Symphony
Duration: 20:00
Date of Composition: 1966 / 2000
PROGRAM NOTES:
It’s inevitable that my note on this Symphony, some 35 years after its composition, should be personal and nostalgic. It was my Bachelors of Music graduation piece at the Manhattan School of Music. My teachers, David Diamond and Ludmila Ulehla, worked with me; they were great boosters, encouraging me at every lesson. With my undergraduate experience, I had no idea of the amount of work required to put together score and parts for a 24-minute orchestra piece. The last week before the concert was an around-the-clock copying party, with most of my friends (some who could scarcely read music) scratching notes on transparent paper, to be duplicated at Circle Blueprint. MIDI and Finale were unthought of.
But with two or three all-nighters, we made the deadline. The Manhattan Orchestra, conducted by Anton Coppola, had to sight-read the third movement. My piece was last on the program, and even my envious enemies had to congratulate me. Even if they disliked the music, they had to admire the orchestration. The orchestra players liked their parts, which gave me great satisfaction.
As for the work itself, it is in line with numerous American Symphonies, those by Piston, Schuman, Diamond, Persichetti, and with some Hindemith thrown in. During my entire education, through the doctorate, the avant-garde – Cage, Feldman, Partch – was never mentioned. It was another era academically. The first movement is in sonata form; the last movement contains a fugue. That’s what we studied in form and analysis. I still like the piece. I wanted it to be four movements, but there wasn’t time for that.
-James Sellars
18 April 2000