Works of Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo (Four Dance Episodes), Appalachian Spring (Suite) (Telarc, 1982)
Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring (Suite), Old American Songs (Complete),
Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (Sony, 1988)
Appalachian Spring (Original Version for chamber orchestra),
A Lincoln Portrait, Billy the Kid (Ballet Suite) (Sony, 1988)
Our Town, The Red Pony (suite from the film), El Salon Mexico, Danzon Cubano,
Three Latin-American Sketches (Sony, 1988)

American classical music was a long time in breaking free from its European forebears. Such nineteenth century American composers as Louis Gottschalk and Edward MacDowell have largely remained outside the standard repertoire, and the most famous American composer of that period, John Philip Sousa, is known exclusively for his stirring patriotic marches. American music didn’t start to really break free until the twentieth century, with the blossoming of jazz, the birth of Americana, and the exploration of Native American and Latin-American folk music. The first great American composer to come out of this blend of seemingly disparate elements was Aaron Copland (1900-1990), much of whose music has become beloved indeed.

Copland’s output was large -- he wrote songs, ballets, symphonies, and a host of smaller works which he categorized with descriptors like "episodes" and "sketches". Copland sought to develop the American musical vernacular in the era of post-Wagnerianism, when excess and bombast were eschewed in favor of cleaner lines, asymmetrical melodies, and rhythmic experimentation. The result is a body of music that still is surprising in its freshness, even with some of his familiar works going on sixty years old.

The Lane/Atlanta SO recording comprises three of Copland’s best-known works, and is a decent, if unspectacular, introduction to his works. Some years ago I would have said that "A Fanfare for the Common Man" is Copland’s most famous work. It was written on commission by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; ten composers were commissioned to write patriotic fanfares to "foster patriotic spirit" during World War II. Copland’s is the only of these fanfares to survive in the repertory (although I’ve always wanted to hear the others; I wonder if they’re recorded anywhere). The "Fanfare" opens with a mighty pounding of the drum, followed by a breathtaking trumpet theme which is then expanded by the rest of the brass. The "Fanfare" demands spectacular sound, but to my ears the Louis Lane/Atlanta Symphony recording here is a bit muted and flat, which is curious given that Telarc Digital recordings tend to the "spectacular" side. The other works on the disc fare better: the "Appalachian Spring" and "Rodeo: Four Dance" "Episodes" are well-done, with the sound opening up a bit. Conductor Lane gives the inner movements of "Rodeo" a nice lilt, and the "Buckaroo Holiday" is also well-shaped. I do think that he takes the "Hoe-Down" (which, thanks to the long-running advertising campaign for American beef, is now indisputably the most well-known of all of Copland’s works) a bit too fast. The Atlanta players, particularly the brass, keep up quite well, but some of this music’s charm is lost in Lane’s trip to the races. His "Appalachian Spring" is also brisk, which tends to keep the score’s most dramatic segments from achieving their true potential. But it, too, is well-played by the orchestra.

The better performances and interpretations, though, are to be found on the three "Copland conducts Copland" CDs reviewed here. It’s not always the case that a composer is the best interpreter of his or her own music, but Copland’s hand here is deft indeed, leaning on things when weight is called for and backing off when it isn’t. His tempi are measured -- I’ve heard faster "Hoe-Downs" and "Appalachian Springs", but he is still able to convey the music’s American charm better than his counterparts in the Lane/Atlanta recording. The sound on these recordings is also superb, given their age (they were remastered from analog recordings made between 1962 and 1973).

The first disc contains the same works as the Lane/Atlanta recording, and with the exception of the inner movements of "Rodeo", all of the works are more convincingly handled under Copland’s baton. The "Fanfare "is muscular without being overbearing and harsh; the Appalachian Spring is charming, with the famous "Variations on a Shaker Theme" coming off beautifully. What really makes this CD special, though, is the recording of Copland’s complete "Old American Songs", comprising ten short songs for baritone with orchestra accompaniment. These songs include "Simple Gifts" (the "Shaker Theme" used in "Appalachian Spring", and a fascinating coupling with the larger work), "The Dodger" (a campaign song used when Grover Cleveland ran for President), and my favorite, "I Bought Me A Cat" (a children’s song with some of the most charming lyrics I’ve ever heard), along with seven others. The great American baritone William Warfield (who passed away last year) sings these songs with utter conviction, charm and beauty. These songs are the high point of all of these CDs.

As well-known as "Appalachian Spring" is, its orchestral version is by far better known than its original version, which differs in that it is a bit longer and, more importantly, scored for a much smaller ensemble of fifteen musicians (a necessity because of the size of the orchestra pit in the hall where the work was first performed!). I’ve known the full-orchestra version for years; to hear it performed by the smaller ensemble is something of a revelation, bringing out more of Copland’s structure and making certain aspects of his plan much more clear. I still prefer the full-orchestra version, but the original has its own charms and should not be neglected.

The "Lincoln Portrait" is another of Copland’s most familiar works. This work is a tone-poem of sorts, seeking to portray "something of the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln’s personality" (Copland’s words), as well as evoking the character of Lincoln’s time. Most famously, the work includes a speaking role consisting almost entirely of excerpts from Lincoln’s own speeches and writings. The idea of the work is not so much for the speaker to portray Lincoln but to simply recite the words, and allow their character to be reflected in the music. The work has been recorded many times, with many speakers. On this disc the speaker is Henry Fonda, and his middle-American accent does Lincoln’s words fine justice (although I must still profess a preference for James Earl Jones’s delivery, when he recorded the same work).

The final of these "Copland conducts Copland" CDs contains some of his film music, coupled with three works representing one of Copland’s particular fascinations: the folk tunes and dances of Latin America. The film music here is in two suites, from the films Our Town (based on the play by Thornton Wilder) and The Red Pony (based on the novel by John Steinbeck). The "Our Town" Suite is a quiet and solemn work, as befits the small-town New Hampshire setting. For The Red Pony, Copland did what he had done in "Appalachian Spring": create music with an American folk feel, without using actual folk material ("Simple Gifts", in the ballet, being the exception). The result is music that is most definitely American in feel, but also new. Copland’s approach to film scoring reflects his general approach to composition in general: clarity of line and transparent orchestration that stands in stark contrast to the more Wagnerian approach prevalent in the Hollywood scores of Copland’s day. (The CD’s liner notes are rather disparaging of those scores, which disappointed me.) Copland’s film scoring approach has been adopted in more recent years by such composers as John Williams and James Horner, for films such as Saving Private Ryan and Apollo 13. Thus, the Americana-language that Copland helped create will be familiar to today’s listeners.

Finally, there are the three Latin-American selections: "El Salon Mexico", "Danzon Cubano", and "Three Latin-American Sketches". Aaron Copland was widely-traveled, especially in the Americas, and in his travels he carried with him a healthy musical curiosity. The result was that he was virtually steeped in the folk tunes and dance rhythms of all the cultures he visited, and was thus able to incorporate them into his own music. The works here are prime examples. Each is brimming with distinctive rhythm and "folkiness". I found the "Danzon Cubano" the most interesting of these works, because it conveys a waltz-like elegance that one doesn’t normally expect when one thinks of Cuba. All three works are highly rhythmic, with marked shifts in tempo and meter that can trip up the unwary orchestral musician or conductor, but fortunately Copland is more than up to the task. The performances here, by the New Philharmonia Orchestra, are first-rate in their precision. Experienced musicians know that a rhythmic passage, played with great precision at a slower tempo, actually sounds faster than the same passage played at a faster tempo but with less precision.

American classical music has only had a distinct voice of its own for less than a century, but thanks in large part to the efforts of Aaron Copland, what a century it’s been!