American Music

[jerfilm]

I just listened to the Oratorio - would be nice to have a commercial recording of it. 

Thanks for the Hanson uploads.

Jerry

[Dundonnell]

I am fast running out of both superlatives and appropriate variations of expressions of thanks for all these uploads of American music from the 'great generation' born just before 1900 and during the first twenty years of the 20th century

I need to continually update the information on the composer catalogues-which, of course, I certainly don't mind doing I also, I fancy, need to update the request/unrecorded lists

[Dundonnell]

Will do, I've got quite a list to upload by the looks of things!

Thanks for the Hanson, most interesting. This just really leaves Songs from Drum Taps. As I mentioned before I just wish I'd purchased the LP when I had the chance.

Plus the Heroic Elegy of 1927

[oldman]

Information about Home keller can be found at

http://composers.com/homer-keller

the catalogue of his papers/scores is here

http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/specialc/findaids/pdf/Homer%20Todd%20Keller%20Library.pdf

[jowcol]

Works of Edward Burlingame Hill
As long was were are on the topic of neglected 20th century American Composers who were born in the previous century, I am posting a handful of tracks in the American Composers downloads folder with the music of Edward Burlingame Hill.



Biographical Sketch from Answers.com
Though not as widely remembered as some of his more revolutionary contemporaries, composer and educator Edward Burlingame Hill played a not inconsiderable role in the development of American music in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 9, 1872, Hill came from a distinguised tradition of higher education, which he himself would carry on: His father was a Harvard chemistry professor, his grandfather the president of that university. His formal training in music was extensive and well-rounded, including studies with leading American musicians like Arthur Whiting, John Knowles Paine, and George Chadwick. He also studied composition in Paris with renowned organist/composer Charles-Marie Widor.

Hill made his living as a private teacher in Boston until he was appointed to the faculty of Harvard, his alma mater, in 1908. He became a full professor in 1928 and remained at the university until his retirement in 1940. Among Hill's students were several who eventually emerged as central figures in the history of American music, including Leonard Bernstein, Elliott Carter, and Virgil Thomson.

Hill's own music bears the strong influence of French impressionism, an aesthetic he was no doubt exposed to during his studies in Paris. Like many "serious" composers in the early decades of the twentieth century, Hill also exhibited an interest in jazz, whose rhythms and inflections he incorporated into such works as Jazz Studies for two pianos (1924 - 35) and the Concertino for piano and orchestra (1931). Though he produced much choral and chamber music, his best-known works are evocative orchestral essays like The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere (1915), The Fall of the House of Usher (1920), and Lilacs (1927); he also wrote three symphonies. Throughout Hill's music, clear design and structual integrity are primary compositional concerns. ~ Michael Rodman, Rovi


I am posting the following works:

1  Symphony No.1. Op.34
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Serge Koussevitzky, conductor
[27 February 1943]

2 Lilacs, Poem for Orchestra, Op.33
New England Conservatory Orchestra
Gunther Schuller, conductor
[date unknown]

3. Music for English Horn and Orchestra, Op.50
Louis Speyer, English Horn
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Serge Koussevitzky, conductor
[3 March 1945]




When Karl posted the original tracks to Symphony Share—(alas, the links are dead) he offered this spirited endorsement of EB Hill.  You also may notice he refers to some tracks that, unfortunately, I  no longer have to post.

While I rarely comment (or proselytize) about the music...
 
Hill was a teacher at Harvard. His pupils included the likes of Bernstein, Carter and Piston. Most of Hill's music was performed in his lifetime. It was conducted by Koussevitzky, Stock and Reiner. Hill's 4th Symphony was never performed. It is a fine work...I have the score. His music displays the influence of jazz and impressionism.
 
As to why this attractive, well-written music faded into oblivion can be attributed to the rise of the younger generation of Copland, Piston, Harris and Schuman. In those days, being "old hat" was considered to be a drawback. Many of Hill's generation faded quickly...Mason, Whithorne, etc. Also, Hill never promoted his own work. He would write something, Koussevitzky would program it, sometimes repeatedly, and then it would be sent to the shelf.   
 
I have included the brief excerpt of the Concertino as that is all that appears to have survived of that performance. It was one his more clearly jazz inspired pieces. One reviewer called it a Rhapsody in Scarlett!  Hill, along with Milhaud and Carpenter, was amongst the first to include references to jazz in his concert music.
 
As far as I know the only other Hill works available in recording are the Prelude for Orchestra, (conducted by his student Bernstein); the Stevensoniana Suite No.1 and the Violin Concerto (Posselt, violin; Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony...a superb restoration job by Lani Spahr). There is also an extant broadcast recording of the Stevensoniana Suite No.2, conducted by Reiner, but I have not had any luck getting a copy.
 
In addition to the many orchestral works, he wrote a great deal of excellent chamber music...all awaiting rediscovery. For me, he remains near the top of my list of American composers deserving a revival. For me, the finale of the First Symphony tells me that there is much gold out there to be mined.

Some Personal Comments:

• Hill reminds me in ways of Charles Tomlinson Griffes in that he adopted some of the impressionist style, but definitely had his own personality.  Hill was also interested in jazz, which intrigues me.
• I REALLY love the EB Hill Prelude, (conducted by Bernstein in mono, 1953 with the Columbia SO.) You can get it on the Bernstein American Masters 2 disc.
• I am DYING to hear his "Fall of the House of Usher", as I love all things Poe – but there doesn't seem to be a recording ANYWHERE. 


• There are plans to perform (and record) Hill's 4th Symphony in the next few months.  I don't know if this will be a commercial or private recording, but if there is interest, I'll try to keep you posted.

Finally, with a little searching, I've found Hill's text on "Modern" French music online for free at:
http://archive.org/details/modernfrenchmusi00hill

He also was a contributing editor to a major multivolume history, The Art of Music.  It is available (for free) here:
http://www.archive.org/details/artofmusidcompre03masouoft

I don't think I'll be able to keep up with Shamokin88 in terms of pulling out neglected American composers on a daily basis much longer, but I still have one or two more....

[Latvian]

Thanks yet again to shamokin88, jowcol, and others are posting works by "forgotten" American composers. I've dreamed of hearing many of these works for years, in some cases decades, and am overwhelmed with gratitude at finally having that opportunity. Unsung Composers has become a daily necessity to so many of us impassioned collectors and connoisseurs of the obscure and arcane -- a daily "high"! Today's thrills: Homer Keller and E.B. Hill!

Do any of you have otherwise unavailable works by Arthur Farwell, apart from the disappointingly dull "Rudolf Gott" Symphony?

[britishcomposer]

I want to chime in with my thanks! 

Yet, I must say I am very curious about the Harris chamber pieces, also vocal music of any kind. His 'Abraham Lincoln walks at midnight' is so deeply moving in its restrained simplicity. He should have attempted more like that!

Latvian, do you have a recording of this Farwell Symphony? I have been interested in it for a while.

[rbert12]

Many thanks to shamokin88 for all his uploads, specially for those of Wallingford Riegger, one of my favorites American composers. I had no idea that his fourth symphony (the first work of him that I listened to) was related to the Spanish Civil War.
I am waiting expectantly for the John J. Becker's uploads. Becker is one of those composer whose works commercially available (mostly his third symphony) leave one asking for more!.

[suffolkcoastal]

Actually britishcomposer, there are a number of simpler moving works that Harris composed, but no-one has ever bothered to perform them in recent years or record them. The earlier MGM recording of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight is also now available with its LP coupling of the Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra and the composer's wife in the masterly Piano Quintet.

Shamokin you beat me to it with the Riegger Quartets and Scherzo which I had on my list to upload. Has anyone uploaded 'With my red fires'? I have it if no-one else has.

[Amphissa]

Dundonell pointed out a problem with my upload of the Vittorio Rieti Symphony No. 4. If you downloaded the file, please discard it.

I have placed a new link in the Downloads folder for the corrected file. Please download the new file.

Apologies for the error. I seem to be making a lot of them lately.

[Latvian]

Latvian, do you have a recording of this Farwell Symphony? I have been interested in it for a while.

Yes, I do. I'll upload it when I have some time, hopefully this weekend. Right now I'm terribly busy so my visits to UC are "hit and run."

[Dundonnell]

shamokin had actually already posted a link to the same performance of Edward Burlingame Hill's Symphony No.1 on 27th September last year but the other two Hill works are certainly new to the site and many thanks for them

This seems to point up once again the growing need for a consolidated catalogue of American Music uploaded for members of this site similar to that produced with so much hard work by Albion for British music. Sydney Grew recently produced an enormously helpful list of all the Czech music uploaded. Those sorts of catalogues would, hopefully, save members from duplicating uploaded files.

I would be perfectly prepared to interrupt my Composer Catalogues to produce something along the same lines as Sydney (although not so 'professional' as Albion's .

(I know this should probably also go into the Suggestions section

Also....thanks to Amphissa for sorting out the Rieti files Don't worry about the error-they are easy to make

[jowcol]

Thanks for the update about the EB Hill symphony (which, for whatever reason, didn't show up when   did a search).

I'd recommend that the other link be considered the "definitiive" version.

[Latvian]

There seems to be a problem with part one of Riegger's 4th Symphony -- according to the introductory announcement in German, it's actually Gunther Raphael's Fantasy for Violin and Strings.

[shamokin88]

I'll get to that as soon as I am able. No idea what happened.