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Morton Gould —American Salute - 1943
Learn more about Morton Gould
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Musical artillery written literally overnight for a patriotic World War II radio broadcast, Morton Gould's American Salute is a short set of variations on the Civil War song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." A sputtering, machine-gun fanfare subsides into a quiet woodwind statement of the theme over a staccato accompaniment that evokes Morse code. The theme is restated with different timbres more than varied, always with that quick, ostinato rhythm, until the brass section breaks out with its own bombastic, syncopated treatment halfway through. The frenzy subsides into a Taps-like approach, with the woodwinds and strings then interjecting a bit of humor before the full orchestra revs up with an energetic statement leading to a rapid-fire finale. The work was premiered in 1943 on the radio show, "Cresta Blanca Carnival," with Gould conducting. Gould himself did not consider this piece to be anything special. Late in his life, the composer stated that "it was just a setting. I was doing a million of those things." The composition has endeared itself to many, though, due to Gould's creativity in producing an inspiring orchestral work from a folk melody.
from Classical Archives
Samuel Barber —Adagio for Strings, 1938
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Barber's Adagio for Strings originated as the second movement in his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, composed in 1936. In the original it follows a violently contrasting first movement, and is succeeded by a brief reprise of this music.
In January 1938 Barber sent the piece to Arturo Toscanini. The conductor returned the score without comment, and Barber was annoyed and avoided the conductor. Subsequently Toscanini sent word through a friend that he was planning to perform the piece and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it. It was reported that Toscanini did not look at the music again until the day before the premiere. The work was given its first performance in a radio broadcast by Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on November 5, 1938 in New York.
The composer also transcribed the piece in 1967 for eight-part choir, as a setting of the Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God").
from Wikipedia - Learn More
Aaron Copland - Lincoln Portrait, 1942
Narrator: Parke Thomas
Visuals by Samuel Wenberg
Learn more about Aaron Copland
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Lincoln Portrait (also known as A Lincoln Portrait) is a classical orchestral work written by the American composer Aaron Copland. The work involves a full orchestra, with particular emphasis on the brass section at climactic moments. The work is narrated with the reading of excerpts of Abraham Lincoln's great documents, including the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln Portrait was written by Copland as part of the World War II patriotic war effort in 1942.
from Wikipedia - Read More about Lincoln Portrait on Wikipedia
Learn more about Parke Thomas:
Parke Thomas (Narrator) is delighted to appear with the Walla Walla Symphony where once he was the youngest bass player in the orchestra. He served for 14 years on Whitman’s theatre faculty teaching acting, audition technique, and American theatre dance history. Previously he spent many years as a New York-based actor and singer.
In New York, regionally and in stock he had leading roles in shows including My Fair Lady, Music Man, Mystery of Edwin Drood, Anything Goes, Mikado, Oliver, Oh Coward, Five Finger Exercise, Pippin, Fiddler on the Roof, Damn Yankees, Kismet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Private Lives, Five Finger Exercise, His Last Days, She Stoops to Conquer, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Tempest, and The Merchant of Venice. He appeared on the ABC soap, Ryan’s Hope and his cabaret act was popularly featured at several New York City clubs. His most recent New York appearances were Off-Broadway in Oats: A Serial, and in the 45th anniversary production of Al Carmines’ Christmas Rappings at the Sonja Moore Theatre. Locally he was recently seen as Emile de Beque in South Pacific and Sol in True West.
Thomas’ directing career began in earnest with a 1987 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to direct and choreograph How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. At Harper Joy Theatre he helmed 20 productions ranging from the tragic Laramie Project to the disagreeably titled but hugely popular Urinetown: The Musical. For the Walla Walla Choral Society he directed, designed and choreographed the opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors. Most recently he staged a massive production of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes! at the Ft. Walla Walla Amphitheater.
Currently Mr. Thomas is proud to serve as President of Blue Mountain Heart to Heart.
Dvorak—New World Symphony,1893
Learn more about Antonin Dvorak
Listen to part of the 2nd Movement
The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World" (Op. 95, B. 178), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the modern repertoire. In older literature and recordings this symphony is often indicated as Symphony No. 5. The piece has four movements:
- I. Adagio — Allegro molto
- II. Largo
- III. Scherzo: Molto vivace — Poco sostenuto
- IV. Allegro con fuoco
Dvořák was interested in the Native American music and African-American spirituals he heard in America. Upon his arrival in America, he stated:
- "I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them."
The symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and premiered on December 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall conducted by Anton Seidl. A day earlier, in an article published in the New York Herald on December 15, 1893, Dvořák further explained how Native American music had been an influence on this symphony:
- "I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral color."
In the same article, Dvořák stated that he regarded the symphony's second movement as a "sketch or study for a later work, either a cantata or ... which will be based upon Longfellow's [The Song of] Hiawatha" (Dvořák never actually wrote such a piece). He also wrote that the third movement scherzo was "suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance".
Curiously enough, passages which modern ears perceive as the musical idiom of African-American spirituals may have been intended by Dvořák to evoke a Native American atmosphere. In 1893, a newspaper interview quoted Dvořák as saying "I found that the music of the negroes and of the Indians was practically identical", and that "the music of the two races bore a remarkable similarity to the music of Scotland". Most historians agree that Dvořák is referring to the pentatonic scale, which is typical of each of these musical traditions.
In a 2008 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, prominent musicologist Joseph Horowitz asserts that African-american spirituals were a major influence on the 9th symphony, quoting Dvořák from an 1893 interview in the New York Herald as saying, "In the negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music."
Despite all this, it is generally considered that, like other Dvořák pieces, the work has more in common with folk music of his native Bohemia than with that of the United States. Leonard Bernstein averred that the work was truly multinational in its foundations.
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