The Symphony No. 1 of
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher, and writer on music. He had started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved towards complex harmonies and postromanticism, a ...
is a symphony in three
movements
Movement may refer to:
Generic uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
* Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...
, in
E minor
E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp, on the F. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major.
The E natural minor scale is:
Change ...
.
The three movements are as follows:
#Giusto
#Largo
#
Allegro
Allegro may refer to:
Common meanings
* Allegro (music), a tempo marking that indicates to playing quickly and brightly (from Italian meaning ''cheerful'')
* Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement
Artistic works
* L'Allegro (1645), a poem b ...
vivace
It was completed in January 1927,
[Prausnitz, page 83.] and premiered by
Serge Koussevitzky
Serge Koussevitzky (born Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky;Koussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling "Serge", using it in his sig ...
and the
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...
on April 22, 1927. It was dedicated to Sessions' father Archibald.
It is scored for three
flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
s (one doubling piccolo), three
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
s (one doubling
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...
), four
clarinet
The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell.
Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
s, three
bassoon
The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...
s, four
horn
Horn may refer to:
Common uses
* Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide
** Horn antenna
** Horn loudspeaker
** Vehicle horn
** Train horn
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals
* Horn (instrument), a family ...
s, three
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 ...
s, three
trombone
The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
s, one
tuba
The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...
,
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
,
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
strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
.
Andrea Olmstead
Andrea Olmstead (born September 5, 1948) is an American musicologist and historian.
Reared in Grand Forks,North Dakota, Olmstead studied violin with Burton Kaplan in New York and with Lea Foli at the Aspen Music Festival; she was a member of the ...
describes all of Sessions's symphonies as "serious" and "funereal". In contrast, Prausnitz describes this symphony as having "a joyfully jazzy, organized vigor in its fast outer movements," in contrast with the middle movement, "a somberly reflective Largo that yields nothing to overt emotion. ..."
[Prausnitz, page 82.]
Discography
*''Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 1; William Bergsma: Music on a Quiet Theme; Russell Smith: Tetrameron''. Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
hon Firuhamoni Kokyo Gakudan Akeo Watanabe, cond. (Sessions and Smith); William Strickland, cond. (Bergsma). LP recording, 1 disc: analog, monaural, 33⅓ 12 in. CRI 131. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1960. Reissued as part of
Roger Sessions: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3'. CD recording, 1 disc: analog/digital, 4¾ in., stereo. CRI Records, CR573. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1990. Reissued again on CD as New World Records NWCR573. New York: Recorded Anthology of American Music, Inc., 2007.
References
Sources
* Anonymous.
Roger Sessions. Theodore Presser website (accessed 29 August 2015).
* Olmstead, Andrea. ''Roger Sessions: A Biography''. New York: Routledge, 2012. .
* Prausnitz, Frederik. ''Roger Sessions: How a "Difficult" Composer Got That Way''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
* Sessions, Roger.
Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3'. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 4¾ in., stereo. CRI Records, CR573. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1990. Reissued as NWCR573 by Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., 2007. Cited on DRAM website (accessed 18 August 2015).
Further reading
* Imbrie, Andrew. "The Symphonies of Roger Sessions". ''Tempo'' (new series), no. 103 (December 1972): 24–32.
External links
*
1927 compositions
Symphonies by Roger Sessions
Compositions in E minor
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