Symphony No. 4 (Hanson)

Symphony No. 4 Op.34, "Requiem" (1943) by Howard Hanson (1896–1981) is Hanson's fourth symphony. It was inspired by the death of his father, taking its movement titles from sections of the Requiem Mass. He was awarded the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for Music, unanimously selected by the jury, for the piece. Hanson regarded it as his finest work.

It was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on December 3rd, 1943, conducted by the composer and the radio premiere was January 2, 1944 by the NBC Symphony Orchestra with Leopold Stokowski. One of his least heard symphonies, "this work represents American Romanticism at its best."

Discography

Symphony No. 4

Among the pieces of music with the title Symphony No. 4 are:

Symphony No. 4 (Schnittke)

Russian composer Alfred Schnittke wrote his Symphony No. 4 in 1983. It is a choral symphony, written for tenor, countertenor, chorus, and orchestra. It was first performed on April 12, 1984, in Moscow.

Structure

The symphony is written in a single movement of 22 variations and is approximately 45 minutes in length. Ronald Weitzman writes, "The form of Schnittke's Fourth Symphony [is] at once cross-shaped and spherical.... The composer draws musically on the three main strands of Christianity—Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant—while underlying this is a three–note semitone interval motif representing synagogue chant, thus symbolizing the Jewish source of Christianity." The result, Ivan Moody writes, is that Schnittke "attempts to reconcile elements of znamennïy and Gregorian chant, the Lutheran chorale and Synagogue cantillation ... within a dense, polyphonic orchestral texture" A tenor and a countertenor also sing wordlessly at two points in the symphony. Words are saved for a finale in which all four types of church music are used contrapuntally as a four-part choir sings the Ave Maria. The choir can choose whether to sing the Ave Maria in Russian or Latin. The programmatic intent of using these different types of music, Schnittke biographer Alexander Ivashkin writes, is an insistence by the composer "on the idea ... of the unity of humanity, a synthesis and harmony among various manifestations of belief."

Symphony No. 4 (Martinů)

The Symphony No. 4, H. 305, by Bohuslav Martinů was composed in New York City from April 1945, and completed at Martinů's summer home at Cape Cod in June 1945. The finale bears the inscription South Orleans, 14th June, 1945.

The work is in four movements and, according to the composer, grows out of a single motif. The first movement alternates between lyrical and rhythmical material presented in variation. The second movement, in 6/8 time is a Scherzo, marked by a rhythmically irregular Dvořákian leading melody. The slow third movement is dominated by the strings with short passagework for the woodwind. The finale is an energetic reworking of earlier material and concludes with a vibrant tutti.

The work is dedicated to his friends Helen and William Ziegler, and was premiered on 30 November 1945 at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.

Movements

Selected Discography