To recapitulate: the idea for the piece is that, by both scale and technique, the music should be executable by a good community orchestra, and in a musical language rigorous enough that no professional orchestra should scorn it.
The Symphony is in three movements, with a total duration of ca. 25 minutes.
- Allegro molto
- Larghetto
- Vivo assai
In about three weeks, I wrote the first movement in October 2016. I made an immediate start on the second movement, and the first 27 measures (which would, a little to my own surprise, remain intact) were done by the end of October. The holiday season (and preparations thereunto) then intervened; I did not resume work on the second movement until after Christmas. Nevertheless, the movement was complete by year's end.
I made a more than merely symbolic point of beginning work on the third movement, promptly on New Year's Day. And, well, now—just shy of three weeks later—the piece is done.
There is no immediate prospect for the piece's performance. Rather than have that seem anything like a complaint, my meaning is actually that there was no external constraint on performing the work of composition as (if I may say so without immodesty) efficiently as I did; and the important matter (not that these two considerations are at all irreconcilable) is that I made no compromises in the musical content or quality in order to meet any external deadline, but have written the piece just as I wished, and have written every bit as good a piece as I require.
It is possible that I am historically the oldest composer at the time of writing a Symphony № 1 . . . I have not researched the question at all well. Bohuslav Martinů was 50 or 51 when he wrote his first symphony. Hey, this may just be a marketing angle.
And for the moment, that is all to be said for the Henning Opus 143.
I made a more than merely symbolic point of beginning work on the third movement, promptly on New Year's Day. And, well, now—just shy of three weeks later—the piece is done.
There is no immediate prospect for the piece's performance. Rather than have that seem anything like a complaint, my meaning is actually that there was no external constraint on performing the work of composition as (if I may say so without immodesty) efficiently as I did; and the important matter (not that these two considerations are at all irreconcilable) is that I made no compromises in the musical content or quality in order to meet any external deadline, but have written the piece just as I wished, and have written every bit as good a piece as I require.
It is possible that I am historically the oldest composer at the time of writing a Symphony № 1 . . . I have not researched the question at all well. Bohuslav Martinů was 50 or 51 when he wrote his first symphony. Hey, this may just be a marketing angle.
And for the moment, that is all to be said for the Henning Opus 143.
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