At MusicWeb:
http://musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Aug/Bristow_article.pdf (http://musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Aug/Bristow_article.pdf)
What interests me is GFB's Symphony No.4 'Arcadian' which, as far as I know, has never made it to CD (Karl Krueger recorded it with the RPO in 1967)...
Here's what the article says about Symphony No.4:
This symphony from 1872 has an interesting genesis. Bristow had recently completed the large-scale cantata "The Pioneer" for soprano, bass, chorus and orchestra. At the same time he received a commission from The Brooklyn Philharmonic (of whom Bristow was a member, as he was of the New York Philharmonic), for a symphony. This was apparently the first symphony commissioned by an American orchestra from an American composer. Bristow jumped at the opportunity, but it certainly wasn't for financial reasons as the impoverished orchestra could only pay him $100. Wanting to fulfill the commission quickly, and possibly considering that the paltry sum involved excused him from delivering a fully original work, he decided to reuse music from "The Pioneer". Since the music from his cantata was programmatic, Bristow hit on the idea of a programmatic symphony, almost a symphonic poem in four movements. He had recently had exposure to such a program symphony when the New York Philharmonic had played Raff's Symphony # 3 "Im Walde".
The opening movement is titled "Emigrants Journey Across the Plains." It opens with a solo viola meant to evoke the forbidding prairie landscape the pioneers had to cross. After this melody is fully stated by the orchestra, a lyrical second theme arrives as the hope of the pioneers for a new life lifts their spirits. Bristow employs his typical sonata form structure but ends the first movement with a return to the stark solo viola as the exhausted pioneers stop for the night.
The second movement is titled "Halt on the Prairie". This Andante Religioso uses the melody from Tallis' Evening Hymn to depict the spiritual gratitude of the settlers as they give thanks to the Lord for seeing them safely through the day and for the anticipated blessings of the new land.
The third movement is titled "Indian War Dance and Attack by Indians". Here Bristow pulls out all the orchestral stops to graphically depict the whooping Indians as they conduct their war dance. There are whirling strings, pounding drums and the tinkle of the triangle as the natives attack. A second theme depicts the heroic settlers as they bravely resist the natives, before the Indians resume their attack. It must be said however that Bristow's Indian attack is more light-hearted than bloodthirsty, as if the composer is winking at the listeners and reassuring them that all will be well. It is interesting to think that this symphony premiered four years before Custer's last stand at The Little Bighorn, so the horrors of the Indian Wars for both sides were very immediate to the audience. Bristow would have thought it in bad taste to be too realistic.
The finale is titled "Arrival at the New Home, Rustic Festivities and Dancing". After fighting off the Indians, the settlers move on and arrive at their new home. A joyous theme welcomes them which develops into a lively dance of celebration. This enables Bristow to end his symphony on a cheerful note, despite the serious struggles depicted earlier.
The "Arcadian" symphony is program music at its best. There is always a whiff of the theater about Bristow's music, and I say that in a complimentary way. Music may serve many purposes including intellectual reflection, solace from grief, religious adoration and emotional inspiration but its primary purpose is entertainment. Bristow never forgets this. After its premiere in Brooklyn, the New York Philharmonic played it, and Asger Hamerik programmed it in Baltimore the following year. This symphony, along with "The Pioneer", is also his most American piece to date, evoking characters, landscapes and feelings peculiar to the American experience. He would not write another symphony until the 1890s when his choral "Niagara" symphony would be premiered shortly before his death. Regrettably this symphony has not been commercially recorded. The "Arcadian" symphony was recorded by the noted American conductor Karl Krueger, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and issued under the auspices of Krueger's "Society for the Preservation of the American Musical Heritage". Perhaps only the Louisville Orchestra's First Edition Recordings has done more for American classical music recording.
Ah. Maybe "commercially recorded" is not the term I'd really want to use in this context. Wider-distribution, official-not-illegal-air-check (and some "commercial" recordings _are_ those), recording? It's the first thing that comes up when one restricts to LPs @ Worldcat under Bristow - there are copies at some 62 libraries that Worldcat knows of, for example - so whether it was a commercial recording or not...
(After all, no Soviet year Melodiya recordings were in the strictest sense "commercial" recordings either, I guess (ok, that's not true, since state capitalism isn't communism, but what ideologue wants to admit that- it might reflect badly on the former and its relatives, for one thing... never mind.)))
Thanks for the link. Mr. Hartman has provided some nice detail; pity he didn't include Bristow's Symphony 5 in his discussion.
I would add one American composer to the introductory survey part of the essay. Charles Hommann (1803-72, sometimes spelled Homman). His chamber music from 1830s, 40s and 50s Philadelphia and New York is comparable in craftsmanship to, say, Onslow, in my opinion. The music is not folk-artsy like Heinrich, but serious stuff by someone who clearly loved the Rasumovsky quartets.
Well, he does mention Bristow's final (completed) symphony, 'Niagara', Op.62 (i.e. no.5). Presumably he needs a recording to go on...
Yes, according to Worldcat, there's an LP of Bristow's 6th also, from the same source. If he doesn't consider those to be commercial recordings because the maker wasn't a commercial entity, at least by non-commercial recording he doesn't mean/connote, as I would tend to think, recording with an off-air broadcast tape as its source / tape-underground thing/... but is rather, as noted earlier, being very literal/strict/something/...???
I thought Bristow never finished his 6th symphony. Maybe this is a recording of just those movts. that were completed.
It is as Gareth surmised. The Worldcat entry refers to an LP recording (Krueger/RPO) of two movements of No.6 (Nocturne and Scherzo) - presumably all that was completed.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-vi-nocturne-and-scherzo/oclc/4043652&referer=brief_results (https://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-vi-nocturne-and-scherzo/oclc/4043652&referer=brief_results)
May I please make a plea for links to catalogue entries to be included in posts which refer to them? It saves a lot of subsequent double-checking!
Ah sorry. Hrm. Now I'm intrigued, wonder if symphony 5 has been performed since the 1800s.. (it was at least mostly completed in 1893 (date on the 3rd movement of the holograph, Sep 1st (')93), and premiered in 1898; New York Public Library has the orchestral score (http://www.worldcat.org/title/niagara-symphony-for-grand-orchestra-solos-and-chorus-op-62/oclc/82408793) (only, with only choral cues); and btw in 2016 a Timothy Cloeter wrote, for his dissertation for the U. of Arizona, a "A performance edition of the fourth movement of the "Niagara Symphony""... which can be downloaded completely at the PDF - well, see this (http://hdl.handle.net/10150/620968) link.)
Score, reduction and parts.
Ooh. (Only one movement, but have fun! As usual with downloaded dissertations, It's not Public Domain, don't add it to IMSLP or to your own website (without getting all associated permissions &c &c &c &c), respect Mr. Cloeter's and the uni's rights&c, it's there only for your own enjoyment- but have fun.)
Well the chorus only make an appearance in the last movt. So Mr Cloeter's dissertation gives us at last a full score of that movt.. As a full score exists for the other movts. the work is complete. I long to hear it.
On a quick read it does seem one of one's favorite sorts of dissertations, meant to encourage performance (in an active way by clearing away difficulties, creating a performable score from a difficult manuscript, etc.). (Another available online has a performing edition score & parts of Charles Stanford's 4th string quartet in perhaps its first published edition ever. Who said the internet was good for nothing at all ;) ...)
Hopefully Mr. Closter created his score in Finale or Sibelius. If he did we should be able to hear a synthesized version of the symphony at least as listenable as many symphonic movie soundtracks.
The detail on Symphony 6 is appreciated. I had always assumed (wrongly) that "Symphony 6" was a typo where Sympnony 3 was meant, simply because composing two symphonies in F$ minor among six such works is not all that common. Yet another proof that deductive thinking is not necessarily helpful in ascertaining actual historic events.
Mr Cloeter's dissertation is a fascinating and, as Eric says, appetising read, but at an estimated 90 minutes duration the Niagara Symphony seems to be a beast of Mahlerian dimensions. It would be wonderful if we could get to hear all five of Bristow's symphonies in modern recordings - his music is always so muscular and direct. I do hope that New World Records carry through their initial intention of a cycle - the Jullien Symphony and overtures CD which we had a few years ago from Rebecca Miller with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was a splendid start. Neeme Järvi's recording of the third Symphony on Chandos is a little long in the tooth now, but remains another very persuasive advertisement for Bristow's music. I've just listened to a transfer of Krueger's old LP of the Arcadian Symphony and, although one can hear the music's potential, by comparison with Miller and Järvi's interpretations, Krueger's seems heavy-handed and leaden. Even the "Indian" scherzo remains earthbound, which is a disappointment. Also, I wonder if he cut the finale, as the symphony seems unbalanced in a way that its predecessors aren't - movement lengths of: 13:13, 12:32, 5:54 and 6:40. We badly need a new recording of this work. I do have a private recording of a live amateur performance of the First Symphony (the Sinfonia of 1848), but the performance is so dire and the recording so poor than it's impossible to judge anything about the quality of Bristow's music, although I suspect that a professional performance would shave at least a quarter off the 53 minutes it takes them to scrape and squeal their way though the piece.
QuoteI had always assumed (wrongly) that "Symphony 6" was a typo where Symphony 3 was meant
I think you assume "rightly" since the middle movts of No. 3 are titled Nocturne and Scherzo respectively. It would be remarkable indeed if Bristow commenced work on a 6th Symphony and completed only two movts of it, these being given the same names as two from his earlier symphony No. 3 - and also in the key of F sharp minor!
I don't normally share YouTube links, but Krueger's recording of Bristow's Third Symphony can be heard here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sbjHpiRMYM). I didn't know that he'd made one - I had thought that it was only Nos.2 and 4 which he'd recorded.
A description of that recording by Krueger of Bristow's 6th symphony does say "correctly: 3rd", or something, so probably not two movements from the 6th at all, agreed, just the 3rd mislabeled (or if there's some doubt as to actual numbering of his symphonies?)
We've been here before (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=1699.0), by the way. :)
Thanks for the reminder, Mark.
And it's also a reminder to listen again to the 4th Symphony, aware now of the account in the article.
Thanks!
Having just listened to the 4th, I must say how much the 'Indian War Dance' sounds like a boisterous interlude from G&S. I think these Indians escaped from The Mikado! ;D