George Antheil: Symphony No.3 "American" (1936/1939, rev.1946)

[@canticle56]

Hugh Wolff really gets this music. Wonderful stuff that should be heard more often. Antheil’s symphonies can stand proudly beside those of his contemporaries like Schuman, Mennin, Persichetti, Piston, Thompson, etc.

[@DeltonLorenzoHudson]

Gladly-- He is of "The American School," (around the 30's and 40's including Copland, Hanson, etc.To me, he has a depth the others don't have. His most famous and much praised work is his Symphony No. 3.. No. 7 is also marvellous. He had a unique theory of harmony. (Based on Mother nature anad overtones.) Also piano works, American Ballads, and chamber works. In the 1940's many considered him the greatest American composer. Hope this helps. he helped young composers a lot!

[@Mackeson3]

Isn't The Roy Harris 3rd symphony not "deep" enough for you then?

[@SludgeMcPoople]

Absolutely, George Anthiel is one of America's great composers - up there with Copeland and the rest -- and prolific. He explored many forms and styels with his compositons over the ears, from dissonance to lyric to jazz. And he was quite a character internationallly, as a major creative figure in Paris of the 1920s -- as well as Hollywood's Golden Age in the 1940s -- composed operas, symphonies, ballet, chamber pieces. He co-invented electronic frequency hopping with Hedy Lamarr -- used to guide WWII torpedos and a basic technology of cell phones today. His authobiography, Bad Boy of Music, is a delightful read.

[@jslasher1]

There is NO 'e' in Copland!

[@PentameronSV]

0:00 - 1st movement - Allegro 8:51 - 2nd movement - Andante 16:00 - 3rd movement - "The Golden Spike" - Andante 20:04 - 4th movement - "Back to Baltimore" - Presto

[@TheWelleszCompany]

Thank you !

[@PentameronSV]

You're welcome!

[@commontater8630]

@@TheWelleszCompany - When someone makes a contribution such as #Music Stuff# has done, it's a good idea to either copy the text into the Description or to pin the comment to the top, thereby insuring that the info will be easily found by future listeners.

[@gswilmore6755]

In searching for gems of great music I think you have to forget about popularity and being underated. History is simply not that kind to many good artists. That's just the way it is. So you listen for quality rather than noteriety or commercial familiarity.

[@Glinkaism1]

Antheil has a loyal classical music mafia because he is always mentioned as some kind of pioneer in Music 101 or other survey books of composers. And yet, his music is seldom performed.

[@jdoggtn7]

Antheil did not take care of his scores. Many were lost when he departed Europe as Hitler came to power. His Second Symphony, "En Fa" seems to exist only in piano score. He then wrote another Second Symphony, which Wise Music says he withdrew, but I have my doubts. He then composed this Third Symphony, but supposedly it shares some thematic material with the "second" Second Symphony. One movement of that lost symphony has been performed as an overture called "Heroes of Today," dedicated to the actress Hedy Lamar, but that work has never been recorded. His Fourth Symphony is heard sometimes, and the second of his two Fifths, the "Joyous." (Wise Music, the former Music Sales, also claims that he withdrew the "Tragic Symphony," his first Fifth Symphony.) His Seventh exists in piano score, but may not be complete even in that form. The great mystery for me is why Antheil's operas are not more frequently heard. "Transatlantic" is massive and expensive to produce, but the later ones, with the exception of "The Wish", have wonderful librettos and are enjoyable. In "The Wish," Antheil wrote his own libretto, and he should not have. The book is poor, and the story far too melodramatic. The Louisville Orchestra did record that opera, but it is long out of print.

[@moosatious]

I can now answer my own question 461 36th street. The only question now is when he actually moved away. His autobiography says by the time Stokowski and the NBC Symphony played his 4th Symphony in 1944, but he is still listed there in a 1947 directory. Directory error, maybe. But maybe he decided afterward to keep the place as a weekend get away, where he could enjoy the spectacular ocean view. A local real estate agent there is helping me trace the ownership history. .

[@jslasher1]

Miklos Rozsa used to recount for me all of Antheil's varied accomplishments. So, too, Hugo Friedhofer and Daniele Amfitheatrof.

[@cicciopala1172]

I am desperately looking for a recording of Antheil's Symphony 2, I had a cd that I lent and never saw again :(

[@jdoggtn7]

As far as I know, no recording exists of the Second Symphony. Only one Second Symphony (of two that Antheil wrote) is currently allowed for performance, and that would be the "Symphonie en Fa" of 1925-1926. I have that score in a piano reduction and have played it on the piano as such. I have wondered if the lack of performances and recordings is because the full score and/or parts might be lost. Perhaps the theory is that Antheil withdrew it, because in the early 1930s he started on another Second Symphony. This Second Symphony originally included the "Rumba" (which has been recorded) and another movement that ultimately became the overture "Heroes of Today" dedicated to the actress Hedy Lamar. Although that overture was performed in the 1940s, no recording seems to exist. Because the Second Symphony has overlapping thematic material with the Third, and because Boski Antheil told Charles Amirkhanian that Antheil was "never really satisfied with it," Wise Music Company does not allow performance of that Second Symphony. To avoid confusion, I have suggested that the two Second Symphonies be labeled 2A and 2B, but that's simply my suggestion. There are also two Fifths, subtitled "Tragic" and "Joyous," which I call 5A and 5B. Again, Wise does not allow performances of 5A, on the premise that Antheil withdrew it. Another symphonic piece of Antheil's, the "Water Music for Fourth-of-July Evening" seems to have run afoul of our age, as it contains a quote from "Dixie" among other patriotic American songs quoted. Two movements of it were recorded during World War II, but the non-commercial tape belongs to the New York Public Library which allows it to be listened to only in person in the library.

[@DeltonLorenzoHudson]

Good point. Maybe similar to why is Copland so much more known than Roy E. Harris. (I studied with Harris.) I feel Harris is underrated also.

[@andrewpetersen5272]

not as underrated as Cowell though.

[@DeltonLorenzoHudson]

I forgot to mention his Folksong Symphony, which I believe was recently put out in England.

[@moosatious]

Des anyone have any clue as to Antheil's old address in Manhattan Beach? or at least, what years he lived there? I''d like to gather this information and ask the Manhattan Beach City Council to consider honoring their former resident in some way. My hunch is that his old house in no longer standing, but one never knows. .

[@ChillinDylan2875]

12:25 12:53 13:15

[@yootoob4516]

I am NOT a musician, nor have I read Anthiel's autobiography -- it's on the list -- but I know that Anthiel's most-touted work, Ballet Mechanique, was devised by synchronizing player pianos. His "frequency hopping" work on Hedy Lamarr's invention involved adapting the technology of player piano rolls. Reading comments from musically-informed commenters brings up the question: might some of his work be seen as "musical collage," similar to how many of today's musicians utilize "samples" when building their own compositions?

[@jdoggtn7]

He certainly did use a collage type of structure at times. That is certainly the case in the Second Violin Sonata, and also in the Jazz Symphony for 22 Instruments. But this kind of Ivesian quotation process was not common to the rest of Antheil's work, and it is even more peculiar that Antheil almost certainly knew nothing of Ives at that point, which was 1921 to 1927. One could argue that he returned to that kind of structure in the neo-romantic style of his late period, except that usually what he was quoting were themes and motives from his early work. The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Violin Concerto and the two Serenades all contain material borrowed from his early piano or violin sonatas, as well as from the opera Transatlantic. In some cases these are the passages that people say "sound like Shostakovich" or "Prokofiev" and they are actually from an opera Antheil wrote in 1930, long before the pieces by the Russians he is accused of imitating. On the other hand, Antheil's trajectory as a composer was remarkably like that of the Soviet composers......he started out as an experimental modernist making highly dissonant music, and then settled down into a neo-romantic, tonal idiom that might indeed be called "socialist realism." In fact, the Sixth Symphony, "Liberty Leading the People" is very much a pageant symphony like those Soviet composers wrote for the USSR. But the primary difference is that Antheil was forced to make the change by the American free market, which would not accept his earlier iconoclastic music, whereas Soviet composers were forced to change their musical language by dictates from the Party's arts leaders.

[@12corners]

A great parodist, a clown, almost - as soon as ones gets a foothold, the ground is swept away - a sort of "cut-up" technique that unsettles throughout. And such an American Symphony with it's celebration of Soviet masters in the finale!

[@jslasher1]

Call him whatever you like. Antheil was never boring as so many composers of his generation were.

[@jefft6754]

My comments: 1st Movement-What are we listening to? Copland? Bernstein? 2nd Movement-Antheil was he od'ing on too much Mahler? and Copland towards the end? 3rd Movement-Again more Copland and Bernstein 4th Movement-too much of Shostakovich and Stravinsky, and maybe a hint of bad Gershwin, and some more of Mahler and really too Shostakovich/Stalin at the end This is a potpourri of so many other composers I can only assume Antheil meant it as some kind of homage?

[@jdoggtn7]

The problem with your theory is that almost all of the material in each of these movements is material that Antheil borrowed from earlier works of his....the opening motive in the First Movement is lifted from Antheil's First Piano Sonata, the "Savage"...Antheil later took advantage of the Western American implications of the motive, and it recurs throughout much of his late work. Other motives in the First Movement can be traced to the opera Transatlantic, and the Ballet Mechanique....These building blocks are found so often in late Antheil, that all of his works of the 1940's are closely related, with shared themes and materials. One particular downward four-note phrase- associated with the words "Oh, My Honey" from an early jazz or ragtime tune- occur in literally every Antheil work from Ballet Mechanique on.

[@thefrankonion]

It's true, the 4th movement does sound like Shostakovich

[@ronaldbwoodall2628]

I tried to listen to this symphony without regard to its references or styles, which of course became impossible - and therein lies the failure of the work, at least AS a symphony. It may be good listening, but Antheil hasn't, here at least, been nearly as convincing as was Charles Ives in doing this sort of thing, nor, needless to say, as original.

[@wolfwind1]

Failure? So, am curious, could you identify your compositions, either symphonies, piano works, film scores, vocal works, among any others and where I could give a listen?

[@jslasher1]

A good retort on your report. R B Woodall is not qualified, if his blog in anything to go by, to judge Antheil on a professional level.

[@thefrankonion]

Ives was one of the greatest American composers that ever lived.

[@andrewpetersen5272]

@@thefrankonion Among them certainly.