Roger Goeb’s Symphony is a significant one in the composer’s career. For its first performance in April, 1952, by Leopold Stokowski and his Orchestra on the Columbia University — CBS Festival of American Music, won for Goeb a host of fine critical notices which established him firmly on the musical scene. The late Robert Bagar, Virgil Thomson and Irving Kolodin all took special note of his orchestral skill and maturity. Kolodin observed: “I was particularly impressed by Goeb’s sense of instrumental color, his facility in juxtaposing timbres and accents in a way that made new sounds of the familiar combinations in his Symphony No. 3. This is no matter, in the old sense, of orchestration or instrumentation: it is rather a keen sense of creating directly in terms of the elements involved . . .”
The Symphony by the twelve-tone composer Ben Weber might be described as a work for chamber orchestra and baritone. The voice of the skilled Warren Galjour does not play a solo role (except perhaps in the second poem of the group) but is imbedded in the whole.
“In writing this work,” Ben Weber comments, “my greatest musical intention was to create through a quasi-symphonic structure a dramatic setting of four poems of Blake, chosen for their value as a cyclic expression of mystery, despair, madness and love reborn. They are arbitrarily chosen to fit in with the symphonic structure and were not so designed by Blake. I have used the same basic music material (i.e., the twelve-note row) in all four movements, and it was particularly interesting to me to derive variety and unity, passion and tranquility from this set. I have expressly avoided the use of strings in order that I have an effect not veiled, and the use of the solo cello is for the purpose of playing in general an obbligato to the vocal line.”
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Full liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Roger Goeb & Ben Weber: Symphonies
| MP3/320 | $7.99 | |
| FLAC | $7.99 | |
| WAV | $7.99 | |
| CD-R | $7.99 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
|
Symphony No. 3: I. Allegro Moderato
Roger Goeb
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony No. 3: II. Andante
Roger Goeb
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony No. 3: III. Vivace
Roger Goeb
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony on Poems of William Blake: I. Moderato
Ben Weber
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony on Poems of William Blake: II. Lento assai
Ben Weber
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony on Poems of William Blake: III. Largo misterioso
Ben Weber
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony on Poems of William Blake: IV. Allegro Moderato
Ben Weber
|
Buy
|