# what is Roger Sessions darkest moment , a work in particular that is gloom & doom?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

*what is Roger Sessions darkest moment , a work in particular that is gloom & doom?*

I started to dig Mister Sessions more and more, i need is boldest move his pierrot lumaire???
His major work that stand out?

:tiphat:


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Sessions is a major American symphonist (and composer), one that I am yet to explore. Any recommendations?


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

I have 17 different compositions of Sessions in my listening library. It's actually quite hard to pick recommendations (although I will) and it's quite difficult to pick his "dark, doom & gloom" ones.

First, I suggest his Symphony #3 and Piano Sonata #3 as entry level. Clearly his most famous work "Black Maskers" (1923) is accessible and so is his Violin Concerto (1927-35), but shortly afterwards he adopted an atonal style that is quite dense and makes recognizing each piece in a specific genre hard to distinguish. These two have a more recognizable personality.

But the fact that all his works from the 1950's & onward are so similar in approach makes it too difficult for me to claim one or another as "dark, gloomy". I'm kind of implying that he's like Vivaldi.. i.e. writing the same piece over & over, which is really not true. However, I suspect you hear his dense atonality as essentially "dark doom & gloom". In which case, pick whatever is handy


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

What about the opera _Montezuma_?

Link to article about it:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezuma_(Sessions_opera)

There is a recording of it on YouTube:


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