American classical music of the American West
LushTone
Siegfried Benkman (1895-1987) wrote romantic, impressionistic, dramatic
classical music that evokes the beauty of the American West. The CD of
Siegfried Benkman's music, Yosemite Suite
(http://members.aol.com/lushtone/yosemite.htm) is an example. Another well
known example is Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite.
Can anyone tell me about available music/CD's of classical music that you find
especially inspiring that evoke the beauty and grandeur of the American West?
Thank you.
Noel Benkman
DivinePoem
The Ottorino Respighi 'Pini di Roma' is very Western Soundtrack sounding.
Caius Marcius
In <19980115005...@ladder01.news.aol.com> divin...@aol.com
(DivinePoem) writes:
>
>The Ottorino Respighi 'Pini di Roma' is very Western Soundtrack
sounding.
Sounds like a Spaghetti Western fan.
Here are some of my choices.
Elie Siegmeister - Western Suite (he uses a lot of the same folk tunes
that Copland uses in his Western works)
Samuel Adler - Southwestern Sketches
Gideon Waldrop (1919 - ) a Texas-born composer - what his very Western
sounding pieces such as the First Symphony, "From the Southwest" Suite
for Orchestra, and Songs of the Southwest for Baritone and Chamber
Orchestra are doing on a Bulgarian label (Gega GD 155) is anybody's
guess.
Steve Reich - The Desert Music
John Adams - Chamber Symphony - the last movement is titled Roadrunner
(vaguely inspired by the Warner Bros character)
- CMC
Roberto Maria Avanzi
On 15 Jan 1998, DivinePoem wrote:
> The Ottorino Respighi 'Pini di Roma' is very Western Soundtrack sounding.
Whaddayamean ? What you state is true, but...
I think that you can listen to 'Pini di Roma' (and other works of Ottorino
Respighi) and maybe to Korngold's Violin Concerto and to Zemlinsky's 'Die
Seejungfrau', then you can say 'gee, it sounds like movie soundtracks'.
Usually, the reverse is true. Well, Korngold's Violin Concerto is the
exception here because Korngold assembled some of the material from movie
tracks he himself wrote ! But as I stated above, usually the reverse is
true, new musical ideas, orchestration/composition/arrangement techniques
first appear in some not-related-to-movie music, then trickle into
soundtracks.
An aside on Respighi. In Italy he was basically neglected, because he was
associated with fascism (he wrote some music as a commission from some
state organisations, but he was not a fascist), and then it was considered
degenerate art. The communist monopoly of arts and literature in Italy
after WW2 did to italian art and literature much damage, maybe not as the
"Entartete Kunst" mark of Nazism, because nobody AFAIK was killed for
being different, Italy's a democracy after all, but I was suggested both
in academical and musical circles to play the socialist so that my "skills
could be in a more impartial way judged" (REAL QUOTES from a full
professor in one of the most famous institutions in Italy: then I went to
another University to finish my studies).
Returning to Respighi, only recently I have seen a revival in Italy. But
one of the most famous Italian conductors, Giuseppe Sinopoli, just fired
from the Philharmonia (thank God), publicly stated that "Mascagni should
not be performed, because he was a fascist". He conducted the Respighi
(another darn fascist !!!) trilogy so many times, leaving also an account
on a DG release, so why did he state that sentence ? Was he maybe
applying for some position in Italy ?
Roberto
PS: I am Italian and I love my country. Now I do research in Germany
but it is NOT an exile. It's that I think that IEM is a good
institution.
/_/_/ Roberto Maria Avanzi
_/_/ Institute for Experimental Mathematics / University of Essen
/_/ Ellernstrasse 29 / 45326 Essen / Germany
_/ Phone: +49-201-32064-37, Fax: +49-201-32064-68
/ moce...@exp-math.uni-essen.de, moce...@leonardo.math.unipd.it
Lowlander
Three one I love from Aaron Copland: Appalachian spring, Billy the Kid
Suite, Rodeo-Suite. I have a very old but fine recording of - one moment
please - trip, trap, trip, trap, - grmblgrmbl, aah, - trip, trip, trap,
trip, trap, 1959 (Appalachian Spring) conducted by himself.
Billie the Kid and Rodeo are conducted by Morton Gould in 1957. All are
on a CD of BMG. Not the finest sound quality, but outstanding
performances.
If you want a late romantic work, hear The 9th sinfony of the Bohemian
Antonin Dvorak, It's subtitled "From a new World" and Dvorak composed it
when he was in the states.If you can get it buy the Version with the New
Philharmonia London conducted by Riccardo Muti. But there are really a
lot perfomances of this work recoded. Hear them first because they are
very different.
Have fun and a good journey
Jicotea
Lowlander <Lowl...@bigfoot.de> wrote in article
<34BE6D2...@bigfoot.de>...
> I hope this is what you need
>
>
> Three one I love from Aaron Copland: Appalachian spring, Billy the Kid
> Suite, Rodeo-Suite. I have a very old but fine recording of <snip>
> 1959 (Appalachian Spring) conducted by himself.
> Billie the Kid and Rodeo are conducted by Morton Gould in 1957. All are
> on a CD of BMG. Not the finest sound quality, but outstanding
> performances.
<snip>
Here's a concert hall Western the world has forgotten: Symphony No. 1
("The Santa Fe Trail") by Harl McDonald (1899-1955), for years manager of
the Philadelphia Orchestra. The work was recorded by Ormandy in the '40s,
and appeared only on RCA 78s. On a Pearl CD is another McDonald Western:
San Juan Capistrano (2 Nocturnes) for Orchestra (1938). Boston
SO/Koussevitzky recorded it for RCA in 1939. Mention of this works does not
constitute and endorsement of them or any characterization of their
quality,
John Wiser