Symphony No. 3

Few works conjure up a more effective musical vision of the American outback, with its rugged wide-open spaces and often austere landscape, than Roy Harris’ powerfully argued Symphony No. 3. Composed in 1938, it was successfully premiered the following year by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. The Symphony is conceived in one relatively short yet continuous movement, with five distinctive sections which the composer described as “Tragic, Lyrical, Pastoral, Fugue-Dramatic, Dramatic-Tragic”. The brooding opening features low strings intoning a chant-like melody which eventually builds up to an imposing climax. An unexpected vision of calm, reflected by gentle woodwind writing with a shimmering string accompaniment, provides momentary relief before Harris resumes a sense of conflict with a faster section in which brass and timpani dominate the musical argument with increasing vehemence. Harris then slams on the brakes with a slower trudging section that brings the work to a somewhat resigned yet utterly compelling conclusion.