strings and Percussion
05-Symphony No. 4 - IV. Mountaineer Love Song [07:44]
06-Symphony No. 4 - V. Interlude: Dance Tunes for Full [03:06]
Orchestra
07-Symphony No. 4 - VI. Negro Fantasy [09:20]
08-Symphony No. 4 - VII. Johnny Comes Marching Home [03:15]
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58:44 min