The Symphony No. 1, Op. 17, ''Exile'' is the first

symphony 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 com ...

by the American composer

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American-Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and ...

. The piece was composed in 1936 and was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the conductor

Leslie Heward Leslie Hays Heward (8 December 1897 – 3 May 1943) was an English conductor and composer. Between 1930 and 1942 he was the Music Director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra. Heward was born in Liversedge, Yorkshire, the son of a railway po ...

in 1939. The work commemorates the

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

of the

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n people, including Hovhaness's paternal family, during the

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...

occupation of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The symphony is dedicated to English writer and philosopher

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

. The work's U.S. premiere was given on 6 December 1942 by the

NBC Symphony Orchestra The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony performed weekly radio concert broadcasts with Tosca ...

conducted by Leopold Stokowski. This performance was broadcast over the radio. Around 1970 the composer replaced the central movement with a completely new one.

Reception

Response to the premiere was positive, with Leslie Heward heralding Hovhaness as a "young genius." However, later reception of the work has not always been as favourable. Reviewing a recording of ''Exile'' by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Anthony Burton of ''

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. History The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC was the original owner and publisher toget ...

'' wrote, "Hovhaness’s astonishing productivity is achieved at the cost of self-criticism: the folk-like melodies can all too often seem four-square and predictable, the chromatic decoration banal doodling, the technically proficient fugues simply note-spinning." Burton added, "Not even the skilful and ardent advocacy of the Seattle Symphony, beautifully recorded, can persuade me that there is ..much more than the picturesque about the early ''Exile Symphony''."

References

Bibliography

* 1 1936 compositions 20th-century classical music Compositions for symphony orchestra Works about the Armenian genocide {{symphony-stub

Reception

See also

References

Bibliography