Classic Ross Amico

Tag: American Composer

George Gershwin American Original

He began his career as a song plugger on New York’s Tin Pan Alley. He was “discovered” by Al Jolson, who gave him his biggest hit. He composed a string of successful stage musicals with lyrics by his brother, Ira.

Though he had classical training, he was turned away by both Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Ravel, on the grounds that they didn’t want to spoil his natural voice. He played tennis with Arnold Schoenberg, who also refused him lessons. He kept an autographed photo of Alban Berg in his apartment, next to one of Jack Dempsey.

His musical, “Of Thee I Sing,” was the first to win a Pulitzer Prize. His opera, “Porgy and Bess,” was a failure at its premiere. His songs graced elegant screen comedies of the 1930s. In the concert hall, he was America’s most authentic voice.

George Gershwin died of a brain tumor in 1937, at the age of 38. Reportedly, his last words were “Fred Astaire.”

I invite you to join me this afternoon, as I salute this versatile composer on his birthday anniversary. Gershwin’s music will be among our featured highlights, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

September 26, 2016
Remembering Stephen Paulus Music

Today is the birthday of American composer Stephen Paulus. Though he made much of his career in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Paulus was born in Summit, NJ, in 1949. He served as composer-in-residence with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was particularly noted for his choral and vocal works, including the second and best-known of his 11 operas, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Paulus died on Oct. 19, 2014, nearly 16 months after suffering a debilitating stroke.

We’ll celebrate this beloved voice in American music today in the 6:00 hour, as we listen to a Grammy Award-winning recording of his “Prayers and Remembrances,” featuring True Concord Voices & Orchestra. The work was recognized earlier this year in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Since Paulus had already passed, the award was accepted by his wife and his two sons. “Prayers and Remembrances” was written to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. I hope you will join me for this moving and beautiful music.

I’ll also be playing something from a new album I received only this week (“Wind Concerti,” BCM+D Records) featuring contemporary American woodwind concertos, performed by the Temple University Wind Symphony with members of the The Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. The 2-CD set, which features music by Anthony Plog, Joel Puckett, Jay Krush, Jennifer Higdon, David Maslanka, and Adam Silverman, is a delight, and I can’t wait to share some of it with you.

Join me for American music and more today, Wednesday, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Stephen Paulus Music

August 24, 2016
Howard Hanson’s Bold Island Inspiration

For many people, having to work through vacation can be a real drag; but for the creative artist, vacation can be a time to really get things done.

For 40 years, Howard Hanson was the director of the Eastman School of Music. In that capacity he nurtured and championed innumerable American composers, giving literally thousands of premieres at the helm of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, an ensemble he founded. The lucky ones found their way onto records, issued on the Mercury label.

Hanson, of course, was himself a composer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1944, for his Symphony No. 4 “Requiem,” written in memory of his father. But his best known music, undoubtedly, is his Symphony No. 2 “Romantic,” composed in 1930.

The famous “Hanson sound” is one of heart-on-the-sleeve romanticism, characterized by glowingly nostalgic melodies, though he also had his severe side. After all, he was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, to Swedish immigrants, and a certain Nordic austerity can be detected, especially in his later works.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll be listening to three pieces inspired by Hanson’s summer home on Bold Island, which is located in the North Atlantic, off the coast of Maine. The major work will be the Symphony No. 6, written in 1967 for the New York Philharmonic and dedicated to Leonard Bernstein.

The piece is more tightly argued than Hanson’s earlier, more famous symphonies, structured in six brief movements, built on a recurring motif. At times, it can sound a bit like Sibelius, though Hanson very much remains his own man. Hanson being Hanson, he doesn’t really skimp on the lyricism, but he doesn’t exactly indulge it to the same extent he does in the earlier works. Still, predictably, the symphony was derided as old-fashioned by the genuinely austere musical establishment of the day.

The Bold Island connection is through Hanson’s “Summer Seascape No. 2,” written a few years earlier, and clearly the blueprint for the symphony. In fact, the opening of the symphony is identical.

The first “Summer Seascape” was the centerpiece of the “Bold Island Suite,” a separate work composed in 1961. The suite also contains movements with the descriptive titles “Birds of the Sea” and “God in Nature.”

For Howard Hanson, summer in the North Atlantic was clearly a time to give his Nordic sensibility free rein. I hope you’ll join me for “August Hanson,” tonight at 10 EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Not-very-austere Puffins off the coast of Maine

August 14, 2016
Roy Harris Neglected Genius of American Symphony

Roy Harris was born on Lincoln’s birthday, in a log cabin in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Did he let it go to his head? Maybe. He went on to become one of America’s greatest composers.

He basically drove a milk truck while studying with “American Indianist” composer Arthur Farwell. Contacts in the East got him touch with Aaron Copland, who put in a good word with Nadia Boulanger. Harris was one of the legions of composers who studied with Boulanger in Paris.

Back home, he attracted the attention of Serge Koussevitzky, then music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was Kouss who first performed Harris’ “Symphony 1933.” But the real pay dirt came with Harris’ Symphony No. 3, regarded then, as now, as one of the finest American symphonies. Its tightly-argued, single-movement structure manages to recall Renaissance polyphony, Jean Sibelius, and the American prairie. It was the perfect work for its time, with the world teetering at the brink of war and the country starting to emerge from the Great Depression.

Yet, for some reason, the composer of this most-revered symphony is also one of our most neglected. In fact a number of his symphonies have yet to be recorded. Why?

Tune in at 8:30 this morning to enjoy Harris’ Symphony No. 6, “Gettysburg,” which takes its impetus from the Gettysburg Address. It’s all music honoring the presidents, on this, Lincoln’s birthday, until 11:00 this morning on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com

February 12, 2016
Remembering John Duffy American Composer

His was an optimistic and gentle soul. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we remember John Duffy, who died on December 22, at the age of 89.

Duffy was founder and president of Meet the Composer, an organization dedicated to the creation, performance and recording of music by American composers. In that capacity, from 1974 to 1995, he initiated countless programs to advance American music.

We’ll hear Duffy’s Symphony No. 1, commissioned by the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, “A Time for Remembrance,” a cantata written to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a selection from his Emmy Award winning music for the PBS television series, “Heritage: Civilization and the Jews.”

I hope you’ll join me for “Meet the Composer,” as we remember John Duffy on “The Lost Chord,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

John Duffy on his war experiences and his decision to become a composer:

On naming Meet the Composer:

On tolerance and growth:

January 17, 2016

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