Symphony No. 7 (Piston)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Symphony No. 7 by Walter Piston was written in 1960. It was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and premiered on February 10, 1961, by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. The symphony won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, Piston’s second Pulitzer after his Third Symphony in 1948. It has ties to Piston’s Three New England Sketches (1959) and is sometimes compared to Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony in structure. The work has three movements. Piston wrote it with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s rich string sound and the Academy of Music’s acoustics in mind for the premiere. The first movement opens with a large, soaring theme and a fast triple-meter rhythm, with a minor mood, strong rhythms, and dense counterpoint that give it a passionate feel. The second movement, Adagio pastorale, features broad, serious melodies. The finale is bright and brilliant, with a lively wind melody, soft percussion, and plucked strings, reminiscent of the scherzo from Piston’s Sixth Symphony.