Roy Harris: Concerto for Piano And Strings (1959-60) (Johanna Harris, International String Congress Orchestra, Roy Harris), Elegy And Dance (1958) (Portland Junior Symphony, Jacob Avshalomov), Cimarron “Symphonic Overture” (1941) (UCLA Wind Ensemble, James Westbrook). Toccata Chorale and Fantasy for Organ, Brass and Timpani (1944, 1943, 1964) (Thomas Harmon organ, UCLA Brass Ensemble, James Westbrook). Bay Cities BCD-1002 (1989) barcode 094659100228
Piano Concerto recorded in 1960 live in Puerto Rico
Cimarron, Toccata, Chorale, Fantasy recorded 1979
Recording date not indicated for Elegy and Dance
The remarkably personal and enjoyable voice of Roy Harris
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 25 December 2007
Much to my own surprise, I enjoy tremendously the music of Roy Harris. I’ve heard a lot of American symphonic music from the 40s and 50s recently, and my own tastes don’t dispose me very favorably to the kind of heart-on-sleeve Romanticism so typical of Hanson and of some Barber pieces, nor to the pastoral prairie style one hears in some works of Copland, Thomson and some slow movements in the early symphonies of Mennin and Schuman, and not either to the kind of of affirmative heroism which exudes, again, from the finales of the early symphonies of Mennin and Schuman (to say nothing of the late symphonies of George Antheil) and which, to my ears, often lapses into bombast.
Harris is not far from all that (especially in the Dance part from the 1958 Elegy and Dance) but there is something different at play too, which I find winning: an irresistible heroic sweep which I somehow do not find bombastic, a way to develop crescendos over sometimes very long spans (the Chorale for organ and brass takes 9 minutes) to exhilarating climaxes of intensity. I am not a musicologist, but it seems to me that Harris’ orchestral procedures are original and remarkable, in that he often writes monophonic lines for the strings, which may overlap but not in a chordal way, and which are played with heart-rending intensity. More still than of Bach’s counterpoint, it is reminiscent of Renaissance choral music. There are also deep baritonal long-lined melodies (usually for strings but also for woodwinds in Cimarron for Wind Ensemble) pitted against powerful brass riffs that never fail to release the adrenalin. Even Harris’ personal brand of brooding pastoralism, as in the Chorale referred to above, I find very moving, maybe because the main melodic line is attributed to trumpet rather than the customary and clichéd flute and/or oboe over carpet of strings. The effects may be simple but I find them immensely effective – and in that respect Harris reminds of Shostakovich, even if these two composers’ voices are very different.
The Concerto for Piano and Strings is the expansion to string orchestra, made in 1959-60, of Harris’ early Piano Quintet (1937): long polyphonic string lines, first meditative and lyrical and increasingly intense, against piano figurations following the same arch, from brooding to busily agitated – in its own way, I find it as personal and intense as Britten’s Concertos, and this is no small praise in my personal pantheon. Elegy and Dance was written for the Portland Junior Symphony and its first title was “Reverie and Dance”. Cimarron-Overture from 1941 is Harris’ first work for Wind Band. Toccata, Chorale and Fantasy are actually three different pieces for Organ, Brass and Timpani, written respectively in 1944, 1943 (for E. Power Biggs) and 1964. They are substantial, lasting in all 25 minutes, and, for the reasons I tried to express above, elating.
Sonically, only the Elegy and Dance‘s mono and uni-dimensional sound betrays its age. It was first published in the early 1960s on CRI 140 with David Diamond’s The World of Paul Klee, William Bergsma’s Chameleon Variations and Benjamin Lees’ Prologue, Capriccio and Epilogue. Even the Piano Concerto, a live recording made in Puerto Rico in 1960, sounds fine. This and the items for band, organ and brass came on two Varèse Sarabande LPs, VC 81085 and VC 81100, in 1979 and 1980, which also had the West Point Symphony for Band (reissued on a companion Bay Cities CD, BCD-1008, paired with Robert Russell Bennett’s Violin Concerto, review soon to be reposted here) and the Concerto for Amplified Piano, Brass, String Basses and Timpani (which can now be found on Citadel 88114, barcode 795818811428, in a coherent program with the other Harris-conducted pieces for string orchestra found on these two Bay Cities CDs: the Concerto for Piano and Strings, Chorale, and Prelude & Fugue. Link will open new tab to listing on Discogs.com).
Good notes, adequate production info (only the recording dates of Elegy and Dance are missing). TT is a good 61:30. Bay Cities was a short-lived label (established in 1989, it folded in 1993) devoted mainly, apart from soundtracks from films, to reissues of recordings of symphonic works by American 20th Century Romantics (Robert Ward, David Diamond, Randall Thompson, Howard Hanson, Norman Dello Joio… ) from the 1960s and earlier. These two Harris releases were among their most valuable ones (I also particularly cherish their Antheil/Morton Gould pairing on BCD-1016 barcode 094659101621, see my review on Amazon.com pending repost), although I would have prefered coherent, all Westbrook/UCLA and all Harris programs. But hopefully, having done the latter, Citadel will come around to doing the former.