Hanson: Orchestral Works

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Explore the complete catalog of Orchestral compositions by Hanson. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.

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Centennial March

March 24 is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 282 days remain until the end of the year.

Concerto for organ, harp and strings in C major, op. 22/3

This is a list of musical compositions for keyboard instruments such as the piano, organ or harpsichord and orchestra. See entries for concerto, piano concerto, organ concerto and harpsichord concerto for a description of related musical forms.

Concerto for piano and orchestra in G major, op. 36

This is a list of musical compositions for keyboard instruments such as the piano, organ or harpsichord and orchestra. See entries for concerto, piano concerto, organ concerto and harpsichord concerto for a description of related musical forms.

Dies Natalis II, for wind ensemble

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Dies Natalis no. 1, for orchestra

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitsky, op. 44

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Fantasy Variations on a Theme of Youth, for piano and orchestra, op. 40

This is a list of compositions for piano and orchestra. For a description of related musical forms, see Concerto and Piano concerto.

For the First Time, suite for orchestra

The Grand Canyon Suite is a suite for orchestra by Ferde Grofé, composed between 1929 and 1931. It was initially titled Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon. It consists of five movements, each an evocation in tone of a particular scene typical of the Grand Canyon. Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra gave the first public performance of the work, in concert at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago on November 22, 1931. Grofe, in 1937, described the genesis of his piece: Although I was born in New York City, I lost all consciousness of being a New Yorker at the age of five. From that age till a few years ago, I lived in California.... In writing "Grand Canyon Suite" I drew from notes I had made during my constant visits to the rim of the mighty work of nature. I had watched the Canyon in all seasons, in all its moods. And my findings were on paper, notes in hieroglyphics that were later transcribed into musical notes.

Harp Christmas, for wind ensemble

This is a list of some of the standards of concert band repertoire.

Laude, Chorale, Variations, and Metamorphoses, for band
Lux aeterna, for viola and orchestra, op. 24

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Mosaics, for orchestra

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Pan and the Priest, symphonic poem op. 26

This is a list of some notable composers who wrote symphonic poems.

Pastorale, for oboe and piano, op. 38

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Rhythmic Variations on 2 Ancient Hymns, for orchestra

In music, "noise" has been variously described as unpitched, indeterminate, uncontrolled, convoluted, unmelodic, loud, otherwise unmusical, or unwanted sound, or simply as sound in general. The exact definition is often a matter of both cultural norms and personal tastes. Noise is an important component of the sound of the human voice and all musical instruments, particularly in unpitched percussion instruments and electric guitars (using distortion). Electronic instruments create various colours of noise. Traditional uses of noise are unrestricted, using all the frequencies associated with pitch and timbre, such as the white noise component of a drum roll on a snare drum, or the transients present in the prefix of the sounds of some organ pipes. The influence of modernism in the early 20th century led composers such as Edgard Varèse to explore the use of noise-based sonorities in an orchestral setting. In the same period the Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo created a "noise orchestra" using instruments he called intonarumori. Later in the 20th century the term noise music came to refer to works consisting primarily of noise-based sound. In more general usage, noise is any unwanted sound or signal. In this sense, even sounds that would be perceived as musically ordinary in another context become noise if they interfere with the reception of a message desired by the receiver. Prevention and reduction of unwanted sound, from tape hiss to squeaking bass drum pedals, is important in many musical pursuits, but noise is also used creatively in many ways, and in some way in nearly all genres.

Serenade for flute, harp and strings, op. 35

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Symphony no. 1 in E minor, op. 22, "Nordic"

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Symphony no. 2, op. 30, "Romantic"

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Symphony no. 3, op. 33

Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

Symphony no. 4, op. 34, "The Requiem"

Symphony No. 4 Op. 34, "Requiem" (1943) by Howard Hanson (1896–1981) is Hanson's fourth symphony. It was inspired by the death of his father, taking its movement titles from sections of the Requiem Mass. He was awarded the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for Music, unanimously selected by the jury, for the piece. Hanson regarded it as his finest work. Andante inquieto (Kyrie) Elegy: Largo (Requiescat) Presto (Dies irae) Largo pastorale (Lux aeterna) It was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on December 3, 1943, conducted by the composer and the radio premiere was January 2, 1944 by the NBC Symphony Orchestra with Leopold Stokowski. One of his least heard symphonies, "this work represents American Romanticism at its best."

Symphony no. 6

The Symphony No. 6 is an orchestral symphony in six movements by the American composer Howard Hanson. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Bernstein for the orchestra's 125th anniversary. It was composed in 1967 and was given its world premiere on February 29, 1968, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Hanson.

Symphony no. 7, "A Sea Symphony"

The seventh symphony by Howard Hanson, subtitled A Sea Symphony, is a choral symphony commissioned by the National Music Camp in 1974 to commemorate its fiftieth season at Interlochen, Michigan, in 1977. It was first performed at the 1977 Interlochen Summer Music Camp by the International Youth Orchestra with singers made up of other students, staff and faculty. It was conducted by the composer. Dedicated to Joseph E. Maddy, founder of Interlochen and a close friend of Hanson, this was the last major symphonic work written by Hanson. Like Ralph Vaughan Williams's first symphony and the symphony for voices by Roy Harris, Hanson's symphony is set to texts from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman describing a voyage of ocean exploration as a metaphor of life transiting into death. About composing the work, Hanson remarked, "I had wanted to write the piece all my life and when I finally got at it – I was eighty – I had no trouble. It came out just as if I were thirty or even twenty-five, and I had no inhibitions about it. I didn't work on it, I didn't go over it, I didn't redo it – whoosh – it came like that!" The symphony is set in three movements: "Lo! The Unbounded Sea" (largamente); "The Untold Want" (Adagio); "Joy! Shipmate, Joy!" (Allegretto molto).