The music seems to dramatize the conflict between the vernacular and the personal, between the great public and the isolated individual. These are not songs of the self in the traditon of Whitman. But these are distinctly American works, moving inward and outward with unsystematic spaciousness. They suggest the self-absorbed individual. But for Mr. Copland, inner strength is based in communal security.
Community is primary, lending strength.
And, in part, it seems true in his own music. Not even alienation. If this balance was not sustained in later works, it is because of the legendary quality of Mr. Copland's vision, mixing pastoral dream with urban longings. This dream could no more be passed on to the composers of the 50's than the ambition of being recognizably American. The community has not proved itself all that strong or quiet, and the house is no longer so new.