Is he a Neo-Tonalist?: Liebermann’s New York Requiem -Focusing on the Piano Sonata no.3, op.82-

HOWELL: Violin Sonata in F minor; Rosalind for violin & piano; Piano Sonata in E minor; Humoresque for piano; 5 Studies for piano. Lorraine McAslan (vln), Sophia Rahman (pno). Dutton Epoch CDLX 7144.BACEWICZ: Violin Sonatas Nos. 4–5; Oberek No. 1; Sonata No. 2 for violin solo; Partita; Capriccio; Polish Capriccio. Joanna Kurkowicz (v;n), Gloria Chien (pno). Chandos CHAN 10250.MARIC: Byzantine Concerto1; Cantata: Threshold of Dream2,3,6; Ostinato Super Thema Octoïcha4–6; Cantata: Song of Space7. 1Olga Jovanovic (pno), Belgrade PO c. Oskar Danon, 2Dragoslava Nikolic (sop, alto), 3Jovan Milicevic (narr), 4Ljubica Maric (pno), 5Josip Pikelj (hp), 6Radio-TV Belgrade CO c. Oskar Danon, 7Radio-TV Belgrade Mixed Choir & SO c. Mladen Jagušt. Chandos Historical 10267H.MUSGRAVE: For the Time Being: Advent1; Black Tambourine2–3; John Cook; On the Underground Sets1–3. 1Michael York (narr), 2Walter Hirse (pno), 3Richard Fitz, Rex Benincasa (perc),New York Virtuoso Singers c. Harold Rosenbaum. Bridge 9161.KUI DONG: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire1; Pangu's Song2; Blue Melody3; Crossing (electronic/computer tape music); Three Voices4. 1Sarah Cahill (pno), 2Tod Brody (fl), Daniel Kennedy (perc), 3San Francisco Contemporary Music Players c. Olly Wilson, 4Hong Wang (Chinese fiddle), Ann Yao (Chinese zither), Chen Tao (bamboo fl). New World 80620-2.FIRSOVA: The Mandelstam Cantatas: Forest Walks, op. 36; Earthly Life, op. 31; Before the Thunderstorm, op. 70. Ekaterina Kichigina (sop), Studio for New Music Moscow c. Igor Dronov. Megadisc MDC 7816.KATS-CHERNIN: Ragtime & Blues. Sarah Nicholls (pno). Nicola Sweeney (vln). Signum SIGCD058.CHAMBERS: A Mass for Mass Trombones. Thomas Hutchinson (trb), Ensemble of 76 trombones c. David Gilbert. Centaur CRC 2263.

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Charles Ives's Concord

10.5406/illinois/9780252040856.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Kyle Gann

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Insurance Company ◽

Piano Sonata ◽

Charles Ives ◽

The Press ◽

Aesthetic Thinking ◽

American Authors ◽

World Premiere

In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music the recipients had seen before, the piece was subtitled “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,” and the four sonata movements were named for American authors: “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” “Thoreau.” Ridiculed in the press at first, the Concord Sonata gained admirers (including composers like Copland and Gershwin and writers like Henry Bellamann), and when finally given its complete world premiere by John Kirkpatrick in 1939, it was hailed as “the greatest music composed by an American.” The piece is so complex that it has never been fully analyzed before, and this book is the first to explore and detail its methods on every page. Likewise, Ives wrote a book to accompany the sonata, titled Essays Before a Sonata, purporting to explain his aesthetic thinking, and no one has ever before seriously examined Ives’s aesthetic through-argument.

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Middle Years

Samuel Barber ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190863739.003.0011 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 282-343

Author(s):

Barbara B. Heyman

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Symphony Orchestra ◽

Prose Poem ◽

Piano Sonata ◽

James Agee ◽

American Composers ◽

Boston Symphony Orchestra ◽

Cello Concerto ◽

Impending Death ◽

Annual Award

After his discharge from the Army, Barber continued work with the Office of War Information but was able to work at home. He received a commission from John Nicholas Brown for a Cello Concerto for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Written to include the strengths and predilections of cellist Raya Garbousova, the concerto is considered one of the most challenging contemporary works of the genre and won Barber the Fifth Annual Award of the Music Critics Circle of New York. Reputedly one of the most promising American composers of his time, Barber also composed music for Martha Graham’s ballet about Medea, Cave of the Heart. In 1947, under the shadow of his father’s deteriorating health and Louise Homer’s impending death, Barber composed his most “American work,” Knoxville: Summer of 1915, for voice and orchestra. It is set to a nostalgic prose-poem by James Agee and was premiered by the Boston Symphony with Eleanor Steber as soloist. Following this, Barber composed a piano sonata for Vladimir Horowitz, a work that had the most stunning impact on the American musical world.

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