Symphony II (Appermont)
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Subtitle: The Golden Age
General Info
Year: 2011
Duration: c. 46:30
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Beriato Music Publishing
Cost: Score and Parts – €159.00
Movements
1. Misterioso - Allegro misterioso – 15:47
2. Maestoso - Moderato - Tempo di valse – 8:10
3. Adagio espressivo – 11:50
4. Presto con Fuoco – Adagio con Amore – Grandioso – 10:25
Instrumentation
- Full Score
- C Piccolo
- Flute I-II (II doubling Alto Flute)
- Oboe I-II
- English Horn
- Bassoon I-II
- Contra-Bassoon
- E-flat Soprano Clarinet
- B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
- E-flat Alto Clarinet
- B-flat Bass Clarinet
- B-flat Contrabass Clarinet (optional)
- B-flat Soprano Saxophone
- E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
- B-flat Tenor Saxophone I-II (II optional)
- E-flat Baritone Saxophone
- B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV
- Horn in F I-II-III-IV
- Trombone I-II-III
- Bass Trombone
- Euphonium I-II
- Tuba
- Contra-Bass
- Piano
- Harp
- Timpani
- Percussion
- (Percussion detail desired)
Cello
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
It was through my correspondence with David Maslanka that I discovered Bert Appermont’s Symphony No. 2, “The Golden Age” (2011), a symphony modeled explicitly on the epic symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich. Appermont’s symphony demonstrates an even further expansion of the possibilities the wind ensemble offers modern symphonists, and very much reflects the traditions of European romantic symphonists. As with Maslanka and generations of other symphonists, Appermont utilizes the symphony as a means to portray both the world around him and the inner struggle inherent in navigating this world. Part of his program note reads:
The title of this symphony serves as a metaphor for the modern world and, as such, has a certain ironic undertone. To what extent has humankind achieved its divine potential? How did the world reach the state it is in today? And whatever happened to that Golden Age in which we may once have lived?
The duality of human existence is interwoven in all four parts and runs like a thread through the entire symphony. Even in the darkest depths there is always a glimmer of light; in joy is sewn the seed of vexation, and in doubt is contained the germ of hope.
So it is that every answer provokes a new question and the music itself is an expression of the unending momentum of the universe -- like a perpetual motion machine that turns in even tighter, more complex spirals of existence.
We have lost touch with the higher beings. Yet there is more between heaven and earth than we can possibly grasp. Will humankind find its way back to the Golden Age? Or will it continue to struggle through a seemingly free and happy world of insanity?
– Bert Appermont, 2011
- Program Note by Kevin Holzman for the Eastman Wind Ensemble concert program, 5 February 2016
Media
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Eastman School of Music (Rochester, N.Y.) Wind Ensemble (Kevin Michael Holzman, conductor) – 5 February 2016
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Absalon (2000)
- Awakening (1997)
- Biberussa (2010)
- A Brussels Requiem (2017)
- Celtic Child (2005)
- Choralia (2000)
- Colors (1998)
- The Cross and the Crown (2012)
- Egmont (2003)
- Fantasia per la Vita e la Morte (2006)
- The Green Hill (2011)
- Hebrew Dance (2021)
- Humperdinck Variations (2016)
- Hymnus Pastorale (2006)
- Ivanhoe (2001)
- Jericho (2002)
- Magnolia (2012)
- Morning Star Variations (2016)
- Noah's Ark (1998)
- Robinson Crusoe (2009)
- Sacred Song (2010)
- Saga Candida (2002)
- The Sword in the Stone (2011)
- Symphony No. 1 (2003)
- Symphony No. 2 (2011)
- Tropical Fishes (2013), from Bestiarium
Resources
- Bert Appermont website
- "Symphony No. 2: The Golden Age." Wind Band Symphony Archive. Accessed 14 August 2023