The Symphony No. 5 by Walter Piston was composed in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

History

Piston's Fifth Symphony was commissioned by the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

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 Jean Paul Morel (January 10, 1903 in Abbeville – April 14, 1975 in New York City) was a French-born naturalized-American conductor. He served on the conducting staff of the New York City Opera from 1946-1951. He had a long association with th ...

. The program also included premieres of works by Peter Mennin, Lukas Foss,

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...

, 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

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. The slow movement begins with a

twelve-tone row In music, a tone row or note row (german: Reihe or '), also series or set, is a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets ar ...

, 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, but the variations are continuous rather than sectional, and are begun in succession by the clarinet, '' divisi'' strings, and tuba. The finale is a rondo, and is the most diatonic of the three movements. As is usual with Pistonian finales, it is drivingly rhythmic. The impression of a strong "American" sound is produced in this movement by a spaciousness of melodies and textures. The main theme, in

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 ...

, spans more than two octaves in jagged fourths, and the secondary theme is marked by jaunty

syncopation In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...

s. These jazz-like figures are indebted to up-tempo Broadway cabaret songs. Piston's treatment of them is at the same time witty and dated. The three movements do not form as satisfactory a symphonic whole as is found in the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies.

References

Sources * * * * Symphony No. 5 1954 compositions {{Symphony-stub