1956 in Music - Classical Music

Classical Music

• Hans Erich Apostel –
  • String Quartet No. 2
  • Variationen über drei Volkslieder, for orchestra
• Malcolm Arnold –
  • Concerto No. 2 for Horn and String Orchestra, Op. 58
  • A Grand Grand Overture, Op. 57, for organ, three vacuum cleaners, electric floor polisher in E-flat, four rifles, and orchestra
  • Song of Praise, Op. 55 (text: J. Clare), for unison voices and piano
  • Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano, Op. 54
• Milton Babbitt – Semi-Simple Variations for piano
• Jan Bach – String Trio
• Samuel Barber – Summer Music for wind quintet
• William Bergsma –
  • The Fortunate Islands, for string orchestra (revised version)
  • March with Trumpets, for band
• Luciano Berio –
  • String Quartet
  • Variazioni "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen", for two basset horns and strings
• Arthur Bliss –
  • Edinburgh Overture, for orchestra
  • Seek the Lord (anthem), SATB choir and organ
• Reginald Smith Brindle – El Polifemo de Oro
• Benjamin Britten –
  • Antiphon, Op. 56b, for SATB choir and organ
  • The Prince of the Pagodas, Op. 57 (ballet in three acts)
• John Cage –
  • 27′ 10.554″ for a percussionist
  • Music for Piano 53–68
  • Music for Piano 69–84
  • Radio Music, for 1–8 radios
• Carlos Chávez – Prometheus Bound, cantata (text: Aeschylus, trans. R. Trevelyan), for alto, tenor, baritone, bass, SATB chorus and orchestra
• Aaron Copland – Variations on a Shaker Melody for symphonic band (from Appalachian Spring)
• Henry Cowell –
  • Ballad, for wind quintet
  • Bounce Dance, for piano
  • Fifteenth Anniversary, for two unspecified treble instruments
  • Lines from the Dead Sea Scrolls, for six-part male choir and orchestra
  • Septet, for five madrigal singers, clarinet, and keyboard
  • String Quartet No. 5
  • Sidney Xmas ’56, for violin and piano
  • Sway Dance, for piano
  • Two Part Invention, for soprano and alto recorders
  • Variations for Orchestra
• Luigi Dallapiccola – Cinque canti (Greek texts, trans. Salvatore Quasimodo), for baritone and eight instruments
• Mario Davidovsky -
  • Three Pieces for Woodwind Quartet,
  • Noneti for Nine Instruments
• Peter Maxwell Davies – Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
• Henri Dutilleux – Serenade for La couronne de Marguerite Long
• Herbert Eimert – Fünf Stücke, electronic music
• Hanns Eisler –
  • Horatios Monolog (text: William Shakespeare), for voice and piano
  • Legende von der Entstehung des Buches Taote King (text: Bertolt Brecht), for voice and piano
  • Vier Szenen auf dem Lande (text: E. Strittmatter), children's or female voices and small orchestra
  • Von Wolkenstreifen leicht befangen (text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), for voice and piano
  • Zu Brechts Tod "Die Wälder atmen noch", for voice and four horns
• Morton Feldman –
  • Piano Piece A
  • Piano Piece B
  • Pieces (2), for flute, alto flute, horn, trumpet, violin, and cello
  • Pieces (3), for string quartet
• Kenneth Gaburo –
  • "Ad te domine", for SATB choir
  • "Ave Maria", for SATB choir
  • Elegy for a Small Orchestra
  • "Laetentur caeli", for SATB choir
  • String Quartet
  • "Terra tremuit", for SATB choir
• Blas Galindo – Sinfonia breve, for string orchestra
• Roberto Gerhard –
  • Lamparilla Overture for orchestra
  • Sonata for Cello and Piano
  • Songs (7), for soprano or tenor and guitar
• Cecil Armstrong Gibbs – Threnody
• Alberto Ginastera – Suite de danzas criollas, for piano (revised version)
• Camargo Guarnieri –
  • Chôro, for clarinet and orchestra
  • Chôro, for piano and orchestra
  • Sonata No. 4 for violin and piano
  • Sonata No. 5 for violin and piano
• Carlos Guastavino –
  • La primera pregunta (El adolescente muerto), for voice and piano (text: N. Cortese)
  • Ombú, for voice and piano (text: N. Mileo, revised in 1989)
  • Mi canto, for voice and piano (text:Mileo),
• Ernesto Halffter – Fantasía galaica (ballet)
• Iain Hamilton – The Bermudas, Op. 33 (text: Hamilton, Jourdain, A. Marvell), for baritone, chorus, and orchestra
• Karl Amadeus Hartmann – Symphony No. 1 Versuch eines Requiems
• Robert Helps – Études (3), for piano
• Hans Werner Henze –
  • Concerto per il Marigny, for piano, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, viola, and cello
  • Fünf neapolitanische Lieder (texts: anon. 17th-century), for baritone and chamber orchestra
  • Maratona (dance drama in one act), also a suite for two jazz bands and orchestra
  • Sinfonische Etüden, for orchestra
• Alfred Hill –
  • Symphony No. 6 "Celic"
  • Symphony No. 7, in E minor
• Paul Hindemith –
  • "Othmar Sch Sch Sch Schoeck", canon for four voices
  • "40, 40, 40, 40, es lebe hoch das Konzerthausleben", canon for three voices
• Alan Hovhaness –
  • God Who Is in the Fire, Op. 146, for tenor solo, men's choir, and percussion (revised in 1965)
  • Greek Folk Dances (7), Op. 150, for harmonica and piano
  • Hercules, Op. 56, no. 4, for soprano and violin
  • Nocturne, Op. 20, no. 2, for flute and harp
  • Piano Sonata, Op. 145
  • Symphony No. 3, Op. 148
• Andrew Imbrie –
  • Introit, Gradual and Alleluia for All Saints’ Day, chorus and organ
  • Little Concerto, for piano four-hands and orchestra
• Gordon Jacob –
  • Concerto No. 2 for Oboe and Orchestra
  • Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet
  • Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano
  • Variations on "Annie Laurie", for two piccolos, two contrabass clarinets, hecklephone, two contrabassoons, serpent, contrabass serpent, subcontrabass tuba, harmonium, and hurdy gurdy
• Dmitri Kabalevsky –
  • Romeo and Juliet, suite from the incidental music, op.56
  • Symphony No. 4, Op. 54
• Gottfried Michael Koenig – Klangfiguren II, electronic music
• Ernst Krenek –
  • Guten Morgen, Amerika, Op. 159, for chorus (text: Carl Sandburg)
  • Spiritus Intelligentiae, Sanctus, Whitsun oratorio for soprano and tenor with electronic music
• Lars-Erik Larsson – Concertino for Violin
• Bruno Maderna – Notturno, electronic music
• Gian-Francesco Malipiero – Dialoghi VII for two pianos and orchestra
• Frank Martin –
  • Études, for string orchestra
  • Ouverture en hommage à Mozart, for orchestra
• Bohuslav Martinů –
  • Impromptu for Two Pianos
  • Legenda z dýmu bramborové (text: Bureš), solo voices, chorus, flute, clarinet, hornn, accordion, and piano
  • Piano Concerto no. 4, Incantation
  • Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano
  • Sonatina for Trumpet and Piano
• Yoritsune Matsudaira – Figure sonores for orchestra
• Toshiro Mayuzumi and Makoto Moroi – Seven Variations, electronic music
• Peter Mennin – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Sonata Concertante for Violin and Piano
• Gian Carlo Menotti – The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, or The Three Sundays of a Poet (madrigal ballet/fable)
• Olivier Messiaen – Oiseaux exotiques, for piano, eleven winds, and seven percussionists
• Robert Moevs – The Past Revisited, three pieces for unaccompanied violin
• Frederic Mompou and Xavier Montsalvatge – Perimplinada (ballet, after F.G. Lorca),
• Bo Nilsson – Zwei Stücke, for flute, bass clarinet, piano, and percussion
• Luigi Nono – Il canto sospeso (text: letters of Resistance fighters), for soprano, contralto, tenor, chorus, and orchestra
• Harry Partch – The Bewitched (dance satire in one act), soprano, chorus, dancers, large instrumental ensemble
• Juan Carlos Paz – Música para fagot, cuerdas y batería
• Vincent Persichetti
  • Little Recorder Book, Op. 70, 1956
  • Serenade no. 9, Op.71, for two recorders
  • Symphony No. 6, Op. 69, for Band
• Allan Pettersson – Concerto No. 2 for Strings
• Daniel Pinkham –
  • Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
  • Wedding Cantata, for optional solo voices, chorus, and instrumental ensemble
• Walter Piston –
  • Quintet for Winds
  • Serenata for Orchestra
• Quincy Porter –
  • Nocturne, for piano
  • Songs (2), (text: A. Porter)
• Francis Poulenc – Dernier poème
• Franz Reizenstein –
  • Concerto populare
  • Fantasia concertante, op.33, for violin and piano
• George Rochberg –
  • Dialogues, for clarinet and piano
  • Sonata-Fantasia, for piano
• Ned Rorem – Symphony No. 2
• Miklós Rózsa – Concerto for Violin
• Edmund Rubbra – Piano Concerto in G, Op. 85, Improvisation for Violin and Orchestra Op. 89
• R. Murray Schafer – Minnelieder (Minnesinger texts), for mezzo-soprano and wind quintet
• Hermann Schroeder – Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra
• William Schuman –
  • Chester Overture, for concert band
  • The Lord Has a Child, for SATB choir, or female choir, or solo voice, with piano (text: Langston Hughes)
  • New England Triptych, for orchestra
  • Rounds on Famous Words (4), for SATB choir (a fifth round was added in 1969)
• Roger Sessions – Piano Concerto
• Dmitri Shostakovich -
  • Ispanskiye pesni, op. 100 (texts: anon., translated by Bolotin, Sikorskaya), mezzo-soprano and piano
  • String Quartet No. 6 in G major Op. 101
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji –
  • Passeggiata veneziana sopra la Barcarola di Offenbach, for piano
  • Rosario d'arabeschi, for piano
• Karlheinz Stockhausen –
  • Gesang der Jünglinge, electronic and concrete music
  • Klavierstück XI
  • Zeitmaße, for five woodwinds
• Igor Stravinsky – Choral-Variationen über das Weihnachtslied "Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her", arr. from Johann Sebastian Bach, for chorus and orchestra
• Sándor Szokolay – Violin Concerto, Op. 13
• Virgil Thomson – Homage to Marya Freund and to the Harp, musical portrait for piano
• Michael Tippett –
  • Bonny at Morn (arr. of Northumbrian folksong), unison choir and three recorders
  • Songs from the British Isles (4), SATB choir
• Ralph Vaughan Williams –
  • A Choral Flourish (text from the Psalms), for SATB choir, two trumpets, and organ
  • God Bless the Master of This House, for SATB choir
  • Preludes on Welsh Folksongs (2), for organ
  • Symphony No. 8
  • A Vision of Aeroplanes (text: N. Ezekiel), motet for SATB choir and organ
• Heitor Villa-Lobos – Emperor Jones (ballet, after Eugene O'Neill),
• William Walton – Cello Concerto
• Mieczysław Weinberg – Piano Sonata No. 5 in A minor, Op. 58
• Egon Wellesz –
  • Suite for solo clarinet, Op. 74
  • Suite for solo oboe, Op. 76
  • Symphony No. 5, Op. 75
• Charles Wuorinen – Music for Orchestra
• Iannis Xenakis – Pithoprakta, for orchestra