Bernstein's setting of Hellman's libretto, completed six years later, had a double purpose. Candide was not completed until 1956, four years after Hellman had been called to testify at the McCarthy hearings, and two years after the humiliation of Senator McCarthy himself. The overture to Candide is a brilliant and showy piece that sets up the sarcastic tone of the drama. The operetta Candide is only rarely performed today, but its overture is one of Bernstein's most popular pieces of concert music. It has to do with growing things.
Spring is the loveliest and saddest time of the year.
In his best-known works, written during the 1930s and 1940s, Copland cultivated a sparse, sometimes austere style that seemed to echo the sound of the American wilderness. He sometimes made his musical nationality even more clear by making Jazz references, or by quoting American folk material in his works. Appalachian Spring was composed for a 1942 commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation of the Library of Congress, for a new ballet by the Martha Graham dance company. The result, which Copland titled simply Ballet for Martha is one of the landmark works of American twentieth-century music. The title Appalachian Spring was later applied by Graham, who took it from a poem by Hart Crane.