The second movement of Symphony No.3 is described by Robert Simpson as 'a huge composed accelerando, but with the dynamics repressed,' gradually quickening from adagio to presto.
Composer Biography
Robert Simpson worked for the BBC for 28 years as a producer, becoming known for his insights into the music of composers like Bach, Sibelius, Nielsen, Bruckner, and Beethoven.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Robert Simpson's music rejects fashionable trends, drawing its deepest roots from the age of Beethoven, aiming for a Beethovenian dynamism and active unity.
Composition History
Robert Simpson's Symphony No.3 (1962) was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and is dedicated to Havergal Brian, a composer who wrote 21 of his 32 symphonies after his 80th birthday.
Compositional Technique
The Symphony No.3 is unified by a total contention between B-flat and C, with the first movement in B-flat and the second beginning in B-flat but ending in C.
Cultural Impact
The award-winning CD of Robert Simpson's Ninth Symphony was sponsored mainly by the Rex Foundation of San Francisco, a charitable arm of the rock group the Grateful Dead.
Composer Biography
Robert Simpson, arguably Britain's most important composer since Vaughan Williams, was a conscientious objector during WWII, serving in a mobile surgical unit.
