Maslanka - Symphony no. 8 [Score]

David Maslanka (1943 - 2017)
Symphony no. 8 (2008)

Dr. Timothy Mahr, Conductor
St. Olaf Band (from "Inner Visions: The Music of David Maslanka")
Recorded in 2010

I. Moderate/Very Fast - 0:00
II. Moderate - 13:44
III. Moderate/Very Fast/Moderate/Very Fast - 27:47

Symphony No. 8 is in three distinct movements, but the musical layout suggests a single large-scale panoramic vista.

I began the composition process for this symphony with meditation, and was shown scenes of widespread devastation. But this music is not about the surface of our world problems. It is a response to a much deeper vital creative flow which is forcefully at work, and which will carry us through our age of crisis. This music is a celebration of life. It is about new life, continuity from the past to the future, great hope, great faith, joy, ecstatic vision, and fierce determination.

The old is continually present in the new. The first movement touches the “Gloria” from my Mass: “Glory to God in the highest,” whatever that may mean to you: the power of the universe made manifest to us and through us.

The second movement is a large fantasia on the old Lutheran chorale melody Jesu meine Freude (Jesus My Joy). The life of Christ is one powerful image of the high creative: being willing to be broken to receive the new; giving oneself up entirely so that a new idea can be born. The old form of the organ chorale prelude underlies this movement – new language out of the old.

The third movement is a music of praise and gratitude for all that is. It can be traced to the very end of the favorite old hymn tune All Creatures of Our God and King – the part with the joyous descending major scale where all the bells ring out. I recently used this tune for a set of variations in a piece called Unending Stream of Life, a name which could also be a fitting subtitle for this new symphony.

Program note by David Maslanka
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St. Olaf Band - Recorded in 2010

NOTE: I DO NOT OWN THIS AUDIO OR SCORE, all credit goes to the rightful owners. I strive to gain NO money from this video, I just wish to share this incredible score and music.