Heading back to America this week for a world premier performance of Roy Harris’ Symphony Number 6 – dubbed “Gettysburg” – by the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky on April 15, 1944.
This recording of the broadcast was edited and made available via The Office Of War Information as part of their Contemporary American Music series.
Roy Harris (born Feb. 12, 1898, Lincoln county, Okla., U.S.—died Oct. 1, 1979, Santa Monica, Calif.) was a composer, teacher, and a prominent representative of nationalism in American music who came to be regarded as the musical spokesman for the American landscape.
Harris’s family moved to California during his childhood. He studied music at the University of California, Berkeley, and in Los Angeles, composing his first work at age 24. In 1926 he traveled to Paris to study composition with Nadia Boulanger, under whose tutelage he wrote his first significant work, Concerto for clarinet, piano, and string quartet (1927). After returning to the United States he taught music at the Juilliard School (1934–38) and the Westminster Choir School in Princeton, N.J. (1934–38). In 1936 he married pianist Beula Duffey (known after their marriage as Johana Harris), who advised him and worked with him on piano parts. He later held teaching positions at a number of American universities. From 1961 until his death he was professor and composer in residence at the University of California, Los Angeles (1961–70), and at California State University, Los Angeles (1971–76).
Harris’s works are marked by broad tonal melodies and asymmetrical rhythms. Many reflect American scenes and music, including the symphonic overture When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1934); the Symphony No. 4 (1940, Folksong Symphony); Kentucky Spring (1949); Symphony No. 6 (1944, Gettysburg Address); and Symphony No. 10 (1965, Abraham Lincoln Symphony).
Serge Koussevitzky’s appointment as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) was the beginning of a golden era for the ensemble that would continue until 1949. Over that 25-year period, he built the ensemble’s reputation into that of a leading American orchestra. Together with Gertrude Robinson Smith he played a central role in developing the orchestra’s internationally acclaimed summer concert and educational programs at Tanglewood where today the 5,700-seat main performance venue bears his name. In the early 1940s, he discovered a young tenor named Alfred Cocozza (who would later be known as Mario Lanza), and provided him with a scholarship to attend Tanglewood. With the Boston Symphony he made numerous recordings, most of which were well regarded by critics. His students and protégés included Leonard Bernstein, Eleazar de Carvalho, Samuel Adler, and Sarah Caldwell. Bernstein once received a pair of cufflinks from Koussevitzky as a gift, and thereafter wore them at every concert he conducted.
Sadly, the recording was taken from a broadcast feed and not the highest quality. Though muddy in spots, it gives a clear picture of what the music was about and offers further testament that Roy Harris was one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century and that Serge Koussevitzky was an ardent supporter of new American music as well as one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors.
