By: BY Mike Echo Mike, Michael E. Marotta. (c) Copyright 2001
E-mail Address: mercury@well.com

The Airborne Symphony by Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) was recorded by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, now on Sony Classic CD, titled American Masters 2. The U.S. Army commissioned the Airborne Symphony. Blitzstein began the work in April 1943 and Bernstein premiered it on April 1, 1946. In fact, he recorded it twice 20 years apart. This recording was made on October 18, 1966.

Stylistically, the work is modern, an oratory for chorus (with tenor and baritone soloists) and orchestra. It delivers the patterns and progressions known from Stravinsky and Copland. The often dissonant melodies switch and jump and shuffle. This is not the score to Superman. However, the music is a call, a celebration, up-lifting and positive, except for the mournful Ballad of the Cities that cries for Guernica, Rotterdam, Manila, London, and Leningrad. "This morning I walked through the streets, after the raid..." The narrator is Orson Wells. "Get out of bed, young British pilot, come on, go walking on the wind still sky..."

The Airborne Symphony is a work with 12 movements. From the Theory of Flight and Mythology to a description of the Enemy and the Ballad of the Bombardier, the work closes with The Open Sky, a promise of unlimited future ending with an ominous "Warning!" Clearly, a refrain of the war just over. American Masters 2 also presents The Incredible Flutist by Walter Piston and Prelude for Orchestra by Edward Burlingame Hill. Tim Page's liner notes appear in English, German, and French.

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