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Symphony No. 5 (Piston)
The Symphony No. 5 by Walter Piston was composed in 1954. History Piston's Fifth Symphony was commissioned by the Juilliard School of Music on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. It was completed in 1954, but premiered only on February 24, 1956, by the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Jean Paul Morel. The program also included premieres of works by Peter Mennin, Lukas Foss, Milton Babbitt, Irving Fine, Ross Lee Finney, and William Schuman. Analysis The work is in three movements: *Lento – Allegro con spirito *Adagio *Allegro lieto A typical performance will last around 21 minutes. The first movement is in sonata-allegro form, with an introductory Lento, which returns at the end in varied form as a coda. The slow movement begins with a twelve-tone row, the intervals of which are related to motives from the first movement. The main theme of the Adagio is also related to the intervals of this row, but is more diatonic in construction. The movement is in variation form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Hamor Piston, a bookkeeper, and Leona Stover. He was the second of four children. Although his family was mainly of English origin, his paternal grandfather was a sailor named Antonio Pistone, who changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to Maine from Genoa, Italy. In 1905 the composer's father, Walter Piston Sr, moved with his family to Boston, Massachusetts. Walter Jr first trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but was artistically inclined. After graduating in 1912, he enrolled in the Massachusetts Normal Art School, where he completed a four-year program in fine art in 1916. During the 1910s, Piston made a living playing piano and violin in dance bands and later playing violin in orchestras led by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C Major
C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel minor is C minor. The C major scale is: : On the piano, the C major scale can be played by playing only the white keys starting on C. Compositions Twenty of Joseph Haydn's 106 symphonies are in C major, making it his second most-used key, second to D major. Of the 134 symphonies mistakenly attributed to Haydn that H. C. Robbins Landon lists in his catalog, 33 are in C major, more than any other key. Before the invention of the valves, Haydn did not write trumpet and timpani parts in his symphonies, except those in C major. Landon writes that it wasn't "until 1774 that Haydn uses trumpets and timpani in a key other than C major... and then only sparingly." Most of Haydn's symphonies in C major are labelled "festive" an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Pollack
Howard Pollack (born March 17, 1952) is a prominent American pianist and musicologist, known for his biographies of American composers. Biography Pollack was born in Brooklyn and studied piano with Jennie Glickman while attending James Madison High School. He continued his piano studies with John Kollen and Eugene Bossart at the University of Michigan, where he received his Bachelor of Music in 1973; and with Adele Marcus at the Aspen Music Festival in 1970. He received a Master of Arts degree (1977) and Ph.D. (1981) in musicology from Cornell University, where he wrote his thesis, "Walter Piston and His Music", under the supervision of William Austin. He also studied composition privately with Samuel Adler in Rochester. After serving on the faculties of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and Empire State College, Pollack joined the faculty of the University of Houston in 1987, becoming John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Music in 2005. Pollack's books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Kraft
William Kraft (September 6, 1923 – February 12, 2022) was an American composer, conductor, teacher, timpanist, and percussionist. Biography Early life and education (1923–1954) Kraft was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was awarded two Anton Seidl Fellowships at Columbia University, graduating with a bachelor's degree cum laude in 1951 and a master's degree in 1954. He studied composition with Jack Beeson and Henry Cowell, orchestration with Henry Brant, percussion with Morris Goldenberg, timpani from Saul Goodman, and conducting with Rudolph Thomas and Fritz Zweig. While in New York City, Kraft worked as a freelance musician and was an extra percussionist at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1954, Kraft joined the Dallas Symphony. After one season, he accepted a position as percussionist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1955–1985) Kraft began as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's percussion section, before being promoted to the orchestra's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Musical Quarterly
''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including Carl Engel (1930–1944), Gustave Reese (1944-45), Paul Henry Lang, who edited the journal for over 25 years, from 1945 to 1973, Joan Peyser (1977–84), Eric Salzman who served as editor from 1984 to 1991 and several others. Since 1993 ''The Musical Quarterly'' has been edited by Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. Originally published by G. Schirmer, Inc., it is published by Oxford University Press. References External links * Articles published before 1923at the Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Incredible Flutist
''The Incredible Flutist'' is a ballet composed by Walter Piston in 1938, his only composition for the stage. The ballet received its premiere by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler on May 30 of that year. The libretto, written by Piston and Hans Wiener, describes a marketplace teeming with activity and enlivened by a circus. A flutist acts as a snake charmer and also charms women. A rich widow flirts with a merchant, is discovered by her lover, faints, and is revived by the flutist's music. The circus then leaves the square. Piston extracted an orchestral suite from the ballet, which was premiered on November 22, 1940, by the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner. The suite is in thirteen movements: *Introduction *"Siesta Hour in the Marketplace and Entrance of the Vendors" *"Dance of the Vendors" *"Entrance of the Customers" *"Tango of the Four Daughters" *"Arrival of Circus and Circus March" *"Solo of the Flutist" *Minuet – "Dance of the Widow and Merchant" *"Spanish Waltz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Doktor
Paul Doktor (March 28, 1917 in Vienna – June 21, 1989 in New York City) was a notable violist and orchestra conductor. The son of singer-pianist Georgine and violist Karl Doktor, at the age of five, Paul began violin studies with his father, and received his diploma from the State Academy of Music in 1938. While still in his teens, he toured as a violinist with the Adolf Busch Chamber Orchestra, but the youthful performer's mastery of the viola came to the fore when, at a few days' notice, he was asked to take over from the ailing second violist in a performance of a Felix Mendelssohn, Mendelssohn Quintet with the Busch String quartet, Quartet. His achievement was so remarkable that he was invited to join the Quartet in presenting a series of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart quintets at London's Wigmore Hall. From then on, Paul Doktor stuck to the instrument fate had chosen for him, and became the first violist ever to have been awarded unanimously the First Prize at the Genev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viola Concerto (Piston)
The Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is a musical composition for viola and orchestra by the American composer Walter Piston. The work was written in 1957 for the violist Joseph de Pasquale, who first performed the piece with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on March 7, 1958. Composition Structure The concerto has a duration of roughly 20 minutes and is cast in three movements: #Con moto moderato e flessible #Adagio con fantasia #Allegro vivo Instrumentation The work is scored for a solo viola and an orchestra consisting of a piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. Reception The music critic Andrew Farach-Colton of ''Gramophone'' wrote, "Piston's Concerto (1957) opens pensively, quickly builds to an aching climax (beginning around 4'00") with the first movement ending almost abruptly on a note of resignation. The central ''Adagio co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Whitney (conductor)
Robert Sutton Whitney (July 9, 1904 – November 22, 1986) was an American conductor and composer. He was a student of Leo Sowerby. Robert Whitney was best known for founding, in November 1937, together with the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky the Louisville Orchestra, and becoming its first conductor, a post he held until 1967.Cox, Dwayne; Morison, William James (2000). . University Press of Kentucky. p. 119. . (Its original name was the "Louisville Civic Arts Association," which was later changed to the "Louisville Philharmonic Society." The orchestra finally adopted its current name after it filed an amendment to its articles of incorporation in 1977.) His concerto grosso had earlier (1934) been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Whitney also served as dean of the School of Music of the University of Louisville, from 1956 to 1971. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron Delta Omicron () is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jorge Mester
Jorge Mester (born April 10, 1935, Mexico City) is a Mexican conductor of Hungarian ancestry. He has served as the artistic director for the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Veracruz, since it was founded in 2014. Biography He studied conducting with Jean Morel at the Juilliard School in New York City, and worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Berkshire Music Center and with Albert Wolff. In 1955 he made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico and in 1960 made his opera debut with '' Salome'' at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Mester became music director of the Louisville Orchestra in 1967 and served in the post until 1979. In this time he gave over 200 world premieres of works commissioned by the orchestra. From 1970 to 1990, he was music director of the Aspen Music Festival, and there founded the Aspen Chamber Symphony. He became music director of the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra in 1984. His most recent contract extension had been through 2012, but in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisville Orchestra
The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney (1904–1986) and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville. The Louisville Orchestra employs salaried musicians, and offers a wide variety of concert series to the community, including classical programs featuring international guest artists, pops performances, and education and family concerts. In 1942 the orchestra adopted the name of the former Louisville Philharmonic Society (founded in 1866), which it kept until 1977 before reverting to its original name. The orchestra is the resident performing group for the Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera, and presents several concerts across the Kentucky/Indiana area. The orchestra performs its concerts at Whitney Hall (named for its founder) in the Kentucky Center for the Arts and The Brown Theatre. The current Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra is Teddy Abrams, who began his tenure in 2014. First Editi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
