Harris, R: Symphonies Nos. 3 And 4

Description

Roy Harris (1898-1979): Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4Born originally LeRoy and, reputedly, in a log cabin inthe state of Oklahoma, Roy Harris was raised byfarmers of Scottish and Irish descent whose pioneeringforebears were stagecoach riders. Moving from thisremote 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 theearly 1920s he studied composition privately in theevenings and drove a dairy truck by day. After movingeastwards to New York he met Aaron Copland whorecommended further study in Paris with thedistinguished teacher Nadia Boulanger who was togenerate, in 1927, his first significant work, a Concertofor Clarinet, Piano and String Quartet. Compositions inalmost every genre followed (the exception was opera),and while he was notably active as a choral andorchestral composer, it is his thirteen completedorchestral symphonies1 spanning the years 1933 to 1976that form the backbone of his output.Written in 1938, Symphony No. 3 incorporatesmaterial refashioned from his first String Quartet(1929), the Second Symphony (1936) and an abortedViolin Concerto (1937), and was the result of acommission from the National Symphony Orchestra. Itspremi?¿re, however, was given in February 1939 by theBoston Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor, SergeKoussevitzky, called it 'the first great symphony by anAmerican composer'. The Boston Globe admired 'itsunflagging vitality', while the twenty-year-old LeonardBernstein described the work in Modern Music as'mature in every sense, beautifully proportioned,eloquent, restrained, and affecting'. The symphonyimmediately established itself in the repertory ofAmerican music and was to propel the 41-year-oldcomposer to international prominence.Cast in a single movement, a design shared with theSeventh, Eighth and Eleventh symphonies, the work'screative stimulus derives variously from plainsong,Renaissance polyphony, hymnody and folk-song. Theseelements Harris welds into his own distinctive voice.From the opening long-limbed and intensely lyricalcello theme, fresh melodic shoots develop (as of lifeawakening) and the overall effect is an extraordinarilywell-crafted and expressively powerful whole. Insteadof the traditional symphonic notion of opposing themesand tonalities with their development and recapitulation,Harris creates a work of continuous organic growth withsuperb economy of means. The scoring, with itsconventional woodwind, brass and string forces, callsfor a second tuba, and the percussion group includesbass drum, cymbals, triangle, xylophone andvibraphone.The composer provided his own notes for theBoston premi?¿re and outlined its five linked sections:Tragic, Lyric, Pastoral, Fugue - Dramatic, and Dramatic- Tragic. The opening paragraph is characterized byirregular phrases, spacious textures, bare fourths andfifths in a quasi-medieval style and a major tonality thatis undermined by increasing modal and minor nuanc