Symphony No. 2 in A Major, “Spring,” Op. 34

• Paine composed this symphony in 1879. It premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 10, 1880.¹
• The symphony’s subtitle is sometimes given as “In the Spring” rather than just “Spring.”² The 1880 Arthur P. Schmidt edition (published in Boston) has the title (in German), “Im Frühling” (“In Spring”). 
• Critical reception: After the premiere, in the Sanders Theater in Cambridge, John Sullivan Dwight, a music critic from Boston, was seen “standing on a chair, ‘opening and closing his umbrella in an expression of unbridled enthusiasm.’”³
• Paine gave titles to the symphony’s movements, making this something of a program symphony.⁴

Movements 

I. Adagio sostenuto – “Departure of Winter;” Allegro ma non troppo “Awakening of Nature”  
II. Scherzo: Allegro “May-Night Fantasy”  
III. Adagio “A Romance of Springtime”  
IV. Allegro giojoso “The Glory of Nature”⁵

1. Kenneth C. Roberts and John C. Schmidt, “Paine, John Knowles,” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2013), accessed April 28, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002253739.
2. Ibid.
3. Murray Forbes Somerville, ”John Knowles Paine,” Harvard Magazine (May 1, 2000), accessed April 28, 2022, https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2000/05/john-knowles-paine.html.
4. “Symphony No. 2, Op. 34 (Paine, John Knowles),” IMSLP, accessed April 28, 2022, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.2%2C_Op.34_(Paine%2C_John_Knowles).
5. Ibid.