Symphony No 3 I. Andante maestoso II. Scherzo; allegro vivace

The first two movements of this projected 3 movement symphony are complete as recorded here. I used an audio trimmer to reduce the audio silences created by MP3s at the beginnings and ends of files, but there is still a small gap between the 1st and 2nd movements which I could not eliminate.

The fanfare that launches Andante maestoso, was only intended to be just that--a fanfare for brass and strings. I hadn't gotten too far before I realized it wanted to be something else. Having no plan in mind I nevertheless embarked upon a symphonic project. The melodic germ of the symphony is born at about the 2:20-25 mark of the 1st movement (that is, a kind of moment of realization happened), even though the motivic germ was suggested at the outset...At this point, I went back in and sowed a melody into the opening fanfare, which had existed purely as chords. I imagined a rather vast opening movement in which the fanfaric, chorale-like quality would continue to re-emerge. In that sense, the opening minute is a sort of flash forward of what is to come.

The most distinct feature of the Andante is the melodic cells containing the arching 4 note motif, often proceeded by the two half notes, descending by a fifth. And there are two prominent ostinati. The first appears in the opening fanfare, the arching stepwise eighth note figure, which when you account for the doubled notes is really the seeds of the 4 note motif appearing as an ornament. The other begins about 5 minutes in after the opening fanfare and the solemn aftermath has established the basis of the movement. We then get this ticking methodical rising stepwise figure that keeps returning, egging on the tension. At, length that tension builds into an extended wave of climaxes. After this there is a period of contemplative calm, but once again tensions rise. A 3 part canon in the strings tries to get things going but dies down to a mysterious hush of string tremolos. Out of this a double fugato emerges at 15:04 becoming the bridge to the movement's final waves of climax in which the arching motif and the 2 ostinati are very active. A triplet rhythm is introduced in the intense coda, setting the stage for the galloping scherzo that follows without a break.

The scherzo immediately clears the air. Fast, lean and quixotic--at turns gruff, humorous and exuberant--it has a bit of Beethovenian atavism and seemingly little in common with the opening movement. At least three features of the statement of the scherzo theme strike out on their own, naturally morphing along the way: the opening figure Eflat4 to Eflat5, D flat, A, and A flat; the dotted quarter note measures that contrast with the constant triplet figures, and the descending, half note, quarter note figure. These variants provide much of the drama in this rapidly changing movement. A climax in which the primary figure and the half/quarter figure hold a back and forth battle signals an impasse and a thematic fragmentation leads directly to the B section. The notable change here is that the triplet rhythm has been flattened with an every-other-beat accent that makes this feel like cut rather than triple time, without metrical alteration. The main motif is still based on the main scherzo figure. Rather than a relaxed pastoral trio, the tempo picks up, with quicksilver contrapuntal wood wind runs starting things off. In the midst of the repartee, a fragment of the Andante's arching theme can be heard in the horns sneaking back in. The trio motif tries to go on its merry way in the strings but is crossed by the Andante's broad melody in cross rhythm in the trombones. A great polytonal chaos ensues leading to a dramatic pause and the return of the scherzo theme, still faster and more agitated. The recapitulation only fleetingly touches former iterations. The dotted quarter motif ratchets up the tension to the breaking point. At the climax the Andante's 4 mote motif returns in the brass, against a desperate last-ditch hybrid of the trio motif with the dotted quarters in the very high trumpets. Then, as suddenly as the culminating dissonant chord sounds, it begins to melt away mysteriously, leaving bare the lower strings and setting the stage for the Adagio to come.
Andante maestoso 00:06
Scherzo; Allegro vivace 19:50


Photograph: Blue Reach John Caruso