Ferde Grofé is perhaps most famous for having done the orchestral version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, but a close second in fame comes his own composition, the Grand Canyon Suite:
0:00 Sunrise
5:15 Painted Desert
11:04 On the Trail
18:26 Sunset
23:53 Cloudburst
Roy Harris‘s Third Symphony (he wrote thirteen) was, and maybe still is, the American symphony. It’s in one movement: a slow opening; a pastoral interlude, and then a fugue to finish off.
William Schuman ended a very distinguished musical career by being, in succession, president of the Juilliard School and then of the Lincoln Centre. He wrote ten symphonies but withdrew the earliest two; so this, the third, is in actual fact, his first:
00:03 Passacaglia and Fugue
13:46 Chorale and Toccata
Joan Tower is a composer, pianist and conductor, she’s been described (by the New York Times) as ‘one of the most successful woman composers of all time’. Sequoia is one of her most frequently performed works; in her description of the piece she says, ‘What fascinated me about sequoias, those giant California redwood trees, was the balancing act nature had achieved in giving them such great height’.
Apart from being one of the most famous of film composers, John Williams has made many forays into the concert hall – a symphony; concertos for horn, clarinet, cello, two concertos for violin, etc. Below is his bassoon concerto (1995), based around the five sacred trees of Irish folk-lore.
I. Eó Mugna (oak) 00:00
II. Tortan (ash) 06:58
III. Eó Rossa (yew) 10:45
IV. Craeb Uisnig (ash) 15:26
V. Dathi (ash) 18:20 ∙
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Pantygwydr!
The Art of Listening 