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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
This week's composer is John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), the oldest of the "Boston Six" who founded the modern American art music tradition. He grew up in Maine, in a musical family: his grandfather was an organ builder who built the first pipe organs in the state of Maine, and his father and uncles were all organists and music teachers. As a teenager, he completed his first major composition, a string quartet, and became the organist for the Haydn Society, a choral ensemble in Portland, Maine. After establishing a reputation as a leading organist in New England, he traveled to Europe, where he continued his musical studies and toured as an organist. In 1861, he returned to the United States to accept the position of organist at Boston's Old West Church, and upon arriving in Boston was also appointed choir director at Harvard University. While working in the latter capacity, he offered courses in music theory and music appreciation, which eventually led Harvard to establish the first university music department in the United States and made Paine the nation's first music professor. Paine would remain on the Harvard faculty until 1905, the year before his death. He also taught at the New England Conservatory from its founding in 1867. In his two faculty positions, his students included Arthur Foote and George Chadwick, both later recognized as part of the Boston Six. (The others were Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, and Horatio Parker.)
As a composer, Paine composed two symphonies, incidental music to several plays, an opera, and numerous choral works. These were well-received during his lifetime; his second symphony was said to have moved one usually reserved Boston Brahmin concertgoer to the point of being seen standing on his chair at the end of the performance, wildly opening and closing his umbrella. But as successful as some of his pieces had been, Paine never entirely escaped prejudice against American musicians. In 1905, the anticipated premiere of his opera Azara was scrapped as the New York Metropolitan Opera singers, mostly Italians, refused to perform an opera in English. Azara has yet to be performed in staged form; to date it has only ever received a single concert performance at Harvard University.
Paine's first symphony was the first American symphony to be published; prior American symphonies had only been performed from manuscript. It was composed between 1872 and 1875 and premiered in Boston in 1876, and was Paine's first piece for orchestra alone, with neither soloists nor chorus. At the time, Beethoven still cast a long shadow in the symphonic world at the time; and perhaps cognizant of his pioneering role in American music history, Paine pays tribute to Beethoven by incorporating elements of Beethoven's Fifth into this symphony. Like Beethoven's Fifth, this symphony is composed in C minor, with a dramatic change to C major for the final movement, and Beethoven's famous rhythmic figure is heard throughout the first movement though used in more of a late Romantic context.
Movements:
I. Allegro con brio
II. Allegro vivace (11:05)
III. Adagio (18:43)
IV. Allegro vivace (28:47)
This week's composer is John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), the oldest of the "Boston Six" who founded the modern American art music tradition. He grew up in Maine, in a musical family: his grandfather was an organ builder who built the first pipe organs in the state of Maine, and his father and uncles were all organists and music teachers. As a teenager, he completed his first major composition, a string quartet, and became the organist for the Haydn Society, a choral ensemble in Portland, Maine. After establishing a reputation as a leading organist in New England, he traveled to Europe, where he continued his musical studies and toured as an organist. In 1861, he returned to the United States to accept the position of organist at Boston's Old West Church, and upon arriving in Boston was also appointed choir director at Harvard University. While working in the latter capacity, he offered courses in music theory and music appreciation, which eventually led Harvard to establish the first university music department in the United States and made Paine the nation's first music professor. Paine would remain on the Harvard faculty until 1905, the year before his death. He also taught at the New England Conservatory from its founding in 1867. In his two faculty positions, his students included Arthur Foote and George Chadwick, both later recognized as part of the Boston Six. (The others were Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, and Horatio Parker.)
As a composer, Paine composed two symphonies, incidental music to several plays, an opera, and numerous choral works. These were well-received during his lifetime; his second symphony was said to have moved one usually reserved Boston Brahmin concertgoer to the point of being seen standing on his chair at the end of the performance, wildly opening and closing his umbrella. But as successful as some of his pieces had been, Paine never entirely escaped prejudice against American musicians. In 1905, the anticipated premiere of his opera Azara was scrapped as the New York Metropolitan Opera singers, mostly Italians, refused to perform an opera in English. Azara has yet to be performed in staged form; to date it has only ever received a single concert performance at Harvard University.
Paine's first symphony was the first American symphony to be published; prior American symphonies had only been performed from manuscript. It was composed between 1872 and 1875 and premiered in Boston in 1876, and was Paine's first piece for orchestra alone, with neither soloists nor chorus. At the time, Beethoven still cast a long shadow in the symphonic world at the time; and perhaps cognizant of his pioneering role in American music history, Paine pays tribute to Beethoven by incorporating elements of Beethoven's Fifth into this symphony. Like Beethoven's Fifth, this symphony is composed in C minor, with a dramatic change to C major for the final movement, and Beethoven's famous rhythmic figure is heard throughout the first movement though used in more of a late Romantic context.
Movements:
I. Allegro con brio
II. Allegro vivace (11:05)
III. Adagio (18:43)
IV. Allegro vivace (28:47)