A Quintessential American Symphony
Roy Harris (1898 -- 1979)was a largely self-taught American composer who was born in Oklahoma. He is best remembered for his third symphony, first performed in 1939 to great critical and popular acclaim. Serge Koussevitsky, who gave the premier of the work, called it "the first great symphony by an American composer". (At the time the symphonies of Charles Ives were not well-known.) Together with the third symphonies of William Schuman, a student of Harris', and Aaron Copland, a great admirer of Harris' music, this symphony form part of the great American trilogy of third symphonies. In his useful study, "The American Symphony" (1998), Neil Butterworth describes Harris' third as "the archetypal American symphony -- rugged, abrasive, with the true pioneering spirit, a work of recognized originality and integrity." (p. 87)
The third has been recorded many times. This recording in the Naxos "American Classics" series by the up-and-coming Marin Alsop and the Colorado Symphony is an excellent introduction to the work for new listeners and a fine performance for those already familiar with it. The symphony is in a single, integrated movement of less than 18 minutes. It consists of a web of five sections, marked Tragic, Lyric, Pastoral, Fugue-Dramatic, and Dramatic-Tragic, which flow seamlessly into each other. The symphony is immediately accessible and yet remains fresh over many hearings.
Harris' third owes a great deal to plainchant, renaissance music, and American folk song. In moves in long, slow blocked sections in simple basic harmonies. Harris uses the basic sections of the orchestra -- strings, brass, winds, and percussion in choirs as each group carries the music forward for a time only to be replaced by another group. The pace of the symphony picks up as it moves forward. The work opens with a long melancholy theme in the cello, followed by the "lyrical" section in which the brass and the winds toss a slow theme back and forth. The middle section of the work, the pastorale, features interludes between winds and strings leading to the climactic sections of the work -- a strongly contrapuntal section followed by a slow, serious march punctuated by cymbals and the incessant beating of the tympani. The work as a whole is stunning with an underlying theme of pregnant expectation.
In comparison with the Third, much of the rest of Harris' work seems anticlimactic. But his symphony no. 4, the "Folk Song Symphony" also included on this CD, is worth hearing. The fourth belongs to a type of music with a ceremonial, political theme. Many of the great masters, including Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms wrote this type of music on occasion, and it appears frequently in American music. A recent famous and notable example of an American ceremonial piece is Peter Boyer's "Ellis Island: A Dream of America" which is also available in Naxos's "American Classics" series.
Harris composed his fourth symphony in 1940. It has a distinctly patriotic theme, probably in view of what many then saw as the inevitable entry of the United States into WW II. The work is in seven short movements, five of which are for chorus and two for orchestra alone. It opens and closes with songs of the Civil War and includes as well western , mountain, and African-American songs. The melodies are all familiar, but Harris uses his material creatively with vocal part-writing, sharp orchestral accompaniment, and instrumental interludes. Harris wrote of this symphony:
"The work opens with the song 'The Girl I left Behind Me' and ends with 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again", both famous Civil War Tunes. To express the nostaligia of loneliness, I chose two of America's best loved lonesome songs, 'Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie' and 'He's Gone Away.' For the Negros -- who so admirably represent our nation both in war and music -- I chose that wonderful spiritual 'De Trumpet Sounds It In my Soul'. I wrote the choral parts for the range of good high school choruses, with the thought that such choruses might have a work to prepare with the symphony orchestras of our cities." (Quoted in Butterworth, at 87)
The Colorado Symphony Chorus performs the lengthy vocal sections with feeling and sympathy. They are a worthy partner to Alsop and the symphony. While not of the same merit as the third symphony, Harris' fourth is an excellent work of its type. It is fun to hear, and I can visualize it being performed on hot summer nights in Fourth of July celebrations -- of the sort that remain an important part of the American landscape.
Robin Friedman
