Talk2010

William Schuman's Puzzling Seventh Symphony

Library Of Congress

Music

At the Library of Congress

Clips are not offered for this film: the Library of Congress states its rights in its own words, not as a public licence, which leaves reuse unclear.

About

The Music Division of the Library of Congress and the American Musicological Society, in joint partnership, presented another in a series of lectures highlighting musicological research conducted in the division's collections. Steven Swayne of Dartmouth College discussed William Schuman's Seventh Symphony. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 1954, the symphony premiered in the fall of 1960, nearly five years after the 75th anniversary of the BSO. Schuman's correspondence unexpectedly reveals that much of the Seventh Symphony was written not for Boston, but for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Only when the Philadelphia commission collapsed did Schuman repurpose the already-composed music for Boston. Still more intriguing is the presence of a 12-tone row as the opening subject of the first movement. While others have noted the presence of 12-tone harmonies in Schuman's music, to Swayne's knowledge no one has ever remarked on this unusual appearance of a 12-tone melody. The manuscript of the Seventh Symphony in the Koussevitzky Collection of the Library of Congress solves the puzzle about the Philadelphia-Boston connection.

Archive
Library of Congress, in Library of Congress: talks and concerts
Licence or status
Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.
Credit
Library of Congress
Language
English
Country
United States
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