William Schuman: Symphony No. 8
(1960-62)
Analysis by Kyle Gann
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.William Schuman called himself "the composer of eight symphonies, numbered three through ten" - that is, he withdrew his first two symphonies, though a radio broadcast of the Second is available on YouTube. The style of his symphonies 3, 4, and 5 was greatly influenced by Roy Harris, with whom he studied. Starting with Symphony No. 6 (1948) he took a more austere turn toward atonality, although often still with triadic elements. In particular, the articulation of atonal lines via parallel major triads or other recognizable chords is a defining feature of Schuman's late style; the triads have the effect of amplifying and stabilizing the competing lines (Conlon Nancarrow took advantage of this comfortable redundancy as well). Another is the use of triumphant major triads to close a movement, despite the general atonality of the previous textures. Speaking of his overall harmonic structure, Schuman has said, "I have absolutely no idea of a tonal scheme. It's all instinctive." [P. 332, "William Schuman on His Symphonies: An Interview," by John W. Clark and William Schuman, in American Music, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 328-336]
Any of the last five symphonies would have worked as a typical example of Schuman's late procedures, which remained consistent. I have chosen the Eighth to analyze for no more cogent reason than that it has been my favorite since I was a teenager, for its hauntingly atmospheric opening chords (which I tried to imitate in early compositions) as well as the rushing wood-block-dotted lines of its final movement. Of the three movements, the first two are conceptually rather simple, though they are likely not perceived this way, because of Schuman's tendency to build forms from long, atonal, non-motivic, non-repeating melodies that resist recognition upon recurrence. The third movement, however, is dotted with frequently recurring motives and seems easier to follow, despite the fact that its form is significantly more complicated. I am indebted for some initial hints to Byron Jensen's 1987 dissertation "William Schuman's Symphonies Numbers Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten: An Introduction and Analysis," though in the end I have come up with my own terminology and classifications, as usual.
First movement
Although they are not always clearly articulated, the first movement falls into nine parts. The first is a repeating chord that, adding notes, builds up from a D major-minor triad (meaning that it contains both F natural and F#) into a thick cluster; the last briefly recapitulates the introduction. The intervening phrases are at first based on successive melodies, in the horn, oboe, strings, and trumpet respectively, though each phrase becomes less melodic and more textural as the movement progresses. The sections are as follows:
mm. 1-23: Introduction
mm. 24-45: Phrase 1: Horn solo
mm. 46-62: Phrase 2: Oboe solo
mm. 63-80: Phrase 3: Violins
mm. 81-91: Phrase 4: Trumpet, violins in 3rds
mm. 92-99: Phrase 5: Strings, Winds in 3rds
mm. 100-122: Phrase 6: Four-note motives
mm. 123-155: Phrase 7: Wedge motive
mm. 156-161: Reprise of introductionThe opening chord, a D major-minor triad, is quite remarkable, initiated by woodwinds, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, two harps, piano, and pizzicato strings. The flutes drop out first, then the oboes and clarinets, the bassoons and percussion holding the longest, for a gradual change of timbre. Hereafter the strings will play arco. The second such chord will add a G, the third an Eb, and during the fourth a solo horn will enter on Bb, so that we hear D major/minor and Eb major-minor triads together; two triads a half-step apart will be a prominent sonority throughout the work. After the fifth chord the winds drop out until the introduction's final chord at mm. 22. The string and percussion chords add an Ab so that we get a repeated chord of pitch content D, E, F, F#, G, Ab, A. The only solo element is a horn building up motive of Bb, Db, and Cb. In fact, all three movements open with a melodic fragment of three pitches within a minor third:
1st movement: Bb - Db - Cb
2nd movement: C# - D - B (although the B is up an octave)
3rd movement: C - B - DThe completion of the horn's motive, at mm. 22, ushers in a final chord in the winds now on Eb major/minor.
If we compare the melodic elements of the first five phrase, we see no clear progression among the melodic profiles. Phase 1 in the horn begins with the Bb - Db - C motive. Notice that, if one removes the octave displacements, the melody rather moves downward by step (mm. 25-35): Db, Cb, A, B, A, G, F, Eb, (Ab), D, C#, B, G#, A, F#, G. The oboe melody in phrase 2 at first seems similar, opening C# - B - Bb, and its pitch sequence in mm. 49-55 (A - G - F - Eb - Ab - D - C# - B - G# - A - F#) is the same as that of the horn in mm. 21-28:
Phrase 3 in the violins, however - though it does begin with a falling fifth and upward tritone present in the first two solos - is more angular, and devolves into some whole-tone collection passages at the end. The trumpet in Phrase 4 begins F - Ab - Gb, a similar motive to the horn and oboe, and in m. 87 it echoes the violins' leaps in mm. 66-67. After a few measures, however, the trumpets initiate the leaping between alternating thirds that takes over the texture, abandoning the melodic continuity of the movement in favor of a more active texture, and the violins' melody in Phrase 5 is brief, repeating the G - Eb - F# motive from mm. 66-67 but otherwise unrelated. These melodic aspects of the movement seem to spin off initially from similar motives, but there is little repetition for the listener to catch onto from one phrase to the next, and ultimately the movement moves into a more agitated texture no longer defined by solos or melody.
In Phrase 1, mm. 25-45, accompanies the horn with chords in the strings that are almost all root-position major/minor sonorities. Though the horn line is angularly atonal, the passage doesn't really sound atonal because each of the major/minor chords provides a momentary tonic. The horn note is usually dissonant to the tonality suggested by the strings (a minor 6 descending to a tritone is evident in mm. 25, 29, and 30, and tritones above the bass remain frequent).
Also, as shown with brackets, the melody and chords of mm. 33-36 are repeated with rhythmic variations at mm. 37-40.
Phrase 2 (mm. 46-62): The oboe, during its solo, is accompanied by irregularly pulsing major-minor triads in the trumpets and trombones. Phrase 3 (mm. 63-80): The subsequent violin line is underlaid by two sets of chords, alternating between thick, strummed chords in the two harps and piano and pulsing polychords in the horns, trombones, and tuba: first Eb minor plus D major-minor, then E minor plus C minor, D major-minor plus Eb minor, C# minor plus E major-minor, and so on. Phrase 4 (mm. 81-91): At m. 81 the texture changes; the violins leap up to some tentative consonant dyads and then continue an atonal line in thirds as the solo trumpet enters with its melody over slowly moving polychords in the winds and lower strings. At m. 89 the energy of the violins seems to spill into the trumpets, which begin imitating their leaps among alternating thirds. Phrase 5 (mm. 92-99): At this fff climax the massed winds take over the faster melodic fragments in parallel minor thirds as the brass boom seven-pitch chords and the violins play their soaring melody. Phrase 6 (mm. 100-122): The strings and trumpets initiate a leaping four-note motive, A-G#-C-F#, up-down-up in various major-minor triads and its derivatives, which will continue through Phrase 7. The brass punctuate these with bitonal major and minor triad combinations. At m. 106 the strings and winds begin a rushing line of rhythmically varied 16th-notes, playing around with the up-down-up contour of the four-note motive. Phrase 7 (mm. 123-155): At a seeming pause, the brass and piccolos, joined by clarinets and oboes at m. 133, play dotted rhythms in second, thirds, and finally fifths. The lower brass play a Bb-major triad beneath them at m. 124, and at m. 131 begin a series of major triads in the progression Eb, C, Db, Gb, D, F, F#, Bb, A, D, and Eb again - a progression that seems to have no motivic significance related to the work. At mm. 138-140 the strings join in. The brass, then winds and strings, play several iterations of a bouncing four-chord motive, each a kind of major-minor triad with missing root:
The strings and brass then play a series of increasingly thick clusters crescendoing to a series of fff chords in the brass, each composed of alternating major thirds and half-steps (or one could say sets of four major thirds separated by fourths). At m. 149 the brass hit a twelve-pitch chord, which diminuendos until it is taken over by the winds. Meanwhile, the timpani beat out a recurring motive A-G#-A-Bb, which seems like an echo of the leaping four-chord motive in mm. 140-145.
The brief coda (mm. 156-161) restates the D major-minor chord from the opening in the strings, harps, piano, and percussion, adding a few pitches in the winds as the timpani resume their four-note motive, now adding a low D, and crescendoing to a final climax.
Second movement
The second movement is a relatively simple ABA-coda form, the A sections based on what I will call Theme 1 and the B section on Theme 2. Perceptually, however, the movement is quite complex, because both themes are atonal and quite angular, difficult to recognize upon their frequent returns. The themes, in fact, do not seem to be the focus of the movement, as in a conventional symphonic movement, but rather a middle-ground element holding the continuity together, around which Schuman arranges his textural foreground. The overall structure of the movement is as follows:
Section A - mm. 1-41
Phrase 1 - mm. 1-12
Phrase 2 - mm. 13-20
Phrase 3 - mm. 21-32
Phrase 4 - mm. 33-41
Section B - mm. 42-150
Theme 2 in violas - mm. 42-59
Theme 2 in treble - mm. 60-80
Theme 2 in bass/treble canon - mm. 81-97
Development - mm. 98-125
Variation of Theme 2 - mm. 126-150
Section A - mm. 151-206
Phrase 1 - mm. 151-162
Phrase 2 and development - mm. 163-184
Phrase 3 reference - mm. 185-188
Phrase 4 - mm. 189-196
Coda (referring to Theme 2 variation) mm. 197-206The following chart summarizes the eight appearances of Theme 1 in the two A sections. The first statement is marked above by interval size in half-steps going up and down, and below by smallest intervals between pitch classes. The lack of any significant repetition in either pattern suggests that the melody was not generated by any motive, and that it was spun out quite intuitively - and would be a very difficult memory to memorize, or recognize in a rather complex context. Not that the third statement in each section skips over the first three notes to start with the fourth, and that in general fewer and fewer notes are used in each subsequent section.
Aurally, however, the piece does not divide up as simply as this scheme suggests. The theme is too complex for its recurring return to be very noticeable, nor is it strongly marked. What more perceptibly happens in the first A Section is that there is a slow crescendo built up in waves from the opening through three statements of the theme to a climax at m. 25. The beginning of the third statement (starting with the fourth note C - although its predecessors D and B are the final pitches of the previous statement) is articulated by a move from freely dissonant counterpoint to more discrete polychords of bitonally combined major and minor triads. Their momentum, increasing in its leaps and repetitive patterns constitutes the section's climax:
The rolled chords in the harps and piano which enter at m. 31 clearly evoke the beginning of the first movement. Following this there is one quiet, last statement of Theme 1 in halting rhythms in the strings alone, and in its simplest harmonic garb, mostly major-minor chords
Theme 2 is no less complex but more stable in its appearances, and always at the same pitch level. The violas begin by holding over the F from the previous chord:
The texture becomes lighter and simpler as the theme, form m. 42 to m. 59 is accompanied solely by piano, the two harps, and glockenspiel moving in steady quarter-notes and in parallel major seventh chords in first inversion:
At m. 53 a countermelody in the oboe appears. mm. 60-80: Theme 2 is in the treble with a countermelody, and with parallel triads as accompaniment. Mm. 77-80 departs form the theme into another line in major thirds as the countermelody ends. mm. 81-97: Theme 2 is in the bass, and also canonically (though with small rhythmic differences) in the treble, starting a tritone higher, starting at m. 87. The accompanying chords are pairs of major triads a half-step apart, articulated as staccato 16th-notes, often in triplets. mm. 98-100: The texture continues with similar but not exactly repeating material. mm. 101-125: New material: octaves in the bass, mostly scalar, with major thirds leaping in the treble. A chordal climax over a C pedal point comes at mm. 117-125. mm. 126-150: Theme 2 is varied in the top note of various repeated chords, mostly in rushing 12/8 meter, often alternating adjacent chords, increasingly in paired major triads.
Section A recap mm. 151-162: Theme 1 returns, with chords similar to those in the beginning, accompanied by minor thirds resuming the repeating16th-note patterns of mm. 81-97. mm. 163-188. Theme 1 repeats in the bass as a single line without chords with triplet 16th-note lines in fifths, sixths, and triads. A brief, quiet chordal transition appears at mm. 185-188: mm.. 189-196: Theme 1 returns quietly in major-minor triads, with rests between chords.
Coda mm. 197-206: A brief return of the variation of Theme 2 from mm. 126-150 returns, giving way to octave A's. The final sustained A and B in the melody are punctuated by E major-minor triads.
Third movement
The clearest way to diagram one's perceived experience of the third movement is to ignore, for the moment, distinctions in the general motivic material and outline the anomalous passages that each only occur once. BMM here refers to the basic motivic material, and only contrasting material is decribed:
First Section:
mm. 1-34 BMM
mm. 34-38 Slow transformation of a brass chord
. 39-57 BMM
mm. 58-61 Xylophone, vibraphone, piccolos flourish
mm. 61-82 BMM
mm. 82-90 Polytonal chords in winds, percussion, strings
mm. 91-108 Echoing chords among winds, strings
mm. 109-115 BMM
mm. 115-138 Bassoon and bass clarinet solos/duo
mm. 139-156 BMMMiddle Section:
mm. 157-243 Cantus firmus surrounded by BMM
mm. 244-274 BMM
mm. 275-325 New bass melody with BMMLast Section:
mm. 326-391 BMM
mm. 392-408 Percussion clangs with vibraphone cadenza
mm. 409-428 BMM
mm. 429-456 Chords
mm. 457-483 BMM
mm. 484-494 Coda, climactic chord over G pedalLet's look first at the basic motivic material. Overall the motives seem to evolve, starting out with an upbeat C-B-D motive, and then augmenting the intervals for a variety of gestures that show family resemblances, often varying in length. The opening motive, in brass and pizzicato strings, often continues into a motive of alternating notes a tritone apart:
This tends to lead to a lightning-quick passage in the strings over pizzicato triads, leading to a kind of loop on a B-D-C-A-B motive bouncing between strings and upper winds:
This passage, in turn, is twice interrupted by an outburst in the brass which turns the double-upbeat motive upward:
And five passages in the piece start over and over on the double-upbeat motive into rising scales punctuated by wood blocks, snare drum, bass drum, or cymbal:
We could isolate other such recurring motives, but they show so much variety (and all of these are varied on repetition, only the first version being shown here) that it would be unwieldy to attempt to give every possible instance. In the third section of the piece, mm. 326-391 and 456-477, these patterns get abstracted into series' of chords or echoes of triplets, and so on, which increase the momentum into a blur of derived material.
The first interruption, mm. 34-38, is an odd one: the trumpets and trombones suddenly sustain a semi-dissonant chord which changes note by note. The only notable pitch correspondence to the rest of the movement is that the top trumpet begins with the -3 -1 pitch cell from Motive C and elides it into the C-B-D of Motive A:
Schuman8-iii-mm34-38.jpg The second interruption, mm. 58-61, is a brief flourish in the two piccolos circling through major thirds, doubled in the vibraphone and xylophone over a major-minor triad in the brass. This seems paired with the vibraphone cadenza that will interrupt the final section at mm. 392-408.
The third interruption, mm. 82-90, is a much bigger deal. It consists of two series' of bitonally overlapping major or minor triads, sustained by the woodwinds, and given a biting articulation by piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, and pizzicato strings. Each of the two overlapping lines by itself outlines a chantlike line returning to the same chords, but without apparent motivic connections to the basic motivic material.
This passage, quite different from the rest of the movement, seems strikingly reminiscent of Roy Harris's music in its fluid bitonality and in the use of what Harris biographer Dan Stehman has called "the Harris gamelan" of piano and pitched percussion. It shows up here as a sudden, unheralded inspiration without much connection to the rest of the movement. It is immediately followed (mm. 91-108), however, by a serries of chords echoing between strings and winds, which effectively transition back to textures more typical of the movement.
The remaining interruption in the first section, mm. 115-138, is an extended duet for the bassoon and bass clarinet, first alternating and echoing each other, finally joining together in parallel thirds or sixths. There are references along the way to the alternating tritone that Motive A develops into.
The movement's middle section, mm. 157-325, largely departs from the mercurial motivic continuity of the outer two. Most of it is based around a repeating long melody that I will refer to as a cantus firmus, because it acts as a recurring basis of counterpoint, almost without variation. The long melody is as follows, and note the three phrases (marked with brackets) that rise from A to A# an octave higher through B, D, C#, and D#:
The three statements, all starting on A, are as follows:
m. 157: Cantus firmus in English horn, 2nd violins and violas
m. 185: Cantus firmus an octave lower in trombone and cellos, echoed two measure later in canon in the 1st violins, starting on F#
m. 215: Cantus firmus one, two, and three octaves higher in the piccolo, English horn, clarinets, and bass clarinet, echoed in canon two measures later in the flutes, oboes, and horn, starting again on F#Next comes an interlude, mm. 244-274, of chords bouncing between strings and winds, mostly major-minor triads.
The third passage, mm 275-326, once again relies on a long melody but a completely different one this time, in the low brass and basses. This is accompanied by rushing lines of minor triads in first inversion in the four trumpets, almost invariably dissonating with the low melody note.
The first interruption in the final section, mm. 392-408, is dotted by four loud clangs in the piano, harps, and mallet percussion, at mm. 392, 397, 402, and 408. All of the melodic elements that follow circle around an octatonic pitch pattern of G Ab Bb B D C#. The first is a flute-piccolo duet in parallel minor thirds, reminiscent of the piccolo duet of mm. 58-61. The next two incite a kind of (notated) vibraphone cadenza, staying within its lowest octave after the first one, then ascending up the instrument's upper reaches, creating a moment of jazz flavor.
Measures 429-456 bring a major, slightly jarring interruption: a series of steady chords in the piano, harps, xylophone, and arco strings, first one every 2/2 measure and then one every half-note. The brass gesture just preceding this passage spells out C-B-D, and, as in the bitonal interruption from the first half, the chords pick up the continuation of Motive B:
The final departure comes when Motive D at 472 leads to an unexpected G-major triad in the winds, piano, and percussion at m. 478. At mm. 479-481 the brass seem ro demur, trying to get their C-B-D motive (transposed) going again. The brief coda becomes a struggle between a triumphant G-major triad in the lower instruments and a high D-flat-minor sonority (Db-Fb-Ab plus Eb, Gb, and C). The timpani attempts to mediate by knocking away on Ed, Dd, and G, finally settling on a long rolled G, and the piece ends with a percussion-emphasized bang.
As for the passages of basic motivic material, there is little to generalize about that would be helpful, and a mere list of motivic occurrences would be dry and unmemorable reading; it is easier to grasp the form by listening than by reading a play-by-play description of it. There are passages that bring back the same motives in the same order for a momentary sense of rondo or recapitulation; the longest such is mm. 139-156, which recapitulates mm. 11-28. But there is little sense of recapitulation in the final section, only development and abstraction. As Schuman said when asked about sonata form, "I never think of sonata form or any other form. I think of my own form for each work, and that's the reason the forms differ so greatly." [P. 332, "William Schuman on His Symphonies: An Interview," by John W. Clark and William Schuman, in American Music, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 328-336]
Schuman's Eighth Symphony has a high profile, high enough to have kept me fascinated for decades; a profile based on its pervasive and bittersweet major-minor sonorities, its forays into piano, harps, and mallet percussion in ensemble, its rhythmic propulsiveness, the rapid sweep of the third movement constantly spinning new lines from the same starting notes. The profile does not have much to do with its recurring themes, which are complex enough that past the first half-dozen notes I can hardly hum or notate one form memory after all this analysis. They are the glue that holds everything together - more in the first two movements than the third - but they are not part of the foreground. In this they rather have the function of the tone row in much twelve-tone music. It's an interestingly inverted conception of the symphony, and, however counterintuitive, it's always worked for me.
Copyright 2025 Kyle Gann
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