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William Howard Schuman was born in New York City on August 4, 1910, the second child of Samuel and Rachel Schuman. He began to study the violin as a young boy and later played a number of other instruments as well. His broad musical interests ranged form his own jazz band and the school orchestra to family evenings singing operetta and musical comedy excerpts as well as “semiclassics.” On his own, he wrote some original popular songs. But music definitely took second place to Schuman’s all-consuming passion, baseball. Looking back on his youth, he would later claim that baseball was the main focus of his early years.
In 1928, Schuman entered New York University to prepare for a business degree at the School of Commerce, while at the same time working for an advertising agency. He continued to collaborate on pop songs with E.B. Marks, Jr., an old friend from summer camp, and also created some forty songs with lyricist Frank Loesser, a neighbor who was also at the beginning of his career. Loesser’s first publication, in fact, was a song with music by Schuman. Together they wrote many songs for radio, vaudeville, and nightclub acts. In April 1930, having attended (albeit unwillingly) his first professional symphony orchestra concert, Schuman suddenly realized that baseball, business, and popular music must be relegated to subsidiary positions (but never forgotten) in favor of composing “classical” or concert music.
Realizing that extensive training would be necessary to reach his goals, Schuman withdrew from New York University to study harmony with Max Persin and to hear as many concerts and operas as he could. He began counterpoint lessons with Charles Haubiel and at The Juilliard School attended summer courses in orchestration with Adolf Schmid and harmony with Bernard Wagenaar. Two years at Teachers College of Columbia University not only earned Schuman a B.S. in music education (1935), but also set him thinking about the current state of music education and how strongly he felt the need to reform and improve it.
In the fall of 1935, Schuman settled into his first teaching position, at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y., where he remained on the faculty for a decade. Highlights of his life during these years were his marriage to Frances (“Frankie”) Prince on March 27, 1936, sporadic composition studies with Roy Harris, an M.A. from Columbia University (1937), and the first successful public performances of his music. Although Schuman later withdrew several of his earliest efforts, it was these orchestral and chamber compositions that generated his first prizes and commissions. His Symphony No. 2 came to the attention of Aaron Copland, who wrote in Modern Music (May, 1938): “Schuman is, as far as I am concerned, the musical find of the year. There is nothing puny or miniature about this young man’s talent.”
In 1944, G. Schirmer, Inc. appointed Schuman Director of Publications. He began work there even before leaving the Sarah Lawrence faculty and continued to serve Schirmer as Special Publications Consultant after moving in 1945 to his next post, the presidency of The Juilliard School. During the 1940s Schuman received his first honorary doctorates, became the father of a son and daughter, and was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize ever given in the field of musical composition. In spite of the heavy demands of his Juilliard presidency : into which he threw himself wholeheartedly, making essential and lasting improvements in the school : he remained first and foremost a composer. Schuman is a rarity among composers in that he was always able to balance his creative endeavors with administrative duties, classroom teaching, writing, public service, consultancy work, and public speaking.
Schuman was clearly fond of public speaking, an activity at which he had always triumphed. In 1961, Harold C. Schonberg wrote of him in The New York Times Magazine “the man can speak with the fervor, hypnotism and eloquence of Gielgud on one of his better days.” Schonberg further stated, in the words of an awed observer, “he is by far the most brilliant off-the-cuff speaker in America.” In one BMI brochure, Oliver Daniel claimed that Schuman “possesses in abundance the intellectual agility and personality quotient that stamp a man ‘presidential caliber.’” Indeed, Schuman was a man of multiple talents and boundless energy who accomplished in his long career what might have been achieved in the lifetimes of four or five ordinary mortals.
As Juilliard president, Schuman convinced the planners of Lincoln Center that the School should become one of its constituent organizations. It was not long before the Lincoln Center board of directors named him to preside over the entire complex. Schuman’s tenure as president of Lincoln Center began in January, 1962, months before the official opening of Philharmonic Hall [as Avery Fisher Hall was then known], the first completed building. He guided the growth of Lincoln Center, establishing both the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. During this time, he continued to add to his own catalogue of compositions. In 1968, Schuman suffered a heart attack, and while recuperating, took stock of his personal and professional priorities. His ultimate decision was that he should forgo major administrative posts, and therefore would resign from Lincoln Center. Effective January 1, 1969, he was named President Emeritus, as he had earlier been designated by the Juilliard School.
This change was far from a retirement, but not having a full-time position allowed Schuman more freedom to compose and still participate in the dozens of organizations he served as consultant, officer, board member or advisor. Schuman was never one just to donate his name to a cause or a letterhead, but always believed in working for any foundation, school corporation, or agency with which he was connected. For four decades he provided invaluable direction to the BMI Student Composer Awards. First as a founder, then as chairman of the judging panel, and finally as chairman emeritus, Schuman was a guiding light and an inspiration for over 350 student composer award winners; his interest in their training, accomplishments, and styles of composition never waned.
Amid all Schuman’s awards, honors, prizes, and glowing reviews, perhaps what he treasured most were the strongly supportive opinions of his colleagues. Aaron Copland, when presenting Schuman with the MacDowell Colony Medal in 1971, said:
In Schuman’s pieces you have the feeling that only an American could have written them. You hear it in his orchestration, which is full of snap and brilliance. You hear it in the kind of American optimism which is at the basis of his music.
Schuman’s impressive catalogue of works is especially rich in orchestral, band, and choral music. He continued the strong American symphonic tradition of such predecessors as Roy Harris and Walter Piston and is particularly recognized for his mastery of orchestration. On of : if not the : most popular of Schuman’s works is his orchestration of Charles Ives’ Variations on “America.” Created in response to a twentieth-anniversary commission from BMI and first performed in 1964, this brilliant orchestration enjoyed extraordinary popularity during the U.S. Bicentennial year. Along with New England Triptych and American Festival Overture, it remains one of his most frequently performed works.
In his orchestral compositions Schuman was fond of differentiating the various sections of the orchestra by creating distinct blocks of color; he used a large orchestra, but used it wisely and with great clarity. He drew on a variety of compositional devices, from fugues, canons, and passacaglias, to toccata, chorale, or variation procedures. He always had a clear plan for the ultimate large-dimension structure of a work. His basic building block may have been a small unit : as the three-note melodic germ in American Festival Overture : but he planned on a large scale, setting up tension and building suspense to a dramatic climax.
Traditional tonality was not a framework which Schuman was bound by, and he did not write his scores with key signatures. He did not restrict his harmonic vocabulary, but used an ample palette of chromaticism and the entire range of scales and modes in Western music. He could create powerful and thick harmonic structures; while these may sometimes sound polytonal, a tonal resolution usually follows. Long spun-out melodies and majestic arcs of sound characterize many of Schuman’s orchestral works. His rhythmic style is vital, full of variety, and intense : but never nervously so. Whether in simple ostinati, in complex rhythmic counterpoint, or in his characteristic cross rhythms, Schuman reveals his strong rhythmic foundations, undoubtedly gained in part from his early days with jazz and popular music.
In Schuman’s works based on pre-existing music, he absorbed elements of the source into his own style, while still maintaining the integrity of the original. In New England Triptych and the Concerto on Old English Rounds, his approach ranges from almost literal quotation to a wide range of juxtapositions, and transformations with extensive melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic alterations, as well as wholly new concepts of form and orchestration. The great variety and skill with which he handled his materials are demonstrated particularly well in the group of three works based on the old English round “Amaryllis”: the “Amaryllis” Variations for string trio, Concerto on Old English Rounds (using “Amaryllis” as the basis for the first and final movements), and Amaryllis (Variants on an Old English Round), a brief version for string orchestra.
Along with Schuman’s re-use of pre-existing music should be mentioned his reworking of several of his compositions. Among the most performed important works available in more than one version are the Variations on “America” American Hymn, and New England Triptych. Others include The Mighty Casey (opera), Casey at the Bat (cantata), and the separately published Choruses from the Mighty Casey; The Orchestra Song and The Band Song; choral and solo versions of Holiday Song; and In Sweet Music and A Song of Orpheus, both derived from his early song Orpheus with His Lute.
In the world of choral music, Schuman is known as a master of both a cappella and accompanied styles, of both extended cantatas and short pieces, including some written for amateurs. With a special emphasis on American poetry, he was particularly discriminating in his choice of texts. The poetry of Walt Whitman, Archibald MacLeish, Genevieve Taggard, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Thomas Wolfe, among others, inspired him. It is difficult to imagine anything more American than Casey at the Bat, or the Mail Order Madrigals, which are settings of texts from the Sears Roebuck catalog.
After writing many pop songs in his youth (estimated to be a hundred or more, but, alas, not a hit among them), Schuman evinced a marked preference for orchestral and choral music during most of his career. In the late 1970s, he began adding more music with voice to his catalog, including In Sweet Music, The Young Dead Soldiers, and Time to the Old. Even more significantly, his two major works of the 1980s featured solo voice(s): On Freedom’s Ground and A Question of Taste.
On Freedom’s Ground, with a text by Richard Wilbur (a Pulitzer Prize winner who was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 1987), celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. The work received some two dozen performances in the two years following its premiere (October 28, 1986, the very day of the statue’s rededication). Reporting on the gala concert, Stephen Holden in the New York Times described Schuman’s large-scale cantata as a “characteristically imposing mixture of lofty late-Romantic chromaticism and elegant New-Classical formality.” Writing of the premiere of A Question of Taste, Willard Spiegelman commented in the Wall Street Journal “In his creative maturity, Mr. Schuman has composed a chamber opera that celebrates the triumph of youth, passion and idealism over the schemings of age, greed and money.” Other late works also prove that Schuman’s outlook remained young and his creative energies retained their usual vitality. Indeed, he continued to compose new works as he entered his eighties. When Schuman received a 1989 Kennedy Center Honor “for an extraordinary lifetime of contributions to American culture.” Schuyler Chapin aptly wrote in the program book “William Schuman is an amalgam of carefully wrought creativity, rhetoric and logic.” Schuman always enjoyed the highest esteem of his colleagues in the arts, who were always ready to extol his virtues as a composer, administrator and friend. For instance, Leonard Bernstein penned an enthusiastic introductory note to the William Schuman Documentary (1980) by Christopher Rouse. Written just before Schuman’s seventieth birthday, it is still an equally appropriate salute to this master of American music:
I have rarely met a composer who is so faithfully mirrored in his music; the man is the music. We are all familiar with the attributes generally ascribed to his compositions: vitality, optimism, enthusiasm, long lyrical line, rhythmic impetuosity, bristling counterpoint, brilliant textures, dynamic tension. But what is not so often remarked is what I treasure most: the human qualities that flow directly from the man into the works : compassion, fidelity, insight, and total honesty.
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Cover Title (Subtitle) Duration Instrumentation Opera A Question of TasteOpera in One Act, after a story by Roald Dahl 50:00 2(Picc.) 2 2 2 – 2 2 2 0; 2Perc. Cel. Str. Orchestra A Song Of OrpheusFantasy for Cello and Orchestra 20:00 Orchestra A Song of OrpheusFantasy for Cello and Orchestra or Chamber Orchestra 20:00 Orch.: Solo Vcl.; 3 3 2 2 – 4 0 0 0; Hp. Str.
Chamber Orch. Version: Solo Vcl.; 2 2 3 2 – 1 0 0 0; Hp. Str.A Song Of OrpheusFantasy for Cello and Orchestra 21:00 AmaryllisVariants for String On An Old English Song – Score String Ensemble AmaryllisVariants on an Old English Round for String Orchestra 10:00 Str. American Hymn 27:00 3 3 3 3 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. Perc. Cel. Str. American HymnOrchestral Variations On An Original Melody 27:00 Concerto Fo Violin and Orchestra(Piano Reduction) Violin with Piano Concerto for Violin and OrchestraFor Violin and Orchestra 26:00 Violin, Orchestra Concerto for Violin and Orchestra 26:00 Solo Vln.; 3 3 4 3 – 4 3 3 0; Timp. Perc. Str. Concerto On Old English RoundsFor Viola, Women’s Chorus, and Orchestra (Piano Reduction and Solo Viola Part) 40:00 Concerto On Old English RoundsFor Viol, Women’s Chorus, and Orchestra – Study Score 40:00 Orchestra Concerto On Old English Roundsfor Viola, Women’s Chorus and Orchestra 40:00 Solo Vla., SSAA Choir; 3 3 3 3 – 4 3 3 1; Chimes, Str. Credendum 18:00 4 4 5 4 – 6 4 3 2; Timp. Perc. Pno. Str. In Praise Of Shahn (Cant) 18:00 In Praise of ShahnCanticle for Orchestra 17:30 3 3 3 3 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. Perc. Pno. Str. New England Triptych 13:00 3 3 4 2 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. Perc. Str. Night JourneyChoreographic Poem for Fifteen Instruments 21:25 Chamber Orchestra Night Journey 20:00 1 1 1 1 – 1 0 0 0; Pno. Str. (2 2 2 2 1) Philharmonic Fanfare 1:30 4 4 5 3 – 6 4(in C) 3 2; Timp. Perc. Pno. Str. ShowcaseA Short Display for Orchestra – Full Score 4:00 Orchestra Showcase: A Short Display for Orchestra 4:00 3 3(E.H.) 3(B.Cl.) 3(Cbsn.) – 4 3 3 1; Timp. 4Perc. Pno. Str. Symphony No.7 30:00 Orchestra Symphony No. 7 26:00 4 4 5 4 – 6 4 3 2; Timp. Perc. Pno. Cel. Hp. Str. Symphony No. 8 30:00 Full Orchestra: 4 4 4 4 – 6 4(in C) 4 1; Timp. Perc. Pno. 2Hp. Str.
Reduced Orchestra: 3 3 3 3 – 6 4(in C) 4 1; Timp. Perc. Pno. 2Hp. Str.Symphony No. 9 30:00 Orchestra Symphony No. 9, “Le fosse ardeatine” 22:30 3 4 4 4 – 4 4 3 1; Timp. 4Perc. Pno. Str. Symphony No. 10American Muse – Study Score 30:00 Orchestra Symphony No. 10, “The American Muse” 30:00 4 4 4 4 – 6 4 4 1; Timp. 6Perc. Pno. Cel. Hp. Str. The Orchestra Song 3:30 Orchestra The Witch of EndorBallet 30:00 1 1 1 1 – 1 1 1 1; Timp. Perc. Pno. Str. The Young Dead SoldiersLamentation for Soprano, French Horn, Eight Woodwinds and Nine Strings 15:00 Three ColloquiesFor French Horn and Orchestra 24:00 Three ColloquiesFor French Horn and Orchestra (Piano Reduction and Solo Horn Part) 24:00 Three Colloquiesfor Horn and Orchestra 24:00 Solo Hn.; 3 2 3 2 – 0 3 0 0; Timp. 4Perc. Pno.(Cel.) Hp. Str. To Thee Old CauseEvocation for Oboe, Brass, Timpani, Piano and Strings (Score) 14:30 Chamber Orchestra To Thee, Old CauseEvocation for Oboe, Brass, Timpani, Piano and Strings 17:30 Variations on “America”(Orchestra Version by William Schuman)(arr.) 8:00 3 2 2 2 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. 3Perc. Str. Variations on “America”(based on an organ composition by Charles Ives) 8:00 3 2 2 2 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. 3Perc. Str. Variations On “America”For Orchestra(arr.) Orchestra Voyagefor Orchestra 25:00 3 3 3 3 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. Perc. Pno. Str. Voyage for OrchestraCycle Of Five Pieces – Study Score 25:00 Orchestra Young Dead Soldiers, TheLamentation for Soprano, Horn, 8 Woodwinds and 9 Strings 15:00 Solo Sop.; 2Ob. E.H. 2Cl. B.Cl. 2Bsn. 4Vla. 4Vcl. Cb. Wind Instruments and Percussion American HymnArrangement for Band American HymnVariations On An Original Melody, for Concert Band (Full Score and Parts) 27:00 Concert Band Anniversary Fanfarefor Brass and Percussion 6:00 Be Glad Then, AmericaFreely Transcribed for Concert Band By The Composer From The First Movement Of New England Triptych-Three Pieces for Orchestra After William Billings 7:00 Concert Band ChesterOverture for Band 6:00 Concert Band CredendumArrangement for Band CredendumArticle Of Faith, for Orchestra – Full Score 18:00 Orchestra DancesDivertimento for Wind Quintet and Percussion (Study Score) 9:30 Chamber Ensemble Dedication Fanfare 5:00 Concert Band Prelude for A Great OccasionFor Brass and Percussion 5:00 Brass Ensemble The Band SongFor Band 3:30 Concert Band Variations On ‘America’ for BandFor Band: Complete Set – Full Score, Condensed Score, and Parts(arr.) 7:00 Concert Band When Jesus WeptPrelude for Band 5:00 Concert Band Chamber Music Amaryllis 8:00 String Trio American HymnVariations On An Original Melody, for Brass Quintet 26:00 Brass Quintet Awake Thou Wintry EarthDuo for Clarinet and Violin 16:30 Clarinet, Violin Cooperstown FanfareFor 2 Trumpets and 2 Trombones 1:00 Brass Quartet In Sweet MusicSerenade On Setting Of Shakespeare 25:00 String Quartet No. 3 24:00 String Quartet String Quartet No. V 30:00 String Quartet When Jesus WeptFrom “New England Triptych,” Three Pieces for Orchestra After William Billings 5:30 Saxophone Ensemble Piano and Organ Chester Variations for PianoBased On William Biling’s Hymn and Marching Song Of The American Revolution 6:00 Piano Unaccompanied Three Piano MoodsII. Pensive Piano Three Piano MoodsIII. Dynamic Piano Three Piano MoodsLyrical Piano Unaccompanied VoyageA Cycle Of Five Pieces for Piano Piano Unaccompanied When Jesus Wept(From “”New England Triptych,”” Three Pieces for Orchestra After William Billings), for Organ 5:00 Organ Unaccompanied Choral / Vocal 1. Attention, Ladies!T.B.B., A Cappella Men’s Chorus 1. HealthFrom “”Five Rounds On Famous Words””, S.A.T.B., A Cappella Mixed Chorus 1. The Last Invocation From “Carols Of Death”S.A.T.B., A Cappella SATB 2. The Unknown Region (From “Carols Of Death”)For SATB, A Cappella SATB 2. ThriftFrom “”Five Rounds On Famous Words,”” S.A.T.B., A Cappella Mixed Chorus 3. To All, To EachFrom “Carols Of Death” S.A.T.B., A Cappella SATB 4. BeautyFrom “”Five Rounds On Famous Words””, Four-Part Treble Voices, A Cappella SSAA 4. BeautyFrom “”Five Rounds On Famous Words,”” for Satb, A Cappella Mixed Chorus 5. Haste (From “Five Rounds On Famous Words”)For Satb, A Cappella Mixed Chorus 5. Immigrants StillAn American Cantata for Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra 40:00 SATB A Question Of TasteOpera In One Act 55:00 Opera without Chorus Caution Mixed Chorus CautionThree-Part Treble Voices, A Cappella Women’s Chorus Declaration ChoraleFor Satb, A Cappella 8:00 Mixed Chorus Deo Ac Veritati 3:00 Dr. Worden’s PillsS.A.T.B., A Cappella SATB EssesShort Suite for Singers On Words Beginning With “”S 12:00 Mixed Chorus HasteThree-Part Treble Voices, A Cappella Women’s Chorus HealthFor Four-Part Treble Voices, A Cappella SSAA On Freedom’s GroundAn American Cantata for Baritone, Chorus, and Orchestra 40:00 Orchestra On Freedom’s Groundfor Baritone, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra 40:00 3(3Picc.) 3(E.H.) 3(B.Cl.) 2 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. 4Perc. Pno.(Cel.) Str. PerceptionsChoral cycle on words of Walt Whitman for Mixed Voices, a cappella 13:00 Mixed Chorus SingalingSpiritual Blues: Mixed Voices, A Cappella 4:00 Superfluous HairS.S.A.A., A Cappella SSAA Sweet Refreshing SleepS.A.T.B., A Ca[[E;;A SATB The Lord Has A Child 3:00 SATB The Lord Has A ChildFor Voice and Piano 3:00 The Lord Has A ChildHymn for Brass Quintet and Chorus (S.A.T.B. Chorus With Piano Reduction) 6:00 SATB The Lord Has A ChildMedium Voice 3:00 The Lord Has A ChildS.S.A. With Organ Or Piano Accompaniment 3:00 Women’s Chorus ThriftFrom Five Rounds On Famous Words SSAA Time To The OldThree Song Set On Words Of Archibald Macleish 11:15 To Thy LoveChoral Fantasy On Old English Rounds Women’s Chorus Solo Xxv Opera Snatches Alto Saxophone Unaccompanied Xxv Opera SnatchesFor Unaccompanied Flute 5:00 Xxv Opera SnatchesFor Unaccompanied Trumpet In Bb 5:00 -
These pieces [Symphonies Nos. 4 and 9] are layered with dark mysteries that make you want to hear them again and again.
–David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia InquirerA SONG OF ORPHEUS
…an impressive work and beautifully orchestrated; [the soloist’s] lyrical line was never overpowered.
–Nick Breckenfield, ClassicalSource.com -
ROSALIND REES SINGS WILLIAM SCHUMAN
CRI/New World Records (NWCRL439); March 1, 2011
Performer(s): Rees, soprano, Graham, horn, White Mountain Festival Orchestra, Schwarz, conductor
Work(s): The Young Dead Soldiers Lamentation
Time to the Old Three Song Set on words of Archibald MacLeishWILLIAM SCHUMAN
CRI/New World Records (NWCR791); February 1, 2007
Performer(s): Rees, voice, Orpheus Trio
Work(s): In Sweet Music Serenade on a Setting of Shakespeare
Night Journey A BalletAMERICAN VISIONS
Summit Records (DCD365); August 1, 2003
Performer(s): American Brass Quintet
Work(s): American HymnVARIATIONS FOR ORCHESTRA
First Edition Music (FECD-0001); May 13, 2003
Performer(s): Louisville Orchestra, Whitney, conductor
Work(s): Variations on “America”SYMPHONIES NOS. 1 & 2, VARIATIONS ON AMERICA
Eloquence (466806); January 21, 2002
Performer(s): Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mehta, recordings
Work(s): Variations on “America”I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
Gregg Smith Singers Recordings (GSS110); August 8, 2000
Performer(s): Gregg Smith Singers, Gregg Smith, conductor
Work(s): Carols of Death
Esses Short Suite for Singers on words beginning with S
Five Rounds on Famous Words
Mail Order Madrigals
Perceptions Choral Cycle on words of Walt WhitmanAMERICAN HYMN PRELUDES
Gasparo Records (GSCD-258); November 11, 1993
Performer(s): Harbach, organ
Work(s): When Jesus Wept Prelude for OrganAMERICAN MASTERS
Time Life Music (R964-07); January 1, 1993
Performer(s): Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Schwarz, conductor
Work(s): New England TriptychWILLIAM SCHUMAN: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN & ORCHESTRA; LEONARD BERNSTEIN: SERENADE FOR VIOLIN, STRING ORCHESTRA, HARP & PERCUSSION (AFTER PLATO’S “SYMPOSIUM”)
Angel Records (CDC 7 49464 2); May 8, 1990
Performer(s): McDuffie, violin, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Slatkin, conductor
Work(s): Concerto for Violin and OrchestraJUILLIARD ORCHESTRA: SCHUMAN/ COPLAND/ SESSIONS
CRI/New World Records (80368); January 1, 1988
Performer(s): Juilliard Orchestra, Mueller, conductor
Work(s): In Praise of Shahn CanticleSONGS OF AMERICA
Elektra/Nonesuch Records (79178); January 1, 1988
Performer(s): Jan DeGaetani, voice, Gilbert Kalish, piano
Work(s): Time to the Old Three Song Set on words of Archibald MacLeishSYMPHONY NO. 7 / STEEL SYMPHONY
CRI/New World Records (80348); January 1, 1987
Performer(s): Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Maazel, conductor
Work(s): Symphony No. 7AMERICAN PIANO MUSIC
Etcetera Records (ETC-1036); January 1, 1986
Performer(s): Bennett Lerner, piano
Work(s): Voyage a Cycle of Five Pieces for PianoA HAUNTED LANDSCAPE/ THREE COLLOQUIES FOR HORN AND ORCHESTRA
CRI/New World Records (80326); January 1, 1985
Performer(s): Myers, horn, New York Philharmonic, Mehta, conductor
Work(s): Three Colloquies for French Horn and OrchestraMAGABUNDA / AMERICAN HYMN
Elektra/Nonesuch Records (79072); January 1, 1984
Performer(s): St. Louis Symphony, Slatkin, conductor
Work(s): American HymnCONCERTO ON OLD ENGLISH ROUNDS FOR VIOLA / WOMEN’S CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA
Columbia Masterworks (M-35101); January 1, 1978
Performer(s): McInnes, viola, Camerata Singers, New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, conductor
Work(s): Concerto on Old English RoundsTHE MOLDAU / FINLANDIA / SLAVONIC DANCE, OP. 46, NO. 1 / ENGLISH FOLK SONG SUITE / VARIATIONS ON AMERICA
London Records (SPC 21178); January 1, 1978
Performer(s): Boston Pops Orchestra, Fiedler, conductor
Work(s): Variations on “America”SPIRIT OF ’76
Columbia Masterworks (MG-33728); January 1, 1976
Performer(s): Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra
Work(s): Variations on “America”SUDERBURG: PIANO CONCERTO, “WITHIN THE MIRROR OF TIME” / SCHUMAN: SYMPHONY NO. 8
Columbia Odyssey (Y-34140); January 1, 1976
Performer(s): New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, conductor
Work(s): Symphony No. 8BE GLAD THEN, AMERICA! / THE FUN & FAITH OF WILLIAN BILLINGS, AMERICAN
London Records (OS26442); January 1, 1975
Performer(s): National Symphony Orchestra, Dorati, conductor
Work(s): New England TriptychAMERICAN STRING QUARTETS, VOL. 2
Vox Records (SVBX-5305); January 1, 1974
Performer(s): Kohon Quartet
Work(s): String Quartet No. 3QUARTET NO. 2 / VOYAGE
Columbia Masterworks (CML-4987); January 1, 1973
Performer(s): Beveridge Webster, piano
Work(s): Voyage for OrchestraSYMPHONY NO. 3 • CREDENDUM (ARTICLE OF FAITH)
CRI/New World Records (SD 308); January 1, 1973
Performer(s): Philadelphia Orchestra, Ormandy, conductor
Work(s): Credendum – Article of FaithSCHUMAN #9 (THE ARDEATINE CAVES) PERSICHETTI #9 (SINFONIA: JANICULUM)
RCA Records (LSC 3212); January 1, 1971
Performer(s): Philadelphia Orchestra, Ormandy, conductor
Work(s): Symphony No. 9 “Le Fosse Ardeatine”SCHUMAN: VIOLIN CONCERTO / PISTON: SYMPHONY NO. 2
Deutsche Grammaphon (2530 103); January 1, 1971
Performer(s): Zukofsky, violin, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Thomas, conductor
Work(s): Concerto for Violin and OrchestraSYMPHONY NO. 7 / THIRD SYMPHONY
Turnabout Records (TV 34447S); January 1, 1971
Performer(s): Utah Symphony, Abravanel, conductor
Work(s): Symphony No. 720TH CENTURY ORCHESTRAL SHOWPIECES
Decca Records (DL 710168); January 1, 1970
Performer(s): Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Rudolph, conductor
Work(s): New England TriptychCENTENNIAL FANFARES
Metropolitan Museum of Art (AKS-10001); January 1, 1970
Performer(s):
Work(s): Anniversary FanfareCONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA / IN PRAISE OF SHAHN (CANTICLE FOR ORCHESTRA)
Columbia Masterworks (M-30112); January 1, 1970
Performer(s): New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, conductor
Work(s): In Praise of Shahn CanticleSYMPHONY NUMBER 2 / “TO THEE OLD CAUSE”
Columbia Masterworks (MS-7392); January 1, 1970
Performer(s): New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, conductor
Work(s): To Thee, Old Cause Evocation for Oboe, Brass, Timpani, Piano and StringsCHARLES IVES: SYMPHONY NO. 3 • WILLIAM SCHUMAN: NEW ENGLAND TRIPTYCH
RCA Victor Records (LSC-3060); January 1, 1969
Performer(s): Philadelphia Orchestra, Ormandy, conductor
Work(s): New England TriptychSYMPHONY NO. 1
RCA Records (SB-6687); January 1, 1967
Performer(s): Chicago Symphony, Gould, conductor
Work(s): Variations on “America”NEW ENGLAND TRIPTYCH; SYMPHONY NO. 5; POEM FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA
Mercury Records (SR 90379); January 1, 1964
Performer(s): Eastman Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Hanson, conductor
Work(s): New England TriptychPIANO CONCERTO / A SONG OF ORPHEUS
Columbia Masterworks (MS-6638); January 1, 1964
Performer(s): Rose, cello, Cleveland Orchestra, Szell, conductor
Work(s): A Song of OrpheusCARTER: SECOND QUARTET / SCHUMAN: QUARTET NO. 3
RCA Living Stereo (LSC-2481); January 1, 1961
Performer(s): Juilliard String Quartet
Work(s): String Quartet No. 3THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BAND ON TOUR – 100 MEN STRONG
Vanguard Records (VRS-9114); January 1, 1961
Performer(s): University of Michigan Symphonic Band, Revelli, conductor
Work(s): ChesterBAND MASTERPIECES
Decca Records (DL 78633); January 1, 1958
Performer(s): Goldman Band, Goldman, conductor
Work(s): ChesterGORDON STRING QUARTET: STRING QUARTET NO. 3 (1939)
Concert Hall Records (AB (78 rpm)); January 1, 1947
Performer(s): Gordon Quartet
Work(s): String Quartet No. 3AMERICA
Columbia Masterworks (MS-7289)
Performer(s): Philadelphia Orchestra, Ormandy, conductor
Work(s): Variations on “America” -
1989: American Eagle Award, National Music Council
1989: Kennedy Center Honors “for an extraordinary lifetime of contributions to American Culture through the performing arts”
1987: National Medal of Arts
1986: Chamber Music America Award
1986: First Alfred I. DuPont Award
1985: George Peabody Medal “for outstanding contribution to music in America,” Peabody Conservatory of Music
1985: Gold Baton Award, American Symphony Orchestra League
1985: Pulitzer Prize Special Citation “for more than half a century of contribution to American music as composer and educational leader”
1982: Gold Medal, American Academy of Arts and Letters
1981: First winner of the Columbia University William Schuman Award for “Lifetime achievement of an American composer whose works have been widely performed and generally acknowledged to be of lasting significance”
1980: Horblit Award of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
1975: Distinguished Alumni, Teachers College, Columbia University
1971: Edward MacDowell Medal “for exceptional contributions to the arts”
1968: Findley Award of the City University of New York
1967: American Music Center Letter of Distinction
1967: Certificate of Merit, Sigma Alpha Iota
1967: Concert Artists Guild Award
1967: Handel Medallion of the City of New York
1965: Brandeis Medal for Distinguished Service to Higher Education
1965: Composer’s Award, Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Symphony Orchestra
1964: Gold Medal of Honor, National Arts Club, New York City
1963: Citation of Merit, State University of New York at Buffalo
1957: Columbia University Bicentennial Anniversary Award
1957: First Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in Music
1951: New York Music Critics Circle Award (for “Judith”)
1943: First Pulitzer Prize given for music (for “A Free Song”)
1943: National Institute of Arts and Letters award
1942: Award of Merit, National Association of American Composers and Conductors
1942: New York Music Critics Circle Award (for “Symphony No. 3”)
1940: First Town Hall League of Composers Award (for “String Quartet No. 3”)
1939-1941: Guggenheim Fellowships