Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Symphonia Brevis (1953)
I. Allegro energico
II. Andante (Scherzo)—Chorale [3:14]
Radio Orchestra of Zurich
Jacques Monod
George Perle, a composer and colleague of Miriam Gideon, once wrote: “I recall a conversation between her and a fellow composer who was complaining about the composer’s situation in the world today—a world, he felt, in which it was impossible for a serious composer to find any motivation for composing music. Miss Gideon replied, ‘If you can relate tones to each other in such a way that they belong together, that’s enough of a reason for composing.’ The answer tells us us a good deal about her, as a person and as a composer.”
Miriam Gideon is an American composer by birth and training. Born in Colorado, her musical studies took place mainly in the East. In addition to an opera, Fortunato based on a play by the Quintero brothers, she has written a string quartet, a sonata for viola and piano, five piano suites, settings for solo voice and chamber group of Sonnets from Shakespeare, the Hound of Heaven (Francis Thompson), Sonnets from Fatal Interview (Edna St. Vincent Millay) and numerous songs, choruses and shorter chamber works. Her music has been performed by leading orchestras, chamber groups and soloists in the United States, Europe and South America.
The Symphonia Brevis was written in 1953 for the Orchestra of the College of the City of New York. The first performance was conducted by Fritz Jahoda in May 1953. The work is divided into two movements marked Allegro energico and Andante (Scherzo)--Chorale respectively. In spite of its brevity, the Symphonia has the proportions and emotional range of a symphony. Each movement is terse and highly charged. --D. Jennings
Art by Sead Kazanxhiu
Symphonia Brevis (1953)
I. Allegro energico
II. Andante (Scherzo)—Chorale [3:14]
Radio Orchestra of Zurich
Jacques Monod
George Perle, a composer and colleague of Miriam Gideon, once wrote: “I recall a conversation between her and a fellow composer who was complaining about the composer’s situation in the world today—a world, he felt, in which it was impossible for a serious composer to find any motivation for composing music. Miss Gideon replied, ‘If you can relate tones to each other in such a way that they belong together, that’s enough of a reason for composing.’ The answer tells us us a good deal about her, as a person and as a composer.”
Miriam Gideon is an American composer by birth and training. Born in Colorado, her musical studies took place mainly in the East. In addition to an opera, Fortunato based on a play by the Quintero brothers, she has written a string quartet, a sonata for viola and piano, five piano suites, settings for solo voice and chamber group of Sonnets from Shakespeare, the Hound of Heaven (Francis Thompson), Sonnets from Fatal Interview (Edna St. Vincent Millay) and numerous songs, choruses and shorter chamber works. Her music has been performed by leading orchestras, chamber groups and soloists in the United States, Europe and South America.
The Symphonia Brevis was written in 1953 for the Orchestra of the College of the City of New York. The first performance was conducted by Fritz Jahoda in May 1953. The work is divided into two movements marked Allegro energico and Andante (Scherzo)--Chorale respectively. In spite of its brevity, the Symphonia has the proportions and emotional range of a symphony. Each movement is terse and highly charged. --D. Jennings
Art by Sead Kazanxhiu
