The Symphony No. 6 of Roger Sessions, a symphony written using the twelve-tone technique, was composed in 1966. It was commissioned by the state of New Jersey and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. [1] The score carries the dedication: "In celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the state of New Jersey". [2]
Sessions began composing the symphony in the summer of 1965 while traveling in South America, and completed it at Tanglewood in 1966. It is the first of a trilogy of symphonies, composed in rapid succession, which Sessions associated with the Vietnam war. [3] The premiere[ when?] was a disaster, with the finale still incomplete and the first movement played as a finale to make up for this;[ citation needed] it was given its first complete performance and its New York premiere by the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by José Serebrier on 4 March 1977. [4] It was published by 1976. [5] The score bears the copyright year 1975. [2]
The symphony is scored for three flutes, three oboes, four clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp, and strings. [6]
The symphony has three movements: [7]
Andrea Olmstead describes all of Sessions's symphonies as "serious" and "funereal". [9]
Richard Swift describes the second movement as "lofty" and ascribes its "profundities to what are essentially simple processes that unwind with a sense of great spaciousness". [10]
The Symphony No. 6 of Roger Sessions, a symphony written using the twelve-tone technique, was composed in 1966. It was commissioned by the state of New Jersey and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. [1] The score carries the dedication: "In celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the state of New Jersey". [2]
Sessions began composing the symphony in the summer of 1965 while traveling in South America, and completed it at Tanglewood in 1966. It is the first of a trilogy of symphonies, composed in rapid succession, which Sessions associated with the Vietnam war. [3] The premiere[ when?] was a disaster, with the finale still incomplete and the first movement played as a finale to make up for this;[ citation needed] it was given its first complete performance and its New York premiere by the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by José Serebrier on 4 March 1977. [4] It was published by 1976. [5] The score bears the copyright year 1975. [2]
The symphony is scored for three flutes, three oboes, four clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp, and strings. [6]
The symphony has three movements: [7]
Andrea Olmstead describes all of Sessions's symphonies as "serious" and "funereal". [9]
Richard Swift describes the second movement as "lofty" and ascribes its "profundities to what are essentially simple processes that unwind with a sense of great spaciousness". [10]