Like a musical chameleon, Philadelphian Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) could compose in any technique and would never be fazed. Persichetti defies easy classification; it is nearly impossible to label him as just a romanticist or just a chromaticist. He felt comfortable writing with wholesome warmth, while in the next project he’d be just as comfortable writing something difficult to digest at first bite.
It takes a composer of considerable ability to pull off the body of work he accumulated.
“He was extremely prolific because composing for him seemed to pose no problems,” says David Alan Miller, the music director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra in New York. “He writes with this lovely Italian lyricism, even when his music is in a little thorny American style.”
Persichetti, a Curtis Institute graduate and one of William Schuman’s first choices to teach the Literature and Materials of Music program at Juilliard, was a fine symphonist who gets little to no love from orchestra programs. But he will forever be remembered for his wind band music, a stellar collection of 12 original pieces that still challenge high school and college bands alike.
Band Music: Divertimento, Masquerade, Parable IX
Textbooks and technology can go obsolete in schools, but not Persichetti’s band music. It was the forerunner in the great wind band revival in the middle of the 20th century, and it still lives, breathes and endures. These classics -- Pageant, Psalm, Masquerade, his Symphony for Band -- are taught to thousands of music students every semester.
Why? There’s an inherent respect for the instruments and the inexhaustible sonorities they can produce. All the reservations about a wind ensemble carrying the weight of a serious work were effectively stripped away because of this music. The dense Persichettian polychords and confident rhythm patterns that characterize his sound are heard clearly in the band and not muddled.
Persichetti’s music for band favors both sides of the tonal coin, as he of course was wont to do. The plaintive, elegiac trumpet solo of his first venture into band, the Divertimento, the slow-fast brothers Pageant and Psalm, and the folk-like allegretto of the Symphony for Band are the embodiment of diatonic ideas. (The final chord of Pageant, incidentally, is a compelling study in itself.)
Then it gets interesting in Masquerade from the very first bars. Tonality is harshly tested and variations are heaped on top of each other. And by Parable IX for Band, all hell breaks loose. The score is daunting, and any musician must be on high alert in performance with their respective parts. It’s a 17-minute fright-fest, crushing and severe, but also the work of a master.
“Here’s a man that spent his whole life trying to be a great orchestral composer, and ended up being one of the greatest band composers who ever lived,” says James Barnes, one of America’s leading band composers and a professor at the University of Kansas. “His band music is better than his orchestral music. His music fits the wind band better than it does the orchestra.”
Symphonic Music: Liturgical Symphony, Symphony for Strings
But his orchestral music cannot be dismissed entirely, his symphonies especially. His Third Symphony at times bears an uncanny resemblance, specifically in the finale, to his colleague Schuman’s Third Symphony. But other than that, it’s not a secret who the composer is. His Fourth Symphony is a neoclassic gem first recorded December 19, 1954, by his home orchestra in Philadelphia, Eugene Ormandy conducting.
Like Schuman again, his Fifth Symphony is a symphony for strings. But Persichetti has such a flurry of ideas for the string orchestra in this piece, he could’ve expanded it to 40 minutes instead of the actual 20 and it wouldn’t lose impact. There are polychords aplenty here, sometimes three or more at once, to striking effect.
The Seventh Symphony, subtitled “Liturgical,” straddles the line of dissonance harmonically but is a loving assemblage of tunes from the first edition of his choral Hymns and Responses for the Church Year. The heated allegro sections are softened by the tender lyricism that Miller appreciates.
The Eighth Symphony covers more fertile neoclassical ground, almost a follow-up to the Fourth. But his Ninth and final symphony, “Sinfonia: Janiculum,” doesn't begin to compare and inhabits a similar world to Parable IX in its ruthless difficulty. (As does his Night Dances, which at opus 114, is a companion of sorts to “Sinfonia: Janiculum,” his opus 113.) Some critics may dismiss his Ninth, or even the Parable, as a dyspeptic, excessively grim exercise. That’s fair, perhaps, but the music is completely in keeping with his tonal fence-hopping.
Recommended Recordings: Albany Symphony, Eastman Wind Ensemble
Although this is a Met Life-blimp overview of Persichetti’s music, further examination is essential for those who value American composers. Persichetti balanced hardnosed aggression with deep introspection, fiery eruptions with gentle beauty.
Miller’s recording of his Third, Fourth and Seventh Symphonies with the Albany Symphony can scarcely be beaten. While iTunes has scads of recordings with his band music, make a search for Frederick Fennell’s interpretation of the Symphony for Band with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. It’s legendary stuff, and although he shied away from accepting legendary status himself, Vincent Persichetti has earned it.
“He was wonderful,” Barnes says. “A wonderful person, and insightful. He just could look at a piece and just absorb it so quickly. He was a great, great musician.”
Alex Hoffman - Alex Hoffman is a graduate of the University of Kansas' journalism school whose credits include Midwest Commercial Journal, Lawrence ...
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