While the European avant-garde of the mid-20th century rejected symphonic form as hidebound, reactionary, and ill-suited to the requirements of total serialism, composers in the United States, which included Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Roy Harris, William Schuman, and Roger Sessions, adopted the symphony as an appropriate vehicle for their expansive and elegiac themes, rugged orchestration, open tonality, and the optimism characteristic of Americana. Walter Piston was among these serious practitioners of symphonic writing ...
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While the European avant-garde of the mid-20th century rejected symphonic form as hidebound, reactionary, and ill-suited to the requirements of total serialism, composers in the United States, which included Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Roy Harris, William Schuman, and Roger Sessions, adopted the symphony as an appropriate vehicle for their expansive and elegiac themes, rugged orchestration, open tonality, and the optimism characteristic of Americana. Walter Piston was among these serious practitioners of symphonic writing, and his Symphony No. 6 of 1955 is a landmark of the genre, featuring muscular themes, vigorous development, and a feeling of restless searching in its active dissonant counterpoint. The two following symphonies, Samuel Jones' Symphony No. 3, "Palo Duro Canyon," and Stephen Albert's Symphony No. 2, were both composed in 1992, well after the serialist avant-garde had disappeared, though their clear sense of tonality and energetic rhythms show no break with the previous generation of...
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