We are pleased to share a special Musings, a preview of the program notes for our upcoming concert. Enjoy these notes, and buy tickets for the concert to hear these pieces played just for you!
“Chester” from New England Triptych
William Schuman
Like so many Americans, William Schuman grew up loving baseball and popular song. He used his early and basic musical training to write tunes for school groups and dance bands. The turning point came in 1930, when he heard the New York Philharmonic for the first time. It was not long before he found himself studying with an established American composer of note, Roy Harris. As a result, his career included winning major awards while becoming a part of the American symphonic music scene. Schuman’s presence was an important one, becoming president of The Juilliard School of Music and, later on, the Lincoln Center. He used those positions to further the case for American music and the composers this nation produced.
Schuman’s fascination with the work of William Billings came from a belief that the fledgling country’s musical identity was unique to the Colonial period, born in the New World rather than left over from Old Europe. Billings, the self‑taught eighteenth‑century composer whose hymns and fuguing tunes circulated through churches and town halls, represented something Schuman admired: a kind of rough‑hewn eloquence that felt unmistakably American. Brash and unashamed, it represented us.
New England Triptych (1956) grew out of that admiration. Schuman engaged Billings as a creative ancestor. In “Chester,” he chose a tune that carried enormous symbolic weight during the Revolutionary era. “Chester” was sung by soldiers who saw it printed in hymnals. It was treated almost as a musical emblem of perseverance. Schuman approached it as living material; sturdy enough to bear the weight of the modern orchestra. “Chester” becomes, in that sense, a conversation across centuries.
The rest of the Musings for “American Journey” are posted on the Bloomington Symphony website. Join us in person on Sunday, October 11 at 2 p.m. at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington. This concert includes William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1, Afro-American, and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Tickets will be available at the door, but we encourage you to buy in advance to save money and reduce your wait!