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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
On the first day of Black History Month, and with a government shutdown not far behind us, it seems appropriate to feature an African-American composer who wrote music as an amateur while working at civil service jobs for much of his life and did not become a full-time composer until he was 45 years old.
Howard Swanson (1907-1978) was born into a family of educators in Atlanta; his parents and grandparents were all teachers, and unusually for an African-American family at the time, they were able to send both of his brothers to college. His musical talent was first noticed when the family relocated to Cleveland in 1916; as a boy he frequently sang or played the piano at his church. But his father died suddenly in 1925, when he was 17, immediately putting his family in precarious financial circumstances. Needing to provide for his mother and younger sister, Swanson took a job at the Cleveland post office after graduating from high school, derailing his plans for his own education. Eventually, the family's situation improved enough that he was able to resume taking piano lessons; his piano teacher was impressed enough to recommend him to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he began to take evening classes in 1927. More than a decade later, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in music theory, having worked at the post office for the entire time. On graduating, he won a fellowship to study in France with famed composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. He arrived in Paris in 1939, only for his studies to be interrupted again less than a year later, this time by the German invasion. Swanson never resumed his formal musical training. On returning to the United States, he gave up on the prospect of a musical career, found a new job at the Internal Revenue Service, and continued composing only as a hobby.
Swanson's big break came in 1950, when Marian Anderson came across one of his earliest art songs, a setting of the Langston Hughes poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and performed it at Carnegie Hall. At the recital, Swanson met New York Philharmonic music director Dimitri Mitropoulos, who inquired about his other compositions. Later that year, Mitropoulos conducted the premiere of Swanson's "Short Symphony," which he had composed two years earlier. The Short Symphony was an instant success, receiving more than thirty performances by major orchestras and multiple recordings within two years after its premiere. In 1952, Swanson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to leave his civil service job and become a full-time composer for the rest of his life. He moved back to Paris, where he stayed until 1966 before eventually returning to semi-retirement in New York. Because he was an amateur composer for much of his life, his overall reputation was limited by his relatively small body of work.
Swanson was best known for his art songs, composing only a handful of major instrumental works. His Concerto for Orchestra is one of them. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, it was composed in 1956 and premiered in 1957, not long after Swanson turned to music as a full-time career. Though he made some use of jazz-inspired thematic material, Swanson was a neoclassicist, and the influence of both Stravinsky and Hindemith is evident in the Concerto for Orchestra. While the concerto is in just two movements, it loosely follows the Baroque concerto grosso form with each movement functioning somewhat as a pair of movements in the traditional slow-fast-slow-fast sequence.
On the first day of Black History Month, and with a government shutdown not far behind us, it seems appropriate to feature an African-American composer who wrote music as an amateur while working at civil service jobs for much of his life and did not become a full-time composer until he was 45 years old.
Howard Swanson (1907-1978) was born into a family of educators in Atlanta; his parents and grandparents were all teachers, and unusually for an African-American family at the time, they were able to send both of his brothers to college. His musical talent was first noticed when the family relocated to Cleveland in 1916; as a boy he frequently sang or played the piano at his church. But his father died suddenly in 1925, when he was 17, immediately putting his family in precarious financial circumstances. Needing to provide for his mother and younger sister, Swanson took a job at the Cleveland post office after graduating from high school, derailing his plans for his own education. Eventually, the family's situation improved enough that he was able to resume taking piano lessons; his piano teacher was impressed enough to recommend him to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he began to take evening classes in 1927. More than a decade later, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in music theory, having worked at the post office for the entire time. On graduating, he won a fellowship to study in France with famed composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. He arrived in Paris in 1939, only for his studies to be interrupted again less than a year later, this time by the German invasion. Swanson never resumed his formal musical training. On returning to the United States, he gave up on the prospect of a musical career, found a new job at the Internal Revenue Service, and continued composing only as a hobby.
Swanson's big break came in 1950, when Marian Anderson came across one of his earliest art songs, a setting of the Langston Hughes poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and performed it at Carnegie Hall. At the recital, Swanson met New York Philharmonic music director Dimitri Mitropoulos, who inquired about his other compositions. Later that year, Mitropoulos conducted the premiere of Swanson's "Short Symphony," which he had composed two years earlier. The Short Symphony was an instant success, receiving more than thirty performances by major orchestras and multiple recordings within two years after its premiere. In 1952, Swanson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to leave his civil service job and become a full-time composer for the rest of his life. He moved back to Paris, where he stayed until 1966 before eventually returning to semi-retirement in New York. Because he was an amateur composer for much of his life, his overall reputation was limited by his relatively small body of work.
Swanson was best known for his art songs, composing only a handful of major instrumental works. His Concerto for Orchestra is one of them. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, it was composed in 1956 and premiered in 1957, not long after Swanson turned to music as a full-time career. Though he made some use of jazz-inspired thematic material, Swanson was a neoclassicist, and the influence of both Stravinsky and Hindemith is evident in the Concerto for Orchestra. While the concerto is in just two movements, it loosely follows the Baroque concerto grosso form with each movement functioning somewhat as a pair of movements in the traditional slow-fast-slow-fast sequence.