Six greatest American orchestral works

[vandermolen]

Time for another pointless list I think. For 'greatest' I realise that this may well mean 'favourite'.  Here are my initial thoughts:

Ives: Three Places in New England

Copland: Symphony No 3

Diamond: Symphony No 3

Bernstein: Jeremiah Symphony

Barber: Essay for Orchestra No 2

William Schuman: Symphony 6

[Dax]

A quick punt.

Ives - Holidays symphony
Varese - Amériques
Cowell - Ongaku
Brant - Kingdom Come
Feldman - Coptic Light
Gershwin - Cuban Overture

Don't anybody point out that Varese was French or Brant was Canadian.

[Sergeant Rock]

Yes, favorites, not necessarily greatest. I'll start with an obvious two:

Schuman Symphony #3
Harris Symphony #3
Hanson Symphony #2
Diamond Symphony #2
Ives Symphony #2
Ruggles Sun Treader


Americans seem to do well with second attempts 

Sarge

[jowcol]

I'll bite-- although I'll say "favorite" (don't want to get into another "greatness" discussion), and this is subject to change on an  hourly basis, because 6 is not enough to capture my moods.

Barber Essay #2  (or symphony 1 or Music for a Scene by Shelly?)

Hanson Symphony 4 (or 2 or Pan and the Priest? Piano concerto? )

Copland Organ Symphony

Reich - Desert Music

Creston Symphony 2 (2nd movement)

Mennin Symphony 3

Bernstein- On the Waterfront Suite

Diamond Symphony 2

Griffes- Kubla Khan (okay, I'm up to nine)

Harris Symphony 3 (okay, make it an even 10)

[hornteacher]

Favorites:

1) Copland - Appalachian Spring

2) Copland - Symphony 3

3) Reich - New York Counterpoint

4) Bernstein - Prelude Fugue and Riffs

5) Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine

6) Copland - Rodeo

[Josquin des Prez]

American composers. Hahahahahaha. Sorry, i feel a bit dodgy today, i'll be leaving the premises.

[DavidRoss]

Far too many that are not only great but favorites, too.  Paring it down to six will be tough, but Copland's Appalachian Spring goes on the list for sure, dude!  And Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915.  And maybe his VC as well, and Cave of the Heart.  And...?

How to pick from John Adams's catalog?  Naïve and Sentimental Music?  The VC?  The electric VC (The Dharma at Big Sur)? Harmonielehre?  Shaker Loops?  My Father Knew Charles Ives?  Harris's 3rd Symphony belongs, as does Copland's...and Schuman's VC, and Glass's...Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story...Griffes's The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan...Piston's Incredible Flutist and both VCs and the 4th Symphony...and Gershwin!

How could we neglect An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue?  Or the Piano Concerto in F?  And what about Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra?  Reich's Desert Music?  Hanson's 2nd Symphony?  Ives's Three Places in New England and Central Park after Dark--not to mention the symphonies?

Yep, I can see that Josquin is true to form.  Such consistency is admirable!  (And useful!) 

[DavidW]

Thanks Dave!  My jaw was dropping open to see how many posters would list esoteric works and forget Gershwin!

I think that the greatest American composers are Gershwin, Ives, Copland and Carter.  I don't think I want to itemize individual works at this moment.

[springrite]

Barber Symphony #1
Ives: Central Park in the Dark
Diamond Symphony #2
Copland Organ Symphony
Harris Symphony #3
Carter Symphonia

[Sergeant Rock]

Thanks Dave!  My jaw was dropping open to see how many posters would list esoteric works and forget Gershwin!

When I first saw the thread title, I immediately thought Porgy & Bess which would definitely make my list had Vandermolen not included "orchestral"--which my brain only saw later. So it wasn't a matter of forgetting Gerschwin.    But with only six choices allowed, and orchestral ones at that, no, I can't include Gershwin.

And Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915

But I should have included that!

Sarge

[vandermolen]

Thanks for replies,

I think American composers do best with third symphonies ( Harris, Copland, Hanson, Diamond, Schuman); interesting to see some votes for Copland's Organ Symphony - a work I have come to appreciate more and more. Also, I could have chosen Barber's Symphony in One Movement instead of the great Essay No 2.

Here are my alternative 6

Hanson (how could I have left him out?): Symphony No 3

Gershwin: An American in Paris

Antheil: Symphony No 4

Copland: Symphonic Ode

Harris: Symphony 6 'Gettysburg'

William Schuman: Symphony 3

[vandermolen]

When I first saw the thread title, I immediately thought Porgy & Bess which would definitely make my list had Vandermolen not included "orchestral"--which my brain only saw later. So it wasn't a matter of forgetting Gerschwin.    But with only six choices allowed, and orchestral ones at that, no, I can't include Gershwin.

But I should have included that!

Sarge

Me too! (included 'Knoxville')

[hornteacher]

I could easily do six Copland pieces alone.

[some guy]

Esoteric? Hmmm. Not what I was thinking.

But anyway, it's an interesting proposal: great American orchestral works. Given what happened generally in the twentieth century (and music in the U.S. doesn't really get going until then), and what was going on specifically in the U.S., orchestral works are not where the most creative, innovative effort has gone.

Even so, no mention yet of Sessions? I would have thought Ives' fourth and something or other by Sessions would be early picks along with Carter. Still, Dax's picks were pretty good, though I'd add Arcana and Deserts to the mix. (The Ostrava festival last year played Ameriques, the original version. That's a very fresh sounding piece, I must say!)

So although the most original work in the U.S. has been done outside the symphony concert hall, there have been some notable works done for orchestra. So, other than what's already been mentioned, these would be my picks:

Ives, Symphony no. 4
Varèse, Arcana
Sessions, Symphony no. 9
Carter, Double concerto
Cage, Atlas Eclipticalis
Reynolds, Vertigo

(Another older composer who's worth mentioning in this regard is Wallingford Riegger, who rarely gets mentioned, possibly because he rarely gets recorded or performed.)

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Mine:

Ives: Three Places in New England
Adams: Harmonielehre
Carter: Symphonia
Rochberg: Symphony #2
Piston: Symphony #2
Schuman: Symphony #3

If Varese counts, replace the Schuman with Arcana

[Dax]

When I first saw the thread title, I immediately thought Porgy & Bess which would definitely make my list had Vandermolen not included "orchestral"--which my brain only saw later.

You could have included Catfish Row . . .

[Teresa]

My six favorite American orchestral works:

Michael Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington: Harlem for Orchestra
Michael Gandolfi: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
Morton Gould: Latin American Symphonette
Walter Piston: The Incredible Flutist
Artie Shaw: Concerto for Clarinet

This was not easy as I had to give the heave-ho to many of my favorite American classical works by Grofé, Gershwin, Copland, Virgil Thomson, and one of very favorite new composers Jennifer Higdon. 

[WI Dan]

I don't have much American orchestral music to choose from (yet), so this was pretty easy.  My favorites, fwiw:


Ives: ................  Symphony No. 3
Ives: ................  Holidays Symphony

Barber:  ...........  Violin Concerto
Barber:  ...........  Knoxville: Summer of 1915

Harris:  ............  Symphony No. 3

Copland:  .........  Appalachian Spring

[Brahmsian]

Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

There really isnt a helluva lot to choose from that's truly great imo ... I've always thought of Varese as a frenchman/european, so he doesn't count for me as being distinctly American...

If we include citizenship as a criterion, then we can include Schoenberg and Stravinsky. If we include residence ("they wrote these works in the USA"), we get Hindemith, Martinu, and some others. That should be enough for anyone.