The Symphony No. 5 by Robert Simpson was written in 1972 and "dedicated in admiration" to the London Symphony Orchestra, who gave the premiere on May 3, 1973, conducted by Andrew Davis. The second performance in England didn't take place until 1984.
The orchestra used is of a similar size to Symphony No. 4.
The symphony has five movements:
The work's shape is broadly symmetrical: two raucous, violent allegro parts enclose two slow "canone" parts...
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The Symphony No. 5 by Robert Simpson was written in 1972 and "dedicated in admiration" to the London Symphony Orchestra, who gave the premiere on May 3, 1973, conducted by Andrew Davis. The second performance in England didn't take place until 1984.
The orchestra used is of a similar size to Symphony No. 4.
The symphony has five movements:
The work's shape is broadly symmetrical: two raucous, violent allegro parts enclose two slow "canone" parts which in turn enclose enclose a central scherzino.
The work is dominated by a six-note chord, spread out over five octaves. It contains five of the six-notes that make up an octave of the whole-tone scale, with the note C repeated high in the strings at the top. The missing note, B flat, becomes the focus of a tonal tug of war that begins later on in the symphony against the key of C, which is the tonal flavour of what may be referred to as The Chord. It begins the symphony, seemingly motionless and set at a barely audible ppp in the strings....
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