by David B. Levy
The CSO Pre-concert Lecture Series and Program Notes are made possible thanks to the Carl and Lee Chaverin Fund.
Organ Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 91
Alexandre Guilmant
French organist and composer Alexandre (Félix) Guilmant was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer on March 12, 1837 and died on March 29, 1911. He began his musical studies with his father, and later went on to become one of France’s foremost composer, performer, and pedagogue on his chosen instrument. The Organ Symphony no. 2 was composed in 1911 and is an adaption from the composer’s Sonata no. 8.
The term “Organ Symphony” can mean one of two things: either a solo work for organ that makes use of the instrument’s capacity to set in motion pipes that resemble the sound of various orchestral instruments, such as works by Charles Widor, or works for organ and orchestra, such as the composition by Alexandre Guilmant on tonight’s program. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony no. 3 (1886) is certainly the best known and most popular work of this kind. But this work uses the organ only sparingly (the beautiful Poco Adagio section that ends the first movement, and more prominently, the “scherzo” and Maestoso-Allegro sections of the second and final movement). On the other hand, Guilmant’s five-movement Organ Symphony no. 2 makes far fuller use of the organ and the skill of the organist than Saint-Saëns’ work. Indeed, the fourth movement is a beautiful and contemplative Andante sostenuto for organ alone.
In fact, Guilmant was somewhat of a specialist in composing for the organ, much in the same vein as Chopin was for the piano. Just as Chautauquans revel in the magnificence of the Amphitheater’s Massey Organ, Guilmant was privileged to have played on many of France’s finest instruments, including ones made by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Guilmant’s brilliant technique and precision as a performer led him undertake tours throughout Europe, Great Britain, and the United States. He also took great interest music of France’s past, including Clérambault and Couperin, as well as music by his contemporaries, including important figures such as Liszt (the dedicatee of Saint-Saëns’ Symphony no. 3), Franck, Widor, Rheinberger, and Schumann. As successor to Widor as organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire from 1896-1911, he taught many pupils, including Nadia Boulanger. He, along with Vincent D’Indy and Charles Bordes, were leaders of the French Schola Cantorum, an organization dedicated to perpetuating the legacy of Franck.
Symphony no. 9 in E Minor, op. 95 (“From the New World”)
Antonin Dvořák
The Czech master Antonin Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, on September 8, 1841; and died in Prague, May 1, 1904. His “New World” Symphony remains his most popular work. Composed during his residency in the United States in 1892-3, the work received its premiere on December16, 1893 in New York’s Carnegie Hall. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, trumpet, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.
In early 1991, a three-story brick row house at 327 East 17th Street in Manhattan was declared a national landmark. A plaque above the first story declares that this was the New York home from 1892 to 1895 for the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvořák, who composed his Symphony no. 9 (“From the New World”) during a period from January to May 1893. Unfortunately, the brownstone was taken down to make room for the expansion of a nearby hospital and the corner near where it stood was renamed Dvořák Place. The composer moved to New York after Jeannette Thurber invited him to assume the directorate of the National Conservatory of Music. Shortly after taking up residence there, Dvorák communicated the following to a friend in Prague:
“We [the composer, his wife, and two children] live four minutes from my school in a very pleasant house. Mr. Steinway sent me a piano, free, so we have one good piece of furniture in the parlor. The rent is $80 a month, a lot for us, but a normal price here.”
Ever since it received its first performance in New York City on December 16, 1893 with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic, Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony has remained an extremely popular orchestral work. The Czech master wrote two major works, as well as some smaller ones, during his extended visit to the United States, which included a short summer vacation spent with a colony of Czech immigrants in Spillville, Iowa. One of these compositions was the String Quartet, op. 96 (“American”), the other was this, his last symphony. Had Mrs. Thurber had her way, Dvořák also would have composed an opera based on Longfellow’s story of the Native Americans Minnehaha and Hiawatha, as she hoped that Dvořák would become the founder of a new American “school” of composition. As we shall see, at least some of Mrs. Thurber’s hopes found expression in his “New World” Symphony.
Folk music had always played a vital role in Dvořák’s music, and his “American” efforts serve to remind us that many folk musics have elements in common. The “New World” Symphony speaks its “American” with a distinctly Slavic accent. The title for the work, “From the New World” is the composer’s own, and he explained that it was inspired by “impressions and greetings” from his host country. Among these impressions must be counted the music of African-Americans, whose melodies he learned from one of his students at the Conservatory, Henry Thacker Burleigh. It is difficult to determine just how well-versed Dvořák was in the authentic musical idiom of Native Americans, but the famous Largo movement of the “New World” Symphony, was inspired, according to the composer, by a passage from Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha.” The famous English horn theme of this Largo is still known by many people as a “spiritual” with the words “Goin’ Home.” The Symphony is filled with many such appealing folk-like themes.
Another important element in the “New World” Symphony is its cyclic construction, in which a motto theme, first heard near the beginning of the first movement, is brought back at strategic moments in the subsequent movements. A careful listener will discern that this motto itself is the progenitor of other themes, thereby strengthening the thematic unity of the entire work. Dvořák also provides many masterful moments of orchestration and harmony, none, perhaps, more beautiful than the succession of brass chords at the beginning and end of the Largo.
While the composer was still in America, he sent the manuscript for this symphony to his German publisher Simrock, who in turn showed them to Dvořák’s friend and advisor, Johannes Brahms. Brahms saw fit to make certain corrections, and even some wholesale changes—especially in the finale—where he altered some of Dvořák’s tempos.
