Symphony No. 2

Symphony No. 2, flowing three-movement symphony by American neo-Romantic composer Howard Hanson, written as a counter to such musical trends of the day as formalism and serialism. The symphony was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the occasion of its 50th anniversary, and the work premiered in Boston on November 28, 1930.

Hanson offered that his aim for the piece was “to create a work young in spirit, Romantic in temperament, and simple and direct in expression.” He later added that he saw it as “a protest against the growing Schoenbergism of the time.” Indeed, nothing identifiable with that Austrian composer (at that time not yet resident in the United States)—his edgy dissonances or atonality—can be found in Hanson’s lyrical, traditional score. Having trained as a young man with Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, Hanson understood well how to produce orchestral colours that would be at once dramatic and still pleasing to the ear.

Rather than being structured according to the usual four-movement plan, Hanson’s symphony has only three movements. He begins with bold sounds, but not fast tempos. The symphony builds gradually, saving its most determined energy for the third and final movement.