Gillis, who died in 1978, was quite a character – called a cowboy-country Neil Simon of the concert hall. He represented Middle America and played up nostalgia and patriotism in his music, which exceeds even the former Soviet cultural dictates of composing music which is simple, direct, accessible and encourages nobility and pride in listeners who don’t need to be musically educated in order to appreciate it. Working for NBC Radio got his music heard nationally; among other things he produced the NBC Symphony broadcasts with Toscanini.
One of Gillis’ big hits in post-WWII America was Tulsa – thought to be the first time a major financial institution commissioned an orchestral work. It summarizes the progress of oil business pioneers who made Tulsa a leading postwar city. The composer’s early Symphony for Free Men was a serious attempt to imply American ideals thru the music. The 1968 Symphony X is a tribute to Dallas, with three bouncy, pop-concertish movements portraying “All American City,” “Conventioneer,” and “Cotton Bowl” – plus a fourth movement – “Requiem for a Hero” – which strikes a more elegiac mood since it refers to the assassination of JFK.
This is another of the original stereo masters in the Albany discography which has been processed by the Zarex HD Studio to derive a 5.1 surround sound signal from the two-channel original. The L & R front channels still retain the main part of the signal; I found again I had to raise the surround level to achieve a more pleasing ambience in multichannel playback but then it sounded quite convincing.
– John Sunier
