WorldView Episode 17: William Schuman
William Howard Schuman—named after President William Howard Taft—was born in Manhattan in 1910. He played banjo, violin, and string bass as a child, forming his own musical group in highschool; the band performed at weddings at bar mitzvahs throughout New York City. In his twenties, Schuman studied Commerce at New York University, writing songs with prominent lyricists such as Frank Loesser and publishing occasional smaller works. After attending a performance by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, Schuman decided to dedicate himself fully to composition. He soon left NYU and began classes at the Malkin Conservatory in Boston.
By the 1940s, Schuman had written five symphonies, several concertos and chamber works, and a handful of lyric tone poems which set to music works by Walt Whitman (“A Free Song”) and Genevieve Taggard (“Holiday Song” and more). The composer quickly gained popularity in America, winning the inaugural Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1943. He taught composition for more than a decade at Sarah Lawrence College, eventually leaving to serve as president of both the Julliard School and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Schuman passed away in 1992, leaving behind an extensive repertoire of increasingly popular compositions.
Despite having written compositions in almost every musical genre, several elements of Schuman’s style remain evident across all of his works; many have rigid structures and recurring themes, often featuring jazz and folk influences. Episode seventeen of WorldView features his third symphony, completed in 1941. This work seemingly incorporates more Baroque themes than many of Schuman’s other works, and is split into two continuous sections. “Symphony No. 3” is dedicated to Serge Koussevitsky, a friend of Schuman’s and conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In this episode, the piece is performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Leonard Bernstien.
WorldView Episode Seventeen Playlist:
Marlos NOBRE, "Convergências", {Orquesta Sinfonica da Paraiba, Eleazar de Carvalho, Janos Starker (cl)} - Delos
Henry PURCELL, “Sonata No. 1 in D Major”, {Stephen Burns (trp), and Ensemble} - ASV
William SCHUMAN, “Symphony No. 3”, {New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein} - Deutsche Grammophon
Gabriela Lena FRANK, “Adagio Para Amantani for Cello and Piano”, {ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, Gabriela Lena Frank (pf)} - Naxos
WorldView is a classical music radio show featuring composers from everywhere in the world - except Western Europe. Tune in to hear works by lesser-known artists such as Gabriela Montero and Bright Sheng, and widen your knowledge of classical music. Hinke Younger hosts each week’s episode of WorldView on Mondays at 9AM and again at 6PM on Charlottesvilleclassical.org.