aworks :: "new" american classical music

Symphony No. 3 (1939). Roy Harris /grammy hall of fame/

(Boston Symphony Orchestra)

The 1940 RCA Victor recording of Roy Harris' Symphony No. 3 by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra has been added to the Grammy Hall of fame collection. Other artists of note include the Rolling Stones, Doris Day, Santana, Cole Porter, and Leroy Carr. Via hypebot.

Amazon is the only online source I found so far.

Symphony No. 3 (1939). Roy Harris /over-worrying it/

After more provocative aesthetic considerations, it's back to the more mundane but fascinating questions like who will be America's top composer. The John Adams interview last week touched on this (did I ever mention I greatly enjoy it when living composers talk about other composers?):

Q Reich is over-worrying it?

A Well, I don't want to characterize him as "worrying," but I can say for the record that the way he presents himself in his official biography suggests a preoccupation with his place in history. That's not unusual for artists, of course, but I try not to worry about those "place in history" evaluations, for two reasons. The first is that it inhibits the freedom of your creative thinking. The second is that history has a way of turning the tables in a very rude way. Yesterday's big star is today's forgotten mediocrity. Think of Meyerbeer, or closer to our time, Roy Harris, who was far more famous in the 1930s than Aaron Copland or Charles Ives. Best to stay humble!

I won't compare Harris with Copland or Ives but it occurs to me that I personally, subjectively, non-rationally prefer Harris' Symphony No. 3 to anything by Adams or Reich. Of course, numbers 2 thru 24 are all Adams and Reich (with #25 Lara Downes playing Harris' American Ballads).

Wikipedia has some interesting Harris data:

He received many of America's most prestigious cultural awards, and at the end of his life was proclaimed Honorary Composer Laureate of the State of California.

Harris's sons Shaun and Dan performed with The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, a Los Angeles-based psychedelic rock band of the late 1960s (although Roy Harris did not approve of rock music).[citation needed]

Symphony No. 7 (1952-55). Roy Harris

Tonight on aworks Evening Concert, as the clouds clear after a California autumn rain, we'll start with Stephen Yi on Roy Harris:

I had never really given Roy Harris’s music much attention, no particular reason I guess, but today on Rhapsody I put on Roy Harris: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 9, currently listening to Symphony no.7 and am enjoying very much the colors.

We also don't give Harris' music much attention on this show but his Third Symphony deserves all its acclaim.

Via iTunes, we'll now play tracks not heard on the program since March of last year. First up is Ives' Symphony No. 1 played by the Detroit Symphony. Delightful and always surprisingly conventional.

Then, as a treat, we have the pianist Ursula Oppens playing Carter's Night Fantasies...

No, nothing wrong with the audio. I just couldn't resist playing the last minute of the work three times in a row -- those strong chords and then it trails off into oblivion.

We'll break the mood (and scare off most of our audience) with Autechre's Drone...

There, that wasn't as bad as you thought it would be, was it? For more, Disquiet recommends the Autechre/Hafler Trio double CD:

Disc one moves from what could be a distant volcano rumbling, to rabid fissures and sparks, to more earthen tumult. Disc two is more sedate, the sort of noise that never seems to get louder, no matter how much one turns up the volume knob.

And for those who came here because of the Autechre, we'll prove orchestral music doesn't have to be legacy music. Stick around when Benny blogs about some David Bowie-inspired symphonies by Philip Glass amid mentions of Hawkwind, Guided by Voices, Taj Mahal and other eclectica:

The 'Heroes Symphony' came four years later and was the New York composer's third release in 1997. 'Heroes' has shorter, swifter pieces than on the more grandiose 'Low' ('Heroes' doubles as a ballet score) and a more tenuous connection to the original songs.

  Coming up, by Samuel Barber of Platoon soundtrack fame, the swirling First Essay, also conducted by Neeme Jarvi and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra whom we encountered earlier. Speaking of Detroit, we heard the mayor was re-elected last night but some are hoping he improves his performance. Do we miss Coleman Young? By the way, here's a Cincinnati-based blog about Neeme's conductor son Paavo Jarvi I've been reading.

And we'll end tonight's aworks Evening Concert with Miles Davis giving us In a Silent Way/It's About That Time. Thanks for listening.