Post by erik on Jan 29, 2022 13:21:11 GMT -5
The mid 20th century American composer Thomas Canning is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight with one of the more hidden works of the American experience.
Thomas Canning: FANTASY ON A HYMN TUNE
The American Sound in classical music really came of age during the years spanning the Great Depression, World War II, and the beginnings of the Cold War—the sound that reflected the spirit and the culture of the American people. Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and William Schuman were among the greatest practitioners of that sound. But they were not the only ones who made an impact and helped to make the American Sound one of the pre-eminent strains of classical music during the 20th century. Thomas Canning also made an impact with one of the slightly more obscure orchestral works in our nation’s repertoire, the 1944 “Fantasy On A Hymn Tune By Justin Morgan”. The Morgan hymn in question was called “Amanda”, and was written by Morgan during the final decade of the 18th century. Canning created an 11 minute-long work for string orchestra based on that hymn, taking equal inspiration from the better known “Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis” by the great 20th century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work was first performed in 1946 by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Canning’s fellow composer Howard Hanson; but it didn’t receive its first recording for another thirteen years until 1959, when Leopold Stokowski, the closest thing classical music had to a “celebrity” (apart from Bernstein), recorded it for Everest Records with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, even though it would remain overshadowed by other far better-known American works, Canning’s “Fantasy” would become a significant part of every American orchestra’s repertoire.
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra/RAYMOND LEPPARD (London)
Included (American Dreams):
George Whitfield Chadwick: NOEL
Barber: ADAGIO FOR STRINGS
Arthur Foote: PIZZICATO & ADAGIETTO
John Alden Carpenter: SEA DRIFT
George Gershwin: LULLABY
Hoagy Carminchael: PRAYER & CATHEDRAL VISION
Thomas Canning: FANTASY ON A HYMN TUNE
The American Sound in classical music really came of age during the years spanning the Great Depression, World War II, and the beginnings of the Cold War—the sound that reflected the spirit and the culture of the American people. Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and William Schuman were among the greatest practitioners of that sound. But they were not the only ones who made an impact and helped to make the American Sound one of the pre-eminent strains of classical music during the 20th century. Thomas Canning also made an impact with one of the slightly more obscure orchestral works in our nation’s repertoire, the 1944 “Fantasy On A Hymn Tune By Justin Morgan”. The Morgan hymn in question was called “Amanda”, and was written by Morgan during the final decade of the 18th century. Canning created an 11 minute-long work for string orchestra based on that hymn, taking equal inspiration from the better known “Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis” by the great 20th century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work was first performed in 1946 by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Canning’s fellow composer Howard Hanson; but it didn’t receive its first recording for another thirteen years until 1959, when Leopold Stokowski, the closest thing classical music had to a “celebrity” (apart from Bernstein), recorded it for Everest Records with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, even though it would remain overshadowed by other far better-known American works, Canning’s “Fantasy” would become a significant part of every American orchestra’s repertoire.
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra/RAYMOND LEPPARD (London)
Included (American Dreams):
George Whitfield Chadwick: NOEL
Barber: ADAGIO FOR STRINGS
Arthur Foote: PIZZICATO & ADAGIETTO
John Alden Carpenter: SEA DRIFT
George Gershwin: LULLABY
Hoagy Carminchael: PRAYER & CATHEDRAL VISION