On today’s date in 1941, this notice appeared in the “Radio Concerts” section of The New York Times, as the 3pm listing for New York’s WABC: “Bernard Herrmann directs the Columbia Symphony in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 1.” As a program note, the newspaper also offered these words from the 30 year-old composer: “My symphony was written in my spare time during radio and motion-picture commitments.”

Herrmann was a very busy young man in those days. In the late ‘30s he composed and conducted music for Orson Welles’s radio plays, and in 1940 he wrote his first big film score for “Citizen Cane,” again directed by Orson Welles. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, for Alfred Hitchcock, Herrmann would provide the music for thrillers like “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” and “Psycho.”

But all that was still off in the future back in 1941. Herrmann’s First Symphony was a joint commission by the CBS Network and the New York Philharmonic. After Herrmann conducted the premiere over the radio with the CBS Symphony, the New York Philharmonic gave the piece its concert premiere in November of that same year.

It’s possible that Herrmann was a little distracted while conducting the premiere, however: His wife, Lucille, had gone into labor and gave birth to their daughter Lucille, just two hours after the live broadcast.