# William Schuman's Puzzling 7th symphony: a lecture



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Here is a passionate lecture by a music professor and multi-talented guy, Steven Swayne, who I had not heard of, and who also did a biography on Schuman. You may not know a ton about William Schuman or have a particularly strong feeling for his output that you've heard, but I do and Swayne's passion and commitment is infectious. The 7th symphony is actually my favorite symphony from 6-10 and sometimes I like it better than 3(his most accessible). I also find it cool that it gets library of congress attention. And I recognized all the excerpts that he played(he appears to have zeroed in on things that captured me the most, most notable the bass clarinet solo in the finale of the 3rd and the thematic connection in the 1st and 2nd movement of the 7th).

27:05 is where he talks about the excerpts of the 7th for the first time, and that's the part I recommend checking out if you don't want to watch the whole thing(it is quite long, but its very interesting).






Edit: I was only able to find the 1st 2 movement of it online, but that will at least give you a sense of what the work is like, for those who haven't heard it.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

You discovered this. 

I LOVED IT. Isn't it great. I loved the revelation that Bernstein's "Cool" is based on a tone row.

I have been thinking about creating a thread about this myself. I hope others find it as interesting as we did.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

arpeggio said:


> I LOVED IT. Isn't it great. I loved the revelation that Bernstein's "Cool" is based on a tone row.


Yeah, that has to be the most "Cool" use of a tone row I've ever encountered! Bernstein's abilities sure were impressive. Second favorite tone row is in Strauss's Also Spracht Zarathrusta.

Yes, it may be long, but I hope that others will find this interesting too.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I found the Symphony rather interesting, here are the other two movements:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'll listen to the lecture this weekend, thanks! I'm a Schuman fan, and I love no. 7.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

starthrower said:


> I'll listen to the lecture this weekend, thanks! I'm a Schuman fan, and I love no. 7.


Its enlightening as to the origins of the 1st movement. The story of this piece is pretty convoluted, but this lecturer tells it well.


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## Guest (Oct 19, 2012)

I just looked through my collection.

No Schuman symphony #7.

How could that be?

I'm going to the store right now. It's been seriously downsized--there's no more "Classical Millenium" and about a tenth of its stock is now relocated inside the Music Millenium store--but I might get lucky. If not, perhaps Discogs has something. Anything to avoid patronizing Amazon.

Anyway, thanks for bringing this up, clavichorder.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

some guy said:


> It's been seriously downsized--there's no more "Classical Millenium" and about a tenth of its stock is now relocated inside the Music Millenium store--but I might get lucky. If not, perhaps Discogs has something. Anything to avoid patronizing Amazon.


Classical millennium would have had it for sure. Hopefully you can find it without having to order it. I purchased a lot of my Schuman at the stores at Benaroya Hall, which is where the Seattle Symphony performs. Gerard Schwartz liked to record Schuman and occasionally programmed him.


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## Guest (Oct 20, 2012)

some guy said:


> No Schuman symphony #7.
> 
> How could that be?


Simple. It was just me not finding it. I have about 2000 CDs in DJ boxes, from when I moved from LA to Portland. It was not only in the right box, it was in the right spot, too.

Anyway, now that I've listened to it again, refreshed my memory, I can ask a question that's been puzzling me, which is why this symphony's been referred to as "puzzling."

Was that your designation, clavichorder, or the lecturer's? And in either event, what is it about the piece that's puzzling?


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

some guy said:


> Simple. It was just me not finding it. I have about 2000 CDs in DJ boxes, from when I moved from LA to Portland. It was not only in the right box, it was in the right spot, too.
> 
> Anyway, now that I've listened to it again, refreshed my memory, I can ask a question that's been puzzling me, which is why this symphony's been referred to as "puzzling."
> 
> Was that your designation, clavichorder, or the lecturer's? And in either event, what is it about the piece that's puzzling?


It is the lecturers designation. He is not making a comment about the music in the piece and its ability to move, so much as a comment about its convoluted origin. Which makes sense, since he is a musicologist and a biographer of Schuman. I posted this to generate interest about the piece and also because I enjoyed the lecture.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

^ The origins of the piece were basically what he found puzzling...it was discovered that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th movements were originally a different work called the _Celebration Concertante_, then Schuman later added the first movement to the other three and made it his 7th Symphony.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I finally saw the lecture. Thanks for posting it!


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2012)

You know, I was trying to avoid watching the lecture. And I got my answer.

But I also got a lot of information that made me curious about the lecture. 

Tee hee.


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