Kansas City native Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981) was Broadway's pre-eminent arranger and orchestrator for most of his career. His ease with instruments enlivened the scores of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and many others. He was composer in his own right, having studied with the renowned Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger. He wrote nearly 200 original pieces for several media, including two dozen works for wind band. The best known of these are his Suite of Old American Dances and the Symphonic Songs for Band.
Bennett wrote Symphonic Songs for Band 1957 on a commission from the National Intercollegiate Band, which premiered the piece at Salt Lake City's Tabernacle. Subsequent early performances by the Goldman Band and the University of Michigan Symphony Band featured Bennett as guest conductor. According to George Ferencz, Bennett scholar and editor of the latest full-score edition of the piece, Bennett provided the following note for the piece's performance with the Goldman Band:
Symphonic Songs are as much as suite of dances or scenes as songs, deriving their name from the tendency of the principal parts to sing out a fairly diatonic tune against whatever rhythm develops in the middle instruments. The Serenade has the feeling of strumming, from which the title is obtained, otherwise it bears little resemblance to the serenades of Mozart. The Spiritual may possibly strike the listener as being unsophisticated enough to justify its title, but in performance this movement sounds far simpler than it really is. The Celebration recalls an old-time country fair; with cheering throngs (in the woodwinds), a circus act or two, and the inevitable mule race.
More info:
Robert Russell Bennett on wikipedia.
Symphonic Songs sheet music for sale on the Canadian Brass website. Includes a nice bit of history on the piece.
Robert Russell Bennett on IMDB.
Broadway.com tribute to Bennett on the eve of the 2008 Tony Awards.
Google books preview of "The Broadway Sound", Bennett's autobiography and selected essays, edited by George Ferencz.
Now for some performances. Let me first say that I, as a conductor, disagree with MANY of the interpretive choices made in the following performances, all by the University of Texas at Austin Band in 1989. Yet they are without a doubt fine performances, and the finest available on YouTube. Use them ONLY AS REFERENCE - do not assume that we will play them in this fashion!
First are the Serenade and Spiritual in one clip. The Serenade flies by much too fast for my taste, but mostly everything is where it should be.
The Celebration comes next. The tempos are strange, and in my opinion
the conductor overemphasizes some of the "effects" that Bennett uses.
Also, he inexplicably goes double-time in the last 8 bars, which we
will NOT do!
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