PHILIP
LEE WILLIAMS RELEASES FREE WEB-ONLY VERSION OF LARGE-SCALE ORCHESTRAL
WORK, HOLOCAUST SYMPHONY
ATHENS, Ga.—As
a boy, Philip Lee Williams spent days reading about the last days of World War
II, especially about the discovery of concentration camps in which millions
of prisoners died. Now, as a memorial specifically to the Jewish dead—the
six million—he has composed the largest orchestral work of his career, Holocaust
Symphony.
This huge,
nine-movement, two-and-a-half-hour work, is the culmination of a lifetime
as a composer and is now offered free at philipleewilliams.com to
anyone who wishes to listen or download. For complete descriptions and
links to each movement, please
go here.
“I
spent years thinking about this symphony and composed it in an intense creative
burst during the second half of 2007,” said Williams. “I have always
felt an intense need to deal creatively with the Holocaust, and I hope in some
small way this symphony adds to the artistic commentary on that deeply tragic
period in the world’s history.”
While small
samples of Williams’s music have been available on this web site
for some time, little of it represents the majority of his work, which
includes 18 numbered symphonies, numerous concerti, and chamber music.
The lighter, tonal works archived here are unlike the majority of his compositions,
which are darker-hued and mix tonal structures with dense, sometimes acidic
textures.
The new symphony
and all the other music on this web site was produced using sampled sounds
and cutting-edge notation technology, but the end result for each composition
is a traditional orchestral score. While Williams has approved live performances
of very little of his music, most of his scores are now archived in the
Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia.
Each movement
of the Holocaust Symphony is named for one of the nightmarish
camps in which thousands died at the hands of the Nazis. While Williams
realizes that millions of non-Jews also died at the hands of the Nazis,
he wishes in this symphony to memorialize the sacrifice of Jewish victims.
The movements of the symphony are, in order: Ravensbruck, Sobibór,
Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Chelmno, Treblinka, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The final, ninth movement of the symphony is called Kaddish, a memorial
to the dead.
“While
the symphony is filled with music of great violence, it also has long stretches
of deep tenderness and sorrow,” said Williams. “Frequently,
both moods appear within the framework of a single movement.”
The symphony
is scored for large orchestra, and some movements include additional instruments
such as piano, pipe organ, or zither. One movement (Chelmno) is for a string
quintet and solo oboe, while another (Buchenwald) is for string orchestra,
piano, and oboe.
The longest
movement is Auschwitz-Birkenau, at almost 28 minutes, while the shortest
named movement is Treblinka at 12:40. The Kaddish movement is 10:40. In
all, the Symphony lasts well more than two hours.
Williams
began composing when he was only fourteen and had finished his first symphony
by the time he was nineteen. He still owns the manuscripts of that early
music. He was attracted early to experimental music as well and was composing “chance” music
by late 1965 when he was only fifteen years old.
He came to
the University of Georgia as a music major in the fall of 1968 but quickly
left to focus on writing, as a journalism major. He is now the author
of twelve published books and winner of numerous literary awards. He continued
to compose for much of his writing years but only took it back up seriously
in the 1980s with the advent of computer notation and playback programs.
Now, with sampled instrumental sounds, he is able to create his own “virtual orchestra” and
listen to his many scores.
Two of his
chamber pieces have been performed live on the University of Georgia campus.
“I
hope that the Holocaust Symphony is in some very small way another
stone in the great monument we are building in memory of those who suffered
and died,” said Williams. “Times of great madness can come
again if we ever forget.”
Drop
him a note. He always writes back. |