Symphony Concertante is a composition by

Gail Kubik Gail Thompson Kubik (September 5, 1914 – July 20, 1984) was an American composer, music director, violinist, and teacher. He first gained widespread recognition for his scores for World War II documentary films, including '' Memphis Belle: A St ...

(1914–1984) for

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

. It was premiered January 7, 1952 by its commissioner,

The Little Orchestra :''Not to be confused by The Little Orchestra of London'' The Little Orchestra Society is an American orchestra based at 630 9th Avenue, Suite 807 in New York City. It was founded in 1947 by Thomas Scherman, who served as its conductor until hi ...

, Thomas Scherman conducting. The work is structured as follows: #Fast, vigorously #Quietly #Fast, with energy. In the score Kubik notes the work "represents an effort to reconcile the large-scale expressive demands of a symphony with the virtuoso exhibitionistic demands of the concerto form". Kubik was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted i ...

in 1952 for the piece. The committee wrote: "The Symphony Concertante is brilliant and exuberant, full of rhythmic vitality, the orchestration both original and skillful." The piece is based Kubik's score for the 1949 film '' C-Man''. When the film's producers Laruel Films, Inc went out of business in 1951, Kubik, having had the foresight to reserve copyright to the music beyond just motion picture use, was able to use the film score material to compose the piece. This example was used by

Howard Hanson Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981)''The New York Times'' – Obituaries. Harold C. Schonberg. February 28, 1981 p. 1011/ref> was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty year ...

and copyright expert Leonard Zissu during 1965 congressional hearings in favor of revising copyright law more favorably for composers.

Sources

Compositions by Gail Kubik 1952 compositions Kubik Pulitzer Prize for Music–winning works {{Classical-composition-stub