The Fourth of July falls on a Friday this year, which means that we'll celebrate this country's independence and the end of the work week all at once. It’ll be the perfect time to start up the grill, set off some fireworks, and listen to classical music honoring some of the nation’s best composers and performers, and other music in tune with the occasion. Tune in from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a special broadcast that’ll surely enhance your spirit for Independence Day.
Kicking off the broadcast is the hymn “Shall We Gather at the River?,” written in 1864 by American poet and composer Robert Lowry. Since then, the hymn has been reused and infused into American popular culture many times over, including by director John Ford and in recordings by folk singer Willie Nelson. Directly following the hymn is Amy Beach’s 1922 piano piece Hermit Thrush at Morn, performed by Kirsten Johnson as part of her Amy Beach Project.
Just after 7 a.m., we’ll sound the Sousalarm with John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony with Jerry Junkin at the podium. It’s not hard to see why this piece is an essential part of our Fourth of July broadcasting. Ending the 7 o’clock hour is another piece whose necessity is spelled out by its name: Jacques Offenbach’s “American Eagle Waltz.”
Shortly after 7:30 a.m., we’ll serve a double helping of music from the great American composer George Gershwin. First is Promenade (Walking the Dog), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, followed by Porgy and Bess: It Ain’t Necessarily So, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Both pieces were written for larger productions, with the former made for the 1937 film Shall We Dance and the latter made for Gershwin’s iconic 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.
Later in the broadcast, during the 3 o’clock hour, Gershwin resurfaces in Earl Wild’s “Etude No. 3: The Man I Love,” part of his Seven Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin. Wild, who broke ground by being the first pianist to perform a recital on television in 1939 and the first to stream one on the internet in 1997, wrote the Virtuoso Etudes in two sets decades after Gershwin’s passing to honor the great composer. “Etude No. 3: The Man I Love” was composed with the second set in 1976; we’ll hear a version released by Claire Huangci last year.
Though not an American composer himself, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was working contemporaneously with the American Revolution. His ‘Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E Major,’ which we’ll play in the 7 o’clock hour, was composed in 1776. So too was our Midday Mozart selection: the Rondo section of “Serenade No. 7 in D major,” also known as the Haffner Serenade. Premiered by Mozart that July 21, this piece is a mere two and a half weeks younger than our country — so there's another 250th anniversary we'll be celebrating, come this time next year.
Starting at 4:30 p.m., back-to-back African-American Spirituals will be played in arrangements by Margaret Bonds and Baptiste Trotignon. First is Bonds’ arrangement of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, featuring the great soprano Leontyne Price. Then comes Trotignon’s arrangement of Save Me Lord, Save Me, featuring himself on piano alongside countertenor Reginald Mobley, who spoke with Meg Bragle last year about the connective importance of Black American music.
From all of us at WRTI, we wish you a happy Fourth of July!