ABSTRACT

Howard Hanson was born of Swedish parents into the Swedish community of Wahoo, Nebraska. In the Nordic Symphony, Hanson sought to combine Lutheran religious fervour with the spirit of Scandinavian pioneers. With the Nordic Symphony, Hanson established a symphonic style that underwent little change throughout his long career. Hanson was in distinguished company; other symphonies commissioned for the occasion were Honegger’s First, Prokofiev’s Fourth, Roussel’s Third and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. Hanson’s Third Symphony was commissioned in 1936 by the Columbia Broadcasting System to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the first Swedish settlement on the shores of Delaware in 1638. Hanson’s expansive lyrical invention is well illustrated in the second movement that opens with a gentle horn theme against a rocking accompaniment that grows in emotional intensity. Hanson explained that his intension was ‘to evoke some of the atmosphere of tragedy and triumph, mysticism and affirmation of the story which is the essential symbol of the Christian faith’.