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David Diamond’s Second Symphony (of a total of eleven), one of the contenders for the sobriquet "Great American Symphony", is a journey through anxiety, faith and triumph that seems as apt for our times as when it was originally composed and premiered by the Boston Symphony under the direction of Koussevitzky during the height of World War Two. As a young man Diamond (b. 1915) studied with Nadia Boulanger and came to know Maurice Ravel. His music is known for its rugged American quality and highly crafted counterpoint, and his orchestra works have been championed by the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Dmitry Mitropoulos and Serge Koussevitzky, and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony. In more recent years, Gerard Schwarz has performed and recorded most of Diamond’s orchestral works with the Seattle Symphony, on Delos. Diamond taught for many years as the Eastman School and Juilliard. Diamond’s body of chamber music, including 10 string quartets, and his art songs, are of a uniformly high level.

Lou Harrison (1917-2003) was honored late in his life with the McDowell Award, the Founders Award from the American Music Center, and Musical America (Composer of the Year, 2002). Calligrapher, onetime dancer, poet, instrument builder, ecologist, teacher and Esperanto-speaker, Harrison was a Renaissance man. Harrison helped put Charles Ives on the musical map, studied Korean court music and gamelan ensemble, wrote music for percussion ensemble, solo and ensemble music using myriad varieties of just intonation, and left four substantial symphonies and a host of works for various chamber ensemble combinations that are very much in the European tradition. His output proves his belief that a composer should be able to write well in any style. Harrison’s Elegiac Symphony ( 1942) was begun roughly the same time that Diamond was working on the Second, but not completed until more that three decades later in 1975. Dedicated to Koussevitzky who was the impetus for so much exciting music in the first half of the 20th century, the work is an excellent introduction to Harrison ’s sound world of spirituality and exoticism. For the influence of Asian music, see Harrison’s Suite for Violin and String Orchestra. Originally scored for violin soloist accompanied by a gamelan orchestra in 1974, Harrison transcribed the Indonesian metallic percussion instruments for Western strings, allowing the work to be played all over the world, and in so doing created a truly universal musical statement.

Before Elliott Carter(b. 1908) embarked on a more than half-century journey devoted to exploring an extraordinarily complex, though fascinating, musical language, he was a key proponent of a populist Americana. Carter’s Elegy, originally composed in 1942 for viola and piano and arranged in 1952 for string orchestra, is one of Carter 's final works in his earlier style, but a close study of the subtle manipulation of motives and contrapuntal textures in the score reveals hints of future musical direction.

Perhaps 180 degrees away from the later music of Elliott Carter is the music of Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), primarily remembered today for his deceptively simple operas composed with Gertrude Stein and his sometime poison pen as one of the leading music critics of his day. Thomson was also a master symphonist as is revealed in his early Symphony on a Hymn Tune composed in 1928. Based on "How Firm the Foundation," an old hymn originally from Scotland that is sung in churches of many denominations across the United States, the symphony is a celebration of rural America . Also popular is Thomson’s Suite from “The River,” which he fashioned from his soundtrack to the documentary film.

Ned Rorem, whose 80th birthday will be celebrated in October 2003 (see News), is represented in our catalog with vocal, choral, instrumental and orchestral works from the 1950s.  Among these are the Symphony No.1, newly recorded on Naxos, and the Piano Concerto No. 2, to be recorded soon; and the choral perennials Cycle of Holy Songs and From an Unknown Past.

A very different inspiration, Beethoven, was the fuel for another great American symphony, the 1948 Symphony for Classical Orchestra by another under-acknowledged mid-century American neoclassicist, Harold Shapero (b. 1920). Even the frequent populist Aaron Copland was startled by the then 28-year-old composer ' s unabashed traditionalism when the work was initially premiered by the Boston Symphony under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. After languishing in almost total neglect for 40 years, Shapero ' s symphony was reintroduced by André Previn in the late 1980s with resounding success in Los Angeles , Philadelphia , Boston , and other cities around the U.S.

Even more ancient musical traditions are the fount from which the music of Alan Hovhaness springs.  When Pärt, Gorecki and Tavener rose to prominence in the 1980s with their special brand of neo-medieval spiritualism, people who have been familiar with the music of Hovhaness (1911-2000) were hardly surprised.  His extremely moving Prayer of St. Gregory (1946), scored for trumpet and string orchestra, is one of over 1,000 works composed by this American master that testify to the ability of music to move people and transcend the turbulence of our times.   

Of course, no collection of American music would be complete without the great Charles Ives (1874-1954), whose music was without precedent and which still sounds completely new a century later. Peermusic proudly represents a great deal of Ives’s catalog, working hand in hand with the Charles Ives Society in its critical editions project. Decoration Day (1912-24), from Ives’ Holidays Symphony is a great way to celebrate the founding father of modern American music before, during and after the 50th anniversary year of his death, observed in 2004.

Born in Germany, Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972) moved to Palestine in 1934 and came to the U.S. in 1939, where he lived the rest of his life. Concerts in honor of his centenary in 2002 revealed an enormous, dynamic catalog composed over almost 40 years in a staggering number of styles.