Program Notes

by Maestro Bruce Hangen

Celebrating America’s 250th birthday, we present as our season-opening concert three outstanding, monumental symphonic compositions composed in a short but very creative and formative period in our history and which will continue to live and represent who we are as a nation.  Each of the three symphonic monuments represent pivotal moments in America’s music history and development, each one also providing impetus and inspiration for future composers of all stripes. William Grant Still’s Symphony is the first time a symphony composed by a an African-American was performed by a major U.S. orchestra; Gershwin’s Rhapsody crystalized efforts by many to “legitimize” popular music for the concert stage; and Copland’s Symphony has created itself the position of “great American symphony” whose composer who was unusually active at influencing generations of young composers and at advancing the cause of art music in this country. 

The Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American” (1930) is in the traditional four-movement symphonic format,  but composer William Grant Still (1895-1978) wrote music not known at the time as symphonic material.  Rather, the first movement is as true a statement of the Blues as anything found in non-concert halls of the time.  It has a songful, gently rhythmic sensuousness wonderfully incorporated into the classical symphonic tradition.  Continuing in that same vein, the second movement is a Spiritual, reflective in nature; the third movement is a Shout for Joy, openly enthusiastic about life, and the last movement transitions from pastoral to joyful, subtitled by Grant Still as Aspiration.  Rarely in symphonic literature is the composer’s essential nature so evident as in this piece.

What is there to say about the Rhapsody in Blue (1924) that hasn’t already been said or that you don’t know already?  Do keep in mind that, while still only in his twenties, George Gershwin (1898-1937) was already well-known as a fresh and daring young composer from Tin Pan Alley, with multiple successful shows and songs under his belt.  So, it only made sense, then, that the leading bandleader of the time, Paul Whiteman, engage such a talented young man for a concert called “An Experiment in Modern Music.” Unfortunately, Gershwin found out about Whiteman’s plan only by reading an announcement in the newspaper on the train to Boston!  Gershwin took the announcement to heart, however, and within a few short weeks he had composed this piece that became an overnight sensation.  In the audience for that first performance in February 1924 were none other than Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz and Leopold Stokowski!

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was born in Brooklyn, NY, son of an immigrant family of Lithuanian origin, but over the course of his long life composed music that still is defined as “American.” Perhaps that comes from his early ballet successes for Martha Graham, such as Appalachian Spring and his works like “Billy the Kid“, “Rodeo“, “The Red Pony” and “Lincoln Portrait.”  In fact, much of his earliest work was quite experimental, following in the footsteps of more established American composers toying with different compositional techniques.  But, thanks to his private study with composer/educator Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Copland eventually found his true compositional soul that to this day resonates with musician and non-musician alike.  So, when World War II was settled, Copland aspired to write a major symphony in his own abstract symphonic language (i.e., without dependency on folk tunes and the like), but nevertheless incorporating his earlier work, the “Fanfare for the Common Man.”  That short work became the impetus for creating this monumental four-movement symphony that none other than Koussevitzky of the Boston Symphony declared as America’s greatest symphony.  Even Leonard Bernstein, life-long friend of the composer, called Copland’s Symphony No. 3 (1946) as monumental as the Washington or Lincoln monuments.