Landscapes was performed by the San Francisco Symphony on May 4,6 and 7, 1960. This was the first piece written by composer Leplin after contracting polio in 1954. Polio had left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, except for the thumb and first two fingers of his right hand. It was with these three fingers that he composed most of his major orchestral works. Landscapes was performed with a companion piece entitled Skyscrapers. During the performances, companion oil paintings Leplin had painted before contracting polio were on display in the lobby of SFS’s home, the War Memorial Opera House. These paintings and many more, including some that he painted with a brush held between his teeth, can be viewed in Photobucket.
Landscapes is, especially for anyone who has heard the earlier, highly energetic Comedy, a greatly contrasting, sometimes austere work, that evokes great vistas, in harmony that perhaps only once resolves into a triad. There is, as in all Leplin's pieces, continuous melody, sometimes by a whole string section, sometimes by a single woodwind. The whole work is an arc, with a series of crescendos that gradually build up to a highly rhythmic climax that brings to mind the same technique in the symphonies of Beethoven. (Leplin said that his models for composition were Beethoven and Brahms.) After the climax, it resettles into a long diminuendo, and ends quietly.
Classical Music | Orchestral Music
Emanuel Leplin
Landscapes Play
Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 03/02/2013
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Landscapes was performed by the San Francisco Symphony on May 4,6 and 7, 1960. This was the first piece written by composer Leplin after contracting polio in 1954. Polio had left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, except for the thumb and first two fingers of his right hand. It was with these three fingers that he composed most of his major orchestral works. Landscapes was performed with a companion piece entitled Skyscrapers. During the performances, companion oil paintings Leplin had painted before contracting polio were on display in the lobby of SFS’s home, the War Memorial Opera House. These paintings and many more, including some that he painted with a brush held between his teeth, can be viewed in Photobucket.
Landscapes is, especially for anyone who has heard the earlier, highly energetic Comedy, a greatly contrasting, sometimes austere work, that evokes great vistas, in harmony that perhaps only once resolves into a triad. There is, as in all Leplin's pieces, continuous melody, sometimes by a whole string section, sometimes by a single woodwind. The whole work is an arc, with a series of crescendos that gradually build up to a highly rhythmic climax that brings to mind the same technique in the symphonies of Beethoven. (Leplin said that his models for composition were Beethoven and Brahms.) After the climax, it resettles into a long diminuendo, and ends quietly.
More music by Emanuel Leplin
Symphony No. Two Mvt 3
Symphony No. One Mvt 2
Symphony No. One Mvt 3
Symphony No. One Mvt 4
Symphony No. Two Mvt 2
Symphony No. One Mvt 1
Symphony No. Two Mvt 1
Symphony No. Two Mvt 4
Prologue
Firecracker
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