Marion Bauer
Symphonic Suite and American Youth Concerto

Marion Bauer’s composition, “Symphonic Suite and American Youth Concerto”, consists of three movements, “Andante Maestoso-Allegretto-Vivo”, “Andante ma non troppo”, and “Allegretto”. The first movement energetic, march like, and has romantic tendencies.
For example, the opening statement is a four bar phrase ending on a major chord were a piano fills in the chord with a melodic run. This creates a strong opening statement. After the fermata the strings enter repeating the first two bars of the opening statement and then playing a ii, V, I. Right when the strings land on beat one, clarinets come in with a march like style. To me, I believe Bauer was influenced by John Phillip Sousa march like style. Also the dramatic change in dynamics kept my attention throughout this movement. Running the changes on the piano created a beautiful color while the strings were playing. Another effective musical idea in this theme was the theme aimed and stretch-out beat three of the second bar. The melody is always aiming for this beat which happens to be a diminished chord. The sound is very dramatic and dark. This is where I think the romantic qualities can be heard in the first movement. Overall, I really enjoyed this first movement. I thought it was one of the better pieces of music I’ve listen to in a long time. It could be because I am an American I am listening to something that sounds familiar. Either way, I enjoyed this movement.
The second movement entitled “Andante ma no troppo,” had romantic like qualities as well. Also it made me think of a happy but yet troubled youth. The reason is, it starts off very beautiful with lush harmonies and when you think it going to land on a particular major chord the composer throws you off by landing on a dissonant chord tone. Also, out of nowhere Bauer throws in chords where your bass line moves up chromatically. This creates suspicion and anticipation. Chromatic movement was a common tool used during the romantic period. Also after the chromatics, the symphony would land on a dissonant chord than finally resolve it, and it was in ¾ time. These two effects were popular during the romantic era. Something I really enjoyed the most was how Bauer would create the feeling of hope in her music. She does this with repetition and dynamics. By having a melodic sequence played over and over again, with a crescendo. When the climax of the piece is at its peak he hits you with some surprising chord. This movement I felt was more like a nocturne mainly because I felt the “American Youth”. I really felt like that was what Bauer was aiming for.
The final movement starts off with a drum roll and beats one through four are emphasized. This immediately gave me the impression of a march. Something that really stuck out was the use of the saxophone used with strings. Also being a saxophone player, I noticed American like tendencies in his solo. For example, if this were not meant to be an American piece, you would not hear any scoops in his phrasing. That is an American “jazz” tendency. Also his vibrato is not in the French or German styles. His vibrato is fast but under the pitch which is known to be more of a jazz vibrato. Nothing could represent youthful Americans at the time than jazz. This movement has every type of American moves that you can find from marches to jazz. I really enjoyed this movement mainly because it was nice to hear a saxophone.
Overall, all three movements were fantastic to listen to. I thought it used a good mixture of European and American styles. It had some romanticism, marches, and jazz. All three pieces represented America well, especially the last movement with the saxophone. I believe that Marion Bauer’s Symphonic Suite and American Youth Concerto, is a great representation of American music. I could see this in the canon because of this reason. I know it may not come off as sophisticated as some of the earlier European composers, but considering how new of a country America is, the piece upholds the given title well. Also, another point I like to make is that America is still even to this day a fairly new country, and at the time of the piece we as a country were still in a growing up phase. Which to me means America was kind of a teenager at that time. Teenagers have a lot of cocky confidence and a lot of energy. That’s kind of how America is. That leads me to the thought that the American Youth was representing all of America and were we where as a country. For these reasons I believe this piece should be considered part of the canon.