ABSTRACT
The Symphony in E flat, the Sinfonia Serena and the Pittsburgh Symphony conform to traditional patterns. Even Respighi, who alone in Italy championed the orchestra during the first part of the twentieth century, wrote only one work with symphony in the title: Sinfonia Drammatica. In terms of orchestral music, an identifiable ‘American’ style is less than a century old. Bohuslav Martinu, in exile from Czechoslovakia during the Second World War, wrote his first five symphonies in the United States but he cannot be considered American even by temporary adoption. The two symphonies by Kurt Weill were written in Germany; three of the eight symphonies of Ernst Krenek were composed after he had acquired American citizenship. As far as possible the survey is arranged chronologically to trace the historical sequence of the symphony in America.
