CHAMBER SYMPHONY I for Marimba and Winds by Daniel McCarthy (USA, 1955)

#148– May 23, 2022

Chamber Symphony 1, by American composer Daniel McCarthy is our Composition of the Week.

Written in 1993, Chamber Symphony was commissioned by Cort McClaren, president of C. Alan Publications and the School of Music at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The piece was premiered at the Southeast chapter of the Music Educators National Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina in the fall of 1994 with soloist Michael Burritt, professor of percussion studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Chamber Symphony I has a duration of 14 minutes and it is written in three movements.

Deer Hunting in Michigan
Harmonic Rhythms
The Stuff of Adventure

Besides the solo marimba, the score calls for the following instrumentation:

Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet
Horn in F
Trombone
Tuba
Percussion

Daniel McCarthy is Professor and Chair of the Composition and Theory Section at The University of Akron School of Music. He formerly held the Theodore Dreiser Distinguished Creative/Research Award at The Indiana State University School of Music where he was Co-director of The ISU Contemporary Music Festival with The Louisville Orchestra.

He is founder of the Midwest Composers’ Forum in Indiana, The Interlochen Composer’s Institute in Michigan, and served as President of the Cleveland Composers Guild. Daniel has been Instructor of Composition at the Interlochen Arts Camp and has served as music Conductor of the Interlochen Festival Orchestra, The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, The Terre Haute Symphony Youth Orchestra, The University of Akron Symphony Orchestra, and The Akron New Music Ensemble. McCarthy has held positions as Visiting Scholar Freie Universität Berlin, The University of Michigan, and The Ohio University School of Music.

More on Daniel McCarthy
http://www.danielmccarthy.net/index.html