Howard Hanson’s symphonies languished in relative obscurity until, shortly before he died, a movement of his second symphony was used by Ridley Scott for the closing credits of the film Alien. Since then, his music has been in demand. This shows just how accidental the rise and fall of musical reputations can be. A Swedish-American from Nebraska, Hanson composed in a relatively traditional style, little influenced by the academic trends of the 20th century. Musical sophisticates wrote him off as an anachronism. A recent book by Walter Simmons that discusses his work, as well as that of other “Neo-Romantic” Americans like Ernst Bloch, Samuel Barber, and Paul Creston, is aptly entitled Voice in the Wilderness.
The first symphony, “Nordic” was composed in 1922, and is far less well-known than the second or fourth. While it’s customary to say that Hanson was influenced by Sibelius, there really is little in it that you would trace to that source. Denmark’s Carl Nielsen would be a much better comparison. This has something of the feeling of Nielsen’s “Inextinguishable” symphony. Worth listening to, but someone sampling Hanson for the first time should probably hear the more disciplined second symphony first.
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