Symphony VII (Hovhaness)

Alan Hovhaness

Subtitle: Nanga Parvat

This work bears the designation Opus 178.

General Info

Year: 1959
Duration: c. 14:05
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: C.F. Peters
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown

Movements

1. Con Ferocita – 5:45
2. March in Isorhythmic Form – 3:40
3. Sunset – 4:45

Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II-III
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Tuba
Harp (or piano)
Timpani
Percussion, including:

Bass Drum
Chimes
Glockenspiel
Side Drum
Tam-Tam
Tenor Drum
Vibraphone

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Alan Hovhaness’ Symphony No. 7 (Nanga Parvat) was commissioned by the Edgar J. Kaufmann Charitable Foundation and was written while he was in Kashmir on a Fulbright Grant. The symphony represents his observation of the scene, a view of contemporary life and nature, taken from some of the wildest scenery in the world. Hovhaness writes about the fierce mountains, the cacophony of a bad village band, and an incredibly beautiful sunset.

Nanga Parvat is a Kashmir mountain of 26,000 feet – serene, majestic, aloof, terrible in storm, forever frozen in treeless snow. The name means “without trees,” and is one of the most dangerous and difficult mountains to climb.

- Program Note from Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music

Symphony No. 7 ‘Nanga Parvat’ was commissioned by the American Wind Symphony of Pittsburgh PA and composed 16th to 28th November, 1959.

1. Con Ferocità. Representing the tiger-like ferocity of the Himalayan Mountains. Texture of multiple strands of rhythms meeting and passing.
2. March. The sounds suggest wild improvised village marches in raucous woodwinds and false brass unisons. These savage sounds are organized into severe forms including two polymodal isorhythmic canons in woodwinds. Percussion plays forward and retrograde rhythm; timpani plays contracting and expanding rhythm. The march is an isorhythmic structure.
3. Sunset. Noble and heroic processional with clashing bells in superimposed meters. Tone clusters in high woodwinds are like shafts of light through craggy peaks.

- Program Note from Trinity College of Music Wind Orchestra CD Alan Hovhaness liner notes

Hovhaness was keen to write music for the emerging wind music movement in America during the 1950s and 60s. Symphony No.7 was one of four works commissioned by the American Wind Symphony Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the others being Symphonies Nos. 4, 14 and the Trumpet Concerto.

Composed in under a fortnight in November 1959, this symphony is a musical portrait of the inhospitable Kashmiri mountain Nanga Parvat, whose name means "without trees". The sonorities and material Hovhaness invents are not typical of those one would associate with Wind Symphony writing, which may explain the four commissions mentioned above. The three movements reflect the composer's description of the mountain as "Serene, majestic, aloof, terrible in storm, forever frozen in treeless snow", resulting in some of the composer's most violent music.

- Program Note from Chronology of the 'Early' Symphonies

Commercial Discography

Audio CD: Trinity College of Music Wind Orchestra (Keith Brion, conductor) - 2010

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 (Reed Chamberlin, conductor) – 1 April 2016

Works for Winds by This Composer

Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, Op. 211
Glory to God, Op. 124
Hymn to Yerevan, Op. 83
King Vahaken: Is There Survival?, Op. 59
Mountains and Rivers Without End, Op. 225
Prayer of St. Gregory (1946/1952/1972/2012)
Requiem and Resurrection, Op. 224 (1969)
Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places
Sharagan and Fugue (arr. Huelsmann) (1950/2008)
Suite for Band, Op. 15 (1948)
Symphony No. 4, Op. 165 (1958)
Symphony No. 7, "Nanga Parvat," Op. 178 (1959)
Symphony No. 14, "Ararat," Op. 194 (1961)
Symphony No. 17, Symphony for "Metal Orchestra," Op. 203 (1963)
Symphony No. 20, "Three Journeys to a Holy Mountain," Op. 223 (1969)
Symphony No. 23 (1972)
Symphony No. 29 (1977)
Symphony No. 53, "Star Dawn" (1983)
Tapor No. 1 (1968)
Tower Music Op. 129

Resources

Chronology of the 'Early' Symphonies, Alan Hovhaness website Accessed 5 April 2016
Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Alan Hovhaness." Accessed 5 April 2016
Hovhaness, A. (1960). Symphony No. 7 (Nanga Parvat) for Wind Orchestra, Opus 178 [score]. C.F. Peters: New York.