Synopsis

On today’s date in 1938, at the New York Philharmonic’s summertime concert home at Lewissohn Stadium, a 24-year-old American composer named Morton Gould conducted the first performance of his American Symphonette No. 2.

The new piece was in three movements, and the second, Pavanne, proved especially popular. It fused elements of jazz in swing time with the form of the old-fashioned courtly dance made famous by Maurice Ravel’s Pavane for Dead Princess. In the published score, Gould spelled Pavanne with two n’s.

“At the time I wrote the piece, ’pavane’ was not a well-known word. Those who knew their Ravel could spell and say it right, but the people who knew only mine had difficulty in pronouncing the title. So I decided to use two n’s to give at least some idea of what the phonetic sounds were,” said Gould.

For many decades, Gould was much in demand as a conductor and arranger, but writing original music was what he loved best. “Composing is my life blood,” he claimed. “That is basically me, and although I have done many things in my life — conducting, arranging, playing piano, and so on — what is fundamental is my being a composer.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Morton Gould (1913-1996): Pavanne, from American Symphonette No. 2; St. Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; RCA 60778