(cover image by Ian Dooley) The series is available, in reverse chronological order, here. This has been one of the most exciting series we’ve done. There has been such a wide spectrum of styles and approaches, but really just excellent … Continue reading The American Symphony in Review
performed by the Pacifica Quartet (no video today, but go check out the album for some audio clips) (cover image by Steven Wang) Back to Blackwood. If you know Blackwood’s name from somewhere (and you’re not a contract bridge player; … Continue reading Blackwood String Quartet no. 3
performed by Sinfonia Varsovia under Ian Hobson More and more, I realize the power of music—the power of the interval, of rhythm, of being exact in what I put down as what I meant to hear. George Walker, Strings Magazine … Continue reading George Walker: Sinfonia no. 3
performed by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (commissioner of the work) under Dennis Russel Davies second, third and fourth movements (cover photo by John Price) Here we are today with Glass’s first symphonic work to appear on the blog, the first … Continue reading Glass Symphony no. 3
performed by Gunther Schuller’s ad hoc string orchestra Just let the music wash over you in its totality, and you might be surprised what rich and totally new listening rewards you will reap. -Gunther Schuller, on Transfigured Notes (cover image by … Continue reading Babbitt: Transfigured Notes
performed by the Smith Quartet, or below by the Kronos Quartet (cover image by Oskar Krawczyk) Philip Glass’s third string quartet is in many ways (at least spiritually) related to the second. That work was to be incidental music for … Continue reading Glass String Quartet no. 3, ‘Mishima’
performed by two people with four hands (cover image by Tim Gouw) Stephen Michael Reich was born on October 3, 1936 in New York City. His parents divorced within a year or so of his birth, so he divided his … Continue reading Steve Reich: Clapping Music
performed by The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under John Nelson third movement here (second movement seems not to be on YouTube. Just go buy the album!) Throughout the entire Symphony, the melodic and harmonic implications of the first fifteen bars of … Continue reading Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony no. 1)
performed by the Louisville Orchestra under Lawrence Leighton Smith (cover image by Jennifer Arlem Molina) William Elden Bolcom is still alive. He was born May 26, 1938 in Seattle. He entered the University of Washington at the exceedingly young age of 11 … Continue reading William Bolcom: Symphony No. 3, for Chamber Orchestra
performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose, or below by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the composer’s baton (cover image by Andrew Yardley) Irving Gifford Fine was born in Boston on 3 December 1914. He earned both … Continue reading Irving Fine: Symphony
performed by you, or anyone, or everyone, anywhere (cover image by Felix Mooneeram) By being hushed and silent we should have the opportunity to hear what other people think… John Milton Cage, Jr. was born on September 5, 1912 in Los … Continue reading John Cage: 4’33”
performed by the Pacifica Quartet, or below by the Juilliard Quartet Like the desert horizons I saw daily while it was being written, the First Quartet presents a continuous unfolding and changing of expressive characters—one woven into the other or … Continue reading Elliott Carter: String Quartet no. 1
performed by the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz …without even the shadow of a doubt one of the half dozen great works written during the last ten years. It sings forever in my heart and in my consciousness, and it … Continue reading Walter Piston: Symphony no. 2
performed by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, or below by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy This is no abstract intellectual exercise but an expression of changing moods and emotions, generating excitement and ecstasy at the climactic points. … Continue reading William Schuman: Symphony no. 3
performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwartz second and third movements It speaks a language familiar to most audiences and does so with imaginative new inflections – such sumptuously long-breathed themes, such rhythmic vitality and such crystalline orchestration. … Continue reading David Diamond: Symphony no. 1
performed by the Fine Arts Quartet, or below by the Mondriaan String Quartet second, third and fourth movements (cover image by Larm Rmah) George Johann Carl Antheil was born on July 8, 1900 into a family of German immigrants in … Continue reading George Antheil: String Quartet no. 3
performed by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, or below by the NBC Orchestra and Arturo Toscanini For me the sounds were like no others I had ever heard – his whole ‘autogenic’ concept of form, the free and … Continue reading Roy Harris: Symphony no. 3
performed by the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein (cover image by Freddie Marriage) Henry Dixon Cowell was born on 11 March, 1897 in Menlo Park, California “to two Bohemian writers,” says Wikipedia. “His father was an Irish immigrant and … Continue reading Henry Cowell: Symphony no. 2, ‘Anthropos’
performed by the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin, or below by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (cover image by Dawid Zawiła) The dialectic of this music, that is to say, its movement, the way each and every note comes out … Continue reading Copland Symphony no. 2, ‘Short Symphony’
performed by the Quatuor Diotima (cover image by Frantzou Fleurine) Everyone knows the middle movement, but what about what comes before and after it? This quartet, while an early work, is powerful and more than worthy of a listen from … Continue reading Barber String Quartet in Bm, op. 11
performed by the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble under Leslie B. Dunner (cover image by Dave Robinson) This is a historic symphony. Florence Beatrice Smith was born to Florence (née Gulliver) and James H. Smith on April 9, 1897 in Little … Continue reading Florence Price: Symphony no. 1 in Em
Fugue for Thought 