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Film, Video William Schuman's Puzzling Seventh Symphony

Event video

About this Item

Title

  • William Schuman's Puzzling Seventh Symphony

Summary

  • The Music Division of the Library of Congress and the American Musicological Society, in joint partnership, presented another in a series of lectures highlighting musicological research conducted in the division's collections. Steven Swayne of Dartmouth College discussed William Schuman's Seventh Symphony. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 1954, the symphony premiered in the fall of 1960, nearly five years after the 75th anniversary of the BSO. Schuman's correspondence unexpectedly reveals that much of the Seventh Symphony was written not for Boston, but for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Only when the Philadelphia commission collapsed did Schuman repurpose the already-composed music for Boston. Still more intriguing is the presence of a 12-tone row as the opening subject of the first movement. While others have noted the presence of 12-tone harmonies in Schuman's music, to Swayne's knowledge no one has ever remarked on this unusual appearance of a 12-tone melody. The manuscript of the Seventh Symphony in the Koussevitzky Collection of the Library of Congress solves the puzzle about the Philadelphia-Boston connection.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • Library of Congress. Music Division, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2010-03-25.

Headings

  • -  Culture, Performing Arts
  • -  Performing Arts, Music

Notes

  • -  Classification: Fine Arts.
  • -  Classification: Music and Books on Music.
  • -  Steven Swayne.
  • -  Recorded on 2010-03-25.
  • -  Researchers.
  • -  Teachers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021688420

Online Format

  • video
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. Music Division. William Schuman's Puzzling Seventh Symphony. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -03-25, 2010. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688420/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & Library Of Congress. Music Division, S. B. (2010) William Schuman's Puzzling Seventh Symphony. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -03-25. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688420/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. Music Division. William Schuman's Puzzling Seventh Symphony. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -03-25, 2010. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021688420/>.