Symphony No.14 - Allan Pettersson

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christian Lindberg

I - 𝅘𝅥. = 89 (Presto) [Tempo I] (0:00) - 𝅘𝅥 = 48 (Tempo II) [Fig. 17] (2:45) - 𝅗𝅥 = 72 (Tempo III) [3 bars after Fig. 27] (5:42) - 𝅘𝅥 = c. 84 (Tempo IV) [2 bars before Fig. 45] (13:44) - 𝅗𝅥 = 64 (Tempo V) [2 bars after 87] (29:45) - 𝅗𝅥 = 48 (Tempo VI) [Fig. 115, final quaver] (38:46) - 𝅗𝅥 = 72 (Tempo III) [4 bars before Fig. 125] (43:39) - 𝅗𝅥 = 64 (Tempo V) [3 bars after Fig. 126] (44:34) - 𝅗𝅥 = 48 (Tempo VI) [Fig. 138] (48:29)

Pettersson's Symphony No.14 was composed between 1977-8. It was premiered on November 26 of 1981(a year after the composer's death by cancer), performed by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sergiu Comissiona. Scored for a large orchestra with ample percussion, the piece is written in a long single movement. The symphony is largely constructed on a very simple melody, "Klokar och knythänder" (Wise Men and Clenched Hands) from Pettersson’s Barefoot lieder, written during the years 1943-5 using his own texts. A recurrent lieder in various instrumental works in a similar way to those used by Mahler in his symphonic work.

"A flower is extended to you, from a hand that is mine.
How empty hands are that have handed out blooms.
My flower wilts in a hand that is your hand:
Flowers can indeed wilt in the hands of the wise, wise as we."

It begins in an original manner both as to time signature (3/8 time) and tempo (Presto). A nine-note motif in the first violins sets off a melodic movement which is peculiar in that, together with the lower part in the second violins, it contains all of the notes of the chromatic scale, which is evocative of twelve-tone technique. Despite the fact that Pettersson studied this technique very thoroughly, he never really made full use of it. In several of the symphonies there are traces of twelve-tone technique, most notably in the Fourteenth. In the introduction, as well as later on in the symphony, one can find extensive use of compositional techniques associated with twelve-tone music, such as retrograde and inversion. Pettersson also had used several Barefoot lieder in instrumental works on several earlier occasions, most importantly "Han ska släcka min lykta" (He Will Extinguish My Light) in Symphony No.6 and "Herren går på ängen" (The Lord Walks in the Meadow) in the Second Violin Concerto.

In Symphony No. 14, "Klokar och knythänder" features extensively. Pettersson quotes it in its entirety five times, and it is thus important to the structure of the symphony. The song appears quite early in the symphony (bar 272) and the five complete quotations pretty much follow on from each other in different keys and orchestrations and with different characters. An aspect in which Petters son showed great imaginative skill was the way in which he emphasized foreground and background in the various presentations of the song; from having been in focus it gradually moves further back in the soundscape, for example behind the nine-note motif of the introduction. A fine example of this is the fifth and final complete appearance of "Klokar och knythänder" (bar 517). The strings repeat an A major chord in a very high register in a fanfare-like rhythm while high wood wind voices wreathe themselves round the notes that make up the chord.

At the same time, low woodwind voices, tuba, timpani and double basses perform a variant of the introductory motif but acting here as a weighty accompaniment. The song is presented by the trombones and even though it can easily be heard, Pettersson has allowed other voices to catch our attention while the song recedes into the background. Like most of Pettersson’s symphonies the Fourteenth contains both tonal major/minor sections, as in the first presentation of "Klokar och knythänder", as well as passages in which the music is far distant from major/minor tonality, as in the introduction. But the Fourteenth Symphony does not end with a section of relaxed tonality free of conflicts as in his symphonies written during the 1960s as well as Symphony No. 11.

In Symphony No. 14, an E major chord can be heard thirteen bars from the end. After that there is a slow concluding period of deceleration that is powerfully dissonant and that scarcely contains any major or minor chords. The conclusion to the symphony is built up on the retrograde to the first four notes of the introductory motif in various transpositions. The symphony ends on a C major chord which can hardly be regarded as the calm harmony in which many of Pettersson’s earlier symphonies end. The chord has, rather, a surprising effect as there has been no attempt to establish a tonality in C in the concluding bars of the symphony and the chord seems a strange and almost paradoxical conclusion to this extensive and complex piece.

For a more detailed analysis: https://tinyurl.com/2546penm

Picture: "AA78" (1978) by Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/23gzox6w

Score is not available.