The Hudson River Folk Symphony, 3rd Movement
Music by Kevin Becker, Video by Philip Miller © 2009 – Please like and subscribe!
The Hudson River Folk Symphony is a three-movement piece which was performed on October 23rd and 24th, 2009 at the Cunneen Hackett Arts Center in Poughkeepsie, NY. The symphony was accepted to be an official event within the NYS Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadracentennial celebration of 2009.
The musical flow of the symphony mirrors music history from 1609 to the end of WW II, touching genres of Native American, European Baroque, Classical, Romantic and American Modern music. Relevant traditional folk songs such as Yankee Doodle, Hudson River Steam Boat and America are woven into the orchestration with choral arrangements and traditional folk instrumentation. The symphony is dedicated to the memory of two extraordinary music professors; Helen Baldwin and Gundaris Pone. Historical images and video masterfully added by Phil Miller to make this a multimedia presentation.
The 3rd movement is a Rondo (A-B-A-C-A). This movement is intended to recognize the Hudson Valley’s most influential son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and has three main components.
1) The A section is a theme to FDR. It repeats 3 times. The last time, the theme initially has a tone row in the lower instruments symbolizing FDR fading from the scene at the end of WWII, however ends in tonal fashion suggesting FDR’s legacy will live on.
2) The B section represents the Great Depression and suggests the song “Buddy Can you Spare a Dime”
3) The C Section starts out representing the turmoil World War II and ends with a choral rendition of “America” but with a new set of lyrics written by Carol Becker inspired from FDR’s D-Day Prayer.
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