Musicology Commons^™

Convergence And Divergence In Peter Mennin's Canzona, Gene H. Anderson

Music Faculty Publications

In a brief but perspicacious study of Mennin' s music in 1954, Walter Hendl describes the composer as "a consummate craftsman who devotes great attention to the organization of materials." Although Hendl may not have known Canzona, which had been premiered in 1951 but not published until the year of his essay, the author's statement could well have been written with Mennin's sole piece for band specifically in mind. Not only is every aspect of Canzona integrally related to every other, but the relationships are deployed with a remarkable economy of means.