William Schuman (1910-1992)

[Sergeant Rock]

I personally don't find it unfortunate that Ives was included instead of Schuman. I am an Ives too!

I love Ives too but the Schuman is the rarer work. And this is the Schuman thread...so, I'll stick with "unfortunate."

Brr, hipsters! We have plenty of Ives already

Precisely.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Brrr, I need to hunker down and listen to the rest of the Schuman symphonies . . . .

[madaboutmahler]

Delighted that you have discovered Schuman, Daniel He is one of the very finest of American composers but your chances of hearing his music in the concert hall are virtually nil.

The Concerto on Old English Rounds is the most serious gap in the Schuman cd dicography and I know of no plans to record it. However....I have an off-radio recording which I shall gladly make available to you, if you are interested

Thank you, Colin. Yes, I had barely even heard of Schuman's name before the podcast, let alone heard any of his music. It was a wonderful surprise to me! Before that podcast, I had only heard of Schuman from just a few posts here on GMG.

Oh yes, please do send that recording. I would absolutely love to listen to it. The excerpt included in the podcast sounded absolutely divine. Is it the Bernstein performance you have?

[Dundonnell]

Your wish is my command

[cilgwyn]

Was listening to this mono LP release on Mercury Living Presence.  No date anywhere on the disk or jacket, but I think 1950 or '51 is likely.  Contains scores for two ballets written for Martha Graham, Judith and Undertow.  Both are very dynamic scores and (upon first impression) very well performed by the Louisville Kentucky Orchestra under Robert Whitney or the composer himself.  The scenario for Judith, in particular, seems compelling, judging from the album notes.  The Louisville Orchestra had commissioned a number of important works around that time.

A shame that these works have been apparently lost in their original form.  This recording of the original interpretation of the works has never been reissued (there are modern recordings) and I can find no visual record of the ballet Judith itself.  I'd be interested to see it.

These sound VERY intriguing. Unfortunately,the Louisville cd is only available as a download;not that I mind,but it's a pity! Also,while some of the Louisville performances are usually pretty good,indeed better than some much newer ones,you need state of the art recording for music like this!
  There is an emi alternative for 'Undertow',but it's not exactly ideal,is it?!!!

I wish Albany would pull their finger out of their proverbial & record stuff like this! Don Gillis symphony cycles?!!!! For crying out loud!

[madaboutmahler]

Your wish is my command

Thank you again, Colin! I can't wait to hear it!

[pjme]

read more about Schuman at :

http://www.williamschuman.org/frames/fr_disc.htm

I wrote them several years ago and asked why the Viola concerto never was re-issued. Alas, they were not able to give an answer.
So it is/was CBS that holds the secret, I suppose.
The concerto is indeed a superb work and I definitely would like to have it on cd again. Bernstein's recording (with Mc Innes) is excellent. But this lovely work could easily do with a new recording.

P.

[Mirror Image]

I've been digging this recording a lot:

[asin]B00008NGFH[/asin]

Anyone who doesn't own this recording run, don't walk to Amazon and buy it now! It's currently my favorite Schuman disc although I haven't heard Bernstein's earlier recording of Symphonies 3, 5, and 8 yet which I heard was excellent. Anyway, this performance of Credendum is something else. The Piano Concerto is becoming a favorite of mine as well. I've always enjoyed Symphony No. 4, but I think I like this Miller/Albany performance better than the Schwarz. The outer movements are especially given more life in this performance than Schwarz's. I'll have to do more side-by-side comparisons later.

[Bogey]

I've been digging this recording a lot:

[asin]B00008NGFH[/asin]

Anyone who doesn't own this recording run, don't walk to Amazon and buy it now! It's currently my favorite Schuman disc although I haven't heard Bernstein's earlier recording of Symphonies 3, 5, and 8 yet which I heard was excellent. Anyway, this performance of Credendum is something else. The Piano Concerto is becoming a favorite of mine as well. I've always enjoyed Symphony No. 4, but I think I like this Miller/Albany performance better than the Schwarz. The outer movements are especially given more life in this performance than Schwarz's. I'll have to do more side-by-side comparisons later.

Glad this recording worked out, MI.  I may consider it to go with my LP.

[Mirror Image]

Glad this recording worked out, MI.  I may consider it to go with my LP.

Yeah Bogey, I've already listened to this recording three times. This is such a strong program of music that I don't even know which work would be considered the main reason to buy this recording. All of the works are so well performed. I also want to say the audio quality is superb.

[Bogey]

Yeah Bogey, I've already listened to this recording three times. This is such a strong program of music that I don't even know which work would be considered the main reason to buy this recording. All of the works are so well performed. I also want to say the audio quality is superb.

Key.

[Mirror Image]

Key.

Yeah, I'm a stickler for good audio too. By the way, I understand that Ormandy LP of Schuman you bought is in mono, is this correct? If yes, how is the mono on that recording? It's been reissued on CD but I'm not a big fan of these historical mono recordings.

[Bogey]

Yeah, I'm a stickler for good audio too. By the way, I understand that Ormandy LP of Schuman you bought is in mono, is this correct? If yes, how is the mono on that recording? It's been reissued on CD but I'm not a big fan of these historical mono recordings.

Well, I find certain lps sound great on my system.  I repeat, my system.  The Mercury Living Presence, Denon, Connoisseur Society, and Columbia 6 eye monos are some of the best (RCA Living Stereos are a crap shoot for my system, but usually work out).  In fact, that is why I bought the Schumann platter.  Not for the recording, as it was not known to me, but I knew the sound would be superior and I was willing to take the risk.   I ended up loving the piece after hearing it.  So, the sound lead me to Shumann.  Kind of like buying Pearl cds....they just work for me in almost every case.

[Mirror Image]

Well, I find certain lps sound great on my system.  I repeat, my system.  The Mercury Living Presence, Denon, Connoisseur Society, and Columbia 6 eye monos are some of the best (RCA Living Stereos are a crap shoot for my system, but usually work out).  In fact, that is why I bought the Schumann platter.  Not for the recording, as it was not known to me, but I knew the sound would be superior and I was willing to take the risk.   I ended up loving the piece after hearing it.  So, the sound lead me to Shumann.  Kind of like buying Pearl cds....they just work for me in almost every case.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, everyone's system will sound different for sure. It seems like it worked out for you. Is this your first exposure to Schuman's music?

[Mirror Image]

Getting back to Schuman, has anyone read this book per chance?

[Mirror Image]

It seems that I'm favoring Schuman's earlier works over his later ones. I seem to be attracted to the works written in '40s and '50s. All three compositions from this Albany recording I've been praising come from this period. Schuman didn't really compose that much music after the '50s. He was still writing music up into the '80s but it seems that he worked at a slower pace as he got older. I think the quality of his work suffered as he got older, but this is just a general observation. I really need to hear his 10th symphony subtitled American Muse before making such a judgement, but his 9th symphony was just horrible. I mean I couldn't find any redeeming qualities about it other than to say it would a good work to get rid of guests at your house.

[Mirror Image]

Here's a cool little portrait of William Schuman that was nicely put together:

http://www.youtube.com/v/MzBtHOlkWw8

[Scion7]

I'm going to post what the 2010 New Grove has to say about Schuman here - his music, almost never performed and pretty much zilch on American classical FM (most of the requests come from listeners whose tastes tend more towards the 'melodic'), and seemingly relegated to the college classroom, needs to be heard more often:

Schuman, William (Howard)
(b New York, 4 Aug 1910; d New York, 15 Feb 1992). American composer, teacher and administrator.

1. Life.
At the age of 16 Schuman wrote his first piece, a tango, and widened his practical experience by taking up various instruments and organizing and performing in jazz bands. He wrote many popular songs to lyrics by Edward B. Marks and Frank Loesser, including the latter's first published song, In Love with a Memory of You. After hearing Toscanini conduct the New York PO on 4 April 1930 Schuman abruptly left the School of Commerce of New York University, where he had been studying for two years, and began private harmony lessons with Max Persin and, in 1931, counterpoint lessons with Charles Haubiel in New York.
While Schuman continued to write popular music until 1934, his study and composing veered increasingly towards concert music. He took summer courses with Bernard Wagenaar and Adolf Schmid at the Juilliard School (1932, 1933), spent a summer in the conducting programme at the Salzburg Mozarteum (1935), and in 1933 enrolled in Columbia University Teachers College (BS 1935, MA 1937). During 1932–5 Schuman had begun composing seriously, and after hearing Roy Harris's Symphony 1933 he studied with Harris at Juilliard (summer 1936) and then privately (until 1938); Harris remained for some years an important influence on Schuman's orchestral music.
In 1938 Schuman won an American composition contest (in support of Republican Spain) with his Second Symphony. On the jury was Aaron Copland, who brought the work to the attention of Koussevitzky. Koussevitzky became a champion of Schuman's compositions, conducting the Second Symphony with the Boston SO in 1939, and first performances of the American Festival Overture (1939), the Symphony no.3 (1941, awarded the first New York Music Critics' Circle Award), A Free Song (1943, awarded the first Pulitzer Prize in music), and the Symphony for Strings (1943). The public and critical success of the Symphony no.3 established Schuman as a leading American composer and since that time his music has been widely performed. He remains among the most honoured figures in American music, having received 28 honorary degrees, 2 consecutive Guggenheim fellowships (1939–41), membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1946) and later the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1973), the first Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in music (1957), the Horblit Award from the Boston SO and Harvard University (1980), the gold medal from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1982) and a second, special Pulitzer prize (1985). Credendum (1955) was the first composition to be commissioned by the US government. In 1981 Columbia University established the William Schuman Award, a $50,000 prize to a composer for lifetime achievement; Schuman himself was the first recipient.
Schuman's work as a teacher and administrator has had wide and lasting influence. At Sarah Lawrence College, where he taught from 1935 to 1945, he initiated an approach to general arts instruction aiming at students' self-discovery of the nature of the creative process; he went on to evolve a similar approach to the teaching of other subjects, including composition. Schuman also conducted the chorus at Sarah Lawrence (1939–45), commissioning and composing works for women's voices. In 1945, after leaving Sarah Lawrence for a three-year term as director of publications at G. Schirmer, Schuman was invited to become president of the Juilliard School. He left the Schirmer position (though he remained as a special editorial consultant until 1952), and began an extensive reorganization of the School: he merged the Institute of Musical Art with the Juilliard Graduate School to form the Juilliard School of Music, founded the Juilliard String Quartet (which became the model for many quartets-in-residence at American colleges), revived the opera theatre, added a dance division, and, most importantly, instituted the 'Literature and Materials of Music' curricular programme, which fused theory and history into a single coherent four-year course with the music itself as the basis for study. An exposition of his approach to music education appeared as The Juilliard Report (1953). Schuman also invited a number of distinguished composers to join the faculty, among them Bergsma, R.F. Goldman, Peter Mennin, Norman Lloyd, Vincent Persichetti, Robert Starer, Robert Ward and Hugo Weisgall.
In 1962 Schuman was made president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a position which gave him considerable influence in the administration of the arts and one which he exercised in a characteristically imaginative and forceful manner. He encouraged the commissioning and performing of American works, and the importance he placed on the centre's service to urban communities led to the Lincoln Center Student Program, which instituted concerts in schools and opened the centre's halls for young people's concerts. He founded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Society and a summer series of special musical events. He fought a long and successful battle to have the Juilliard School housed in Lincoln Center and to add a drama division to its offerings. At the end of 1969 Schuman left his post at Lincoln Center to devote himself to composition, but he has continued to champion the cause of the arts as a public speaker and as an adviser to numerous organizations, including the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Naumburg Foundation and the Charles Ives Society. He was chairman of the MacDowell Colony (1974–7, 1980–83) and became honorary chairman in 1984; he was the founding chairman of the Norlin Foundation (1975–85). He received the Gold Baton Award of the American Symphony Orchestra League (1985), the National Medal of Arts (1987) and the Kennedy Center Honors (1989). Schuman continued to compose despite a painful inherited bone disease. He maintained his legendary personal charm and gifts as a public speaker to the end.

2. Works.
While Schuman has written extensively in many media, his orchestral music, especially the symphonies, forms the core of his work. He employs a broad nonrepetitive cantilena, a tonal idiom ranging from nonfunctional triadic harmony to free melodic chromaticism and polytonality (aspects of diatonicism hold his interest even in later works), and expansive musical and orchestral gestures. The vigorous drive, febrile rhythms and bonhomie of the symphonies and the American Festival Overture are also characteristic. Schuman considers melody the main element in his work. Arching lines unfold and motifs reappear in new guises, generating new material; their harmonic clarity and buoyancy is retained by displacing rhythmically their repetitions. Schuman writes for full orchestra, which he generally uses in homogeneous groups, with similar material tossed from one choir to another. He is inclined to superimpose up to three distinct layers moving at different speeds: his slow movements often present rich successions of triads or polychords in the lower register with one or more weaving melodic strands above. In fast sections, principal melodies are frequently accompanied by sharp, rhythmically irregular chordal strokes. Fugato and ostinato procedures figure prominently, and the subjects of fugues and passacaglias may undergo substantial change during the course of a movement. Sections frequently begin with canonic statements of long, legato melodies, as in the Third and Ninth Symphonies. Other typical elements are timpani solos and almost apocalyptic finales.
Schuman's harmonic development can be traced through the symphonies. In the Third, chords built on major or minor triads with one or two nontriadic tones in a lower or high register predominate, as do melodic perfect 4ths; in the Symphony for Strings, more consistent use is made of polytriads; and in the Sixth Symphony (1948), perhaps Schuman's finest achievement, major-minor chords (a hallmark of Schuman's style) permeate the complex and chromatic texture. 12 years separated the Seventh from the Sixth Symphony, and during this period Schuman composed in diverse styles and for various forces; more probing works, such as the choral Carols of Death (1958), alternated with the 'baseball opera' The Mighty Casey (1951–3) and the popular New England Triptych (1956), based on hymn tunes by William Billings. The Triptych, its recastings for concert band and the many choral works are representative of Schuman's concern for indigenous American subjects and also for practical performance groups. He thought that his Seventh (1960), Eighth (1962) and Ninth (1968) Symphonies were 'somehow connected'; each lasting about half an hour, they share a brooding, chromatic idiom. In the Seventh and Eighth Schuman continued the new directions explored in the Carols. There are long stretches of harmonic stasis, and dense sonorities are insistently reiterated. In the first movement he unfolds a 12-note theme which soon fragments into 4-note cells, and uses material from a 1959 film score and his Three Piano Moods (1958). In the second movement of the Eighth, in which he also employs intervallic cells, a 12-note theme beginning with an inversion of B–A–C–H is featured. Slow, melancholy music predominates, as do march-like dotted rhythms, intense string adagios and bell-like sounds in the orchestra. The emotion-filled Ninth Symphony 'Le fosse ardeatine' (1968) is perhaps the finest of the later works; its dark and solemn mood, unity of form and detail, and slow–fast–slow plan recall the Sixth Symphony. During the 1960s he produced two smaller concertante works – A Song of Orpheus, based on a song of 1944 (Orpheus and his Lute), and To thee Old Cause, a bleak 'evocation', the first performance of which was given in memory of Martin Luther King, jr, and Robert Kennedy (3 October 1968).
Schuman's overall output appears ever more unified as works of the 1970s and 80s refer back to the forms, idioms, materials and even poets that concerned him earlier. Large-scale vocal pieces and vocally inspired works form a major part of his compositions after the mid-1970s. Concerto on Old English Rounds (1974), ostensibly a viola concerto, employs women's chorus and borrows primary material from the traditional round Amaryllis (which also provided the basis of the Amaryllis variations for string trio). In Sweet Music, a chamber work with voice of 1978, is an extensive reworking of the earlier song Orpheus and his Lute. In the introspective Three Colloquies (1979), for horn and orchestra, the soloist takes on a vocal eloquence; the work seems to reconcile the complex, elegiac harmonies of the Carols with the simpler though no less expressive idiom of Orpheus. American Hymn (1980) explores a more diatonic vein. The witty Esses: Short Suite for Singers on Words Beginning with S (1982) followed the more serious Perceptions (1982), a choral cycle on a text of Whitman. Schuman's last completed work, A Question of Taste (1987–9), was commissioned by Glimmerglass Opera, whose summer opera house is in Cooperstown, NY, the home of baseball's Hall of Fame. The one-act comedy was intended to complete a double bill with The Mighty Casey. Despite McClatchy's witty, rhymed libretto and Schuman's boisterous waltz (suggested by the plot), the music shares with the symphonies a slow, nostalgic lyricism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
GroveA (B. Saylor) [incl. further bibliography]
J. Clark: 'William Schuman on his Symphonies: an Interview', American Music, iv/3 (1986), 328–36
J.E. Steele: William Schuman's 'Literature and Materials' Approach: a Historical Precedent for Comprehensive Musicianship (diss., of Florida, 1988)
M. Brown: 'Enduring Wisdom from William Schuman', The Instrumentalist, xlviii/4 (1993), 26–9
J.D. McClatchy: 'William Schuman: a Reminiscence', OQ, x/4 (1994), 21–37
K.G. Adams: William Schuman: a Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT, 1998)
P. Rosenfeld: 'Copland, Harris, Schuman', MQ, xxv (1939), 372–81
L. Bernstein: 'William Schuman', MM, xix (1942), 97–9
N. Broder: 'The Music of William Schuman', MQ, xxxi (1945), 17–28
[R.F. Goldman]: The Juilliard Report (New York, 1953)
F.R. Schreiber and V. Persichetti: William Schuman (New York, 1954) [incl. further bibliography]
C. Rouse: William Schuman: Documentary (New York, 1980) [incl. list of works, discography, bibliography]

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Getting back to Schuman, has anyone read this book per chance?

I haven't read it, but here are 2 reviews of it from Classical.net:

http://www.classical.net/music/books/reviews/1574671731b.php

http://www.classical.net/music/books/reviews/1574671731a.php

It seems that I'm favoring Schuman's earlier works over his later ones. I seem to be attracted to the works written in '40s and '50s.

Generally speaking, that's been my impression too. I haven't been impressed by symphonies 7 and 8: a lot of noise, but structurally they seem weak. On the other hand I love nos. 3 and 6, and like the String Symphony (#5 I think) quite a lot.

[Dundonnell]

It seems that I'm favoring Schuman's earlier works over his later ones. I seem to be attracted to the works written in '40s and '50s. All three compositions from this Albany recording I've been praising come from this period. Schuman didn't really compose that much music after the '50s. He was still writing music up into the '80s but it seems that he worked at a slower pace as he got older. I think the quality of his work suffered as he got older, but this is just a general observation. I really need to hear his 10th symphony subtitled American Muse before making such a judgement, but his 9th symphony was just horrible. I mean I couldn't find any redeeming qualities about it other than to say it would a good work to get rid of guests at your house.

I think that you are being overly harsh on Schuman's later music Like many composers, Schuman's idiom developed as time went by and the later music is more dissonant and acerbic. It is also true to say that he wrote less in the last couple of decades of his life.

This list is extracted from my complete catalogue of the Schuman orchestral and choral music:

1960:      Symphony No.7: 28 minutes   
1961:      Fantasy "A Song of Orpheus" for Cello and Orchestra: 21 minutes
1962:      Symphony No. 8: 31 minutes     
1963:      Variations on "America" for orchestra: 8 minutes   
              "The Orchestra Song" for orchestra: 4 minutes     
1965:      Ballet "The Witch of Endor": 30 minutes
                Philharmonic Fanfare for orchestra  (withdrawn)
1968:      Symphony No. 9 "Le Fosse Ardeatine": 30 minutes   
                Evocation "To Thee, Old Cause" for Oboe, timpani, brass, piano and strings: 17 minutes       
1969:      "In Praise of Shahn-Canticle for Orchestra: 18 minutes   
1972:      Voyage for Orchestra: 25 minutes         
1973:      Concerto on Old English Rounds for Viola, women's chorus and orchestra: 40 minutes   
1975:      Symphony No.10 "American Muse": 33 minutes   
                Lamentation "The Young Dead Soldiers" for soprano, French horn, 8 woodwinds and 9 strings: 15 minutes     
1976:      "Amaryllis-Variants on an old English round" for string orchestra:8 minutes
                "Casey at the Bat" (a Baseball Cantata) for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra: 40 minutes
1979:      Three Colloquies for French Horn and Orchestra: 24 minutes
1981:      "Night Journey-Choreographic Poem for fifteen instruments":  20 minutes       
                "American Hymn" (Orchestral Variations on an Original Melody for orchestra: 26 minutes
1985:      "On Freedom's Ground" (An American Cantata) for baritone, chorus and orchestra: 40 minutes   
1986:      "Showcase- a Short Display for Orchestra": 4 minutes
1988:      "Let's Hear it for Lenny"(Variations on 'New York, New York') for orchestra: 2 minutes

Of these pieces the "Song of Orpheus" and the Concerto on Old English Rounds are beautiful works and I also like the Evocation "To Thee, Old Cause" and "In Praise of Shahn". Equally, there is no doubt that "Voyage for Orchestra" is a pretty tough and intractable work. "American Hymn" I have not yet heard-but will shortly be able to remedy that