Aaron Copland / Timeline // Copland House …where America's musical past and future meet Aaron Copland: Timeline of a Musical Life Aaron Copland at the Piano (compiled by Michael Boriskin) 1900—Born on November 14 in Brooklyn to Sarah Mittenthal and Harris Copland, the youngest of five children (Ralph, Leon, Laurine, and Josephine) 1906—Attends Public School 111 in Brooklyn 1909—Begins to make up songs at the piano 1910-13—Attends summer camp (Camp Carey at Wilkes-Barre, PA) 1911—Earliest existing piece of music; begins piano lessons with sister Laurine 1914—Begins studies with first professional piano teacher, Ludwig Wolfsohn in Brooklyn 1916—Hears first symphony concert in Brooklyn 1917—First public performance as a pianist 1918—Graduated from Boys’ High School, Brooklyn 1917-21—Studies harmony and counterpoint with Rubin Goldmark 1919-21—Studies piano with Clarence Adler Aaron Cop

land 1921—Enrolls at newly-established American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in May; attends harmony class of Nadia Boulanger and begins composition studies with her in October 1922—First work published (by Durand): Le chat et la Souris (composed 1920); writes the Passacaglia for piano and first large-scale work, the ballet Grohg (revised 1932) 1924—First important article published, Gabriel Fauré, A Neglected Master (The Musical Quarterly) 1925—First major performances of an orchestral work, Symphony for Organ and Orchestra at Aeolian Hall (Nadia Boulanger, organist, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony) and in Boston (with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra); first visit to MacDowell Colony to work on Music for the Theatre; receives the first-ever Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (renewed in 1926); writes first of many articles for Modern Music 1927—First major performance of Copland as pianist, World Premiere of his Piano Concerto (composed 1926)

 with Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony; begins lectures at New School for Social Research, New York (continuing for ten years, eventually developing some of these into his book What to Listen for in Music) 1928—Initiates Copland-Sessions Concerts with composer Roger Sessions, an important series mostly in New York devoted exclusively to contemporary music (continuing to 1932, averaging two concerts per season); joined the League of Composers (remaining a member until 1954); helps to establish Cos Cob Press, devoted to publishing works by young American composers; completes first important chamber work, Vitebsk 1929—Wins the RCA Victor Composers’ Competition with Dance Symphony (along with Ernest Bloch, Robert Russell Bennett, and Louis Gruenberg); completes Symphonic Ode 1930—First visit to Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY; composes first major work for solo piano, Piano Variations; Organizes Festival of Contemporary Music at Yaddo (and a second one in 1932) 1932—First visit to Mexico, arranged by Carlos Chavez, which includes first all-Copland program (

organized by Chavez at the Conservatorio Nacional de Music on September 2nd: Two Pieces for String Quartet, Piano Variations, Two Pieces for Chorus, and Music for the Theatre); joins the Board of Directors of the League of Composers; joins a social and professional collective called Young Composers’ Group (including Arthur Berger, Henry Brant, Lehman Engel, Vivian Fine, Bernard Herrmann, Elie Siegmeister, and others) 1934—First performance of a staged work, the ballet Hear Ye!

Hear Ye!

by Ruth Page Ballets (in Chicago) Aaron Copland at his Desk 1935—Teaches for the first time at Harvard, replacing Walter Piston on leave in spring semester; organizes five concerts at the New School, each devoted to the music of one composer (Harris, Thomson, Sessions, Piston, and Copland) 1936—Writes regular column (“Scores and Records” for Modern Music, which continues until 1939); completes El Salon Mexico 1937—Composes The Second Hurricane, a "play-opera" for the Henry Street Settlement Music School in New York City, directed by Orson Welles, to be performed by children and adults 1938—Publisher becomes Boosey & Hawkes, to which he was recommended by Benjamin Britten; helps to establish American Composers’ Alliance (serving as President between 1939 and 1945); helps to found Arrow Music Press (incorporating Cos Cos Press) with Engel, Blitzstein, and Thomson 1939—Writes first film score to The City, a documentary by Ralph Steiner and first score for a feature film, Of Mice and Men; helps

 to found American Music Center; publishes first book, What to Listen for in Music 1940—Invited by Koussevitzky to teach at the first summer of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (continuing until 1965, and including various administrative positions) 1941—Second book, Our New Music, published; four-month South American tour for the Committee for Inter-American Artistic and Intellectual Relations 1942—Completes A Lincoln Portrait, commissioned by conductor Andre Kostelanetz, and Fanfare for the Common Man, and composes the ballet Rodeo, commissioned by Agnes de Mille; elected to the Music Department of the National Institute of Arts and Letters 1944—Receives Academy Award nomination for his film score to The North Star; returns to Harvard in the spring for five talks as Horace Appleton Lamb Lecturer 1945—Wins Pulitzer Prize in Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Award for Appalachian Spring, a ballet by Martha Graham composed in 1944 1946—Completes one of his largest works, Symphony No.

3 (begun 1944), which wins the New York Music Critics Circle Award; elected a member of ASCAP 1947—Four-month tour of Latin America for the U.S.

Department of State; gives up New York City apartment and loft studio, and moves to Sneden’s Landing, Rockland County, NY; begins Clarinet Concerto for Benny Goodman 1948—Becomes Director of the League of Composers (remaining until 1951) 1949—European tour 1950—Wins Academy Award for Best Original Musical Score for the film The Heiress; sixth visit to the MacDowell Colony, during which he begins work on the Piano Quartet, his first 12-tone work; completes Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson 1951—Receives Fulbright Fellowship for six-month stay abroad, including a short residency at the American Academy of Rome and first trip to Israel; conducts work by another composer for the first time (Diamond’s Rounds, in Italy); gives Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard (first native-born American to hold Poetry Chair), published in 1952 as Music and Imagination 1952—Begins work on The Tender Land; buys his first house, Shady Lane Farm in Ossining, where he lives for eight years 1953—Becomes embroiled

 in Washington’s anti-Communist hysteria, and is subpoenaed to testify at McCarthy Congressional hearings, as a result of which several of his engagements are canceled; first book about Copland published, written by composer-critic Arthur Berger 1954—World Premiere on April 1 of The Tender Land at the New York City Opera; elected to membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters 1955—Six months in Europe; Julia Smith’s biography of Copland published 1956—Awarded Gold Medal of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; receives first Honorary Doctorate (from Princeton, U.); six months in Europe 1957—Composes Orchestral Variations (a symphonic transcription of his Piano Variations); completes monumental Piano Fantasy (begun in 1955) 1958—New York Philharmonic conducting debut 1960—Buys Rock Hill in the Town of Cortlandt, which was to be his home for the remaining 30 years of his life; fourth book published, Copland On Music 1961—Receives MacDowell Colony Medal of Honor, for distinguished service in the

 field of music; becomes President of MacDowell Colony (serving until 1968) 1962—Writes Connotations for Lincoln Center Inaugural Concert by the New York Philharmonic; composes Down A Country Lane, is published in Life magazine on June 29 1964—Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor 1965–66— Wrote, hosted, and performed on a 12-part public television series, Music in the Twenties 1967—Writes Inscape, last major orchestral work, for the New York Philharmonic’s 125th Anniversary 1968—The New Music, 1900-1960 is published (a revision of his Our New Music) 1970—Receives Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit from West Germany and the Howland Memorial Medal from Yale University; awarded membership in Institut de France and Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Society 1971—Composes the Duo for Flute and Piano, his last important work 1975-76—Gives interviews to Vivian Perlis for her

 Oral History Project in American Music at Yale University, which develop into their collaboration on Copland’s autobiography 1977—Copland’s complete piano music performed in concert for the first time (by Leo Smit) 1979—Receives Kennedy Center Honors; first recording of Copland’s complete piano music (by Leo Smit) 1980—“Wall-to-Wall Copland,” a day-long marathon concert, at Symphony Space, New York City 1981—Department of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York renamed Aaron Copland School of Music 1984—First volume of memoirs appears (Copland: 1900 Through 1942, written with Vivian Perlis) 1986—Awarded both the Congressional Gold Medal (by “act of Congress,” one of America’s highest civilian honors) and the National Medal of Arts (bestowed by President Ronald Reagan) 1989—Second volume of memoirs published (Copland: Since 1943, with Vivian Perlis) 1990—Dies on December 2 at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, North Tarrytown, NY

; ashes are scattered at Tanglewood Copland - Appalachian Spring - A Good-Music-Guide Review Appalachian Spring [an error occurred while processing this directive] Buy Amazon International [an error occurred while processing this directive] Aaron Copland Aaron Copland's life spanned most of the twentieth century, yet he is best-known for music that he wrote during a very short period, from 1938 to 1944.

It was during this six years that he wrote his three ballets Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and Appalacian Spring (1943-44) as well as Fanfare for the Common Man and A Lincoln Portrait. This time and style has become known as Copland's populist period. It was not always like this. Copland was one of the first Americans to travel to Paris and absorb the modern rhythms and harmonies of Europe. He brought them back to America, laced it with his own jazzy style and wrote music that was difficult, dissonant and jarring. At the 1925 premier of his first major work, the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra by the conductor Walter Damrosch commented Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you will agree that if a gifted young man can write a symphony like this at 23, within five years he will be ready to commit murder! A joke that was clearly tongue-in-cheek. Copland went on to write some of the most recognisable and best-loved music of the United States. His style mellowed. His orchestrations became smoother and easier on the ear.

And most importantly his inspiration came not from the traditions of Europe, but from the streets of his fellow countryman. Copland made a conscious decision to write music for the people. The most quintessential of his works is Appalacian Spring. This is the music that is most associated with Copland - open and expansive like the landscape he depicts, yet personal and intimate. With folk tunes as his inspiration, Copland defined post-Jazz American music. The story of the birth of Appalachian Spring and how it got its name is a convoluted one. The Library of Congress commissioned Copland to write the score for a new ballet, and Martha Graham to do the choreography. Martha Graham, Erich Hawkins and a rather spartan set for the first performance of Appalachian Spring in 1944 at the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium, Washington DC. Martha Graham gave Copland a simple scenario: a new frontier town in Pennsylvania, a young couple's wedding and house-raising. Due to the size of the auditorium in which it was first performed, Copland scored it for a chamber ensemble of 13 string and wind instruments and titled it simply Ballet for Martha. It remained with this name until the day before its premier.

Martha Graham gave it its present day title Appalcahian Spring after a poem by Hart Crane: O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge; Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends And northward reaches in that violet wedge Of Adirondacks! At its final rehearsal Copland approached Graham and asked Martha, what have you named the ballet?. Graham told him Appalachian Spring. Copland said That's nice, but does it have anything to do with the ballet? She replied No, I just like the title. Copland has often said that since then people have come up to him and told him they could see the Appalachians and feel the spring when they hear his music. Especially ironic when you realise that the Hart Crane poem is descibing a wellspring, not a season. Joseph Brackett And yet the name is appropriate. Both Copland and Graham were working to the same scenario which did include the Appalachians and spring, the trials and rewards of a new life.

Copland's music is almost all original, except for the final melody, taken from a Shaker hymn Simple Gifts written by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett. Copland weaves an intricate set of variations around this beautiful melody. 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, to turn, turn, will be our delight till by turning, turning we come round right. Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein, almost 20 years Copland's junior was his lifelong friend and advocate. Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic became known for their performances of Copland's works. Bernstein even wrote a short piano section in Copland's Rodeo. This recording presents both Copland and Bernstein at their best. It includes the classic recording of Bernstein conducting Copland's music, regarded as better than Copland's own recording from the 1970's.

And performed by the New York Philharmonic, who know this music better than anybody else. Hey, they virtually own it! They certainly relish playing it. This CD represents Copland at his most accessable. Simple, folksy, fun. The music reminds us of a more simple time in history. Perhaps it is because of the world's troubles today that people are reaching back to these more basic values that this CD is top of the classical charts again. Or maybe its just because it is great music and a wonderful performance. Please support Good-Music-Guide.com San Francisco Symphony - COPLAND: Appalachian Spring San Francisco Symphony Copland: Appalachian Spring Appalachian Spring, Ballet for Martha Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1900, and died in Peekskill, New York, on December 2, 1990. He composed Appalachian Spring between spring 1943 and early August 1944, and it was premiered as a staged ballet on October 30, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, with Louis Horst conducting. The score carries a dedication to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.

In its original form, the score called for only thirteen instruments, but soon after the premiere Copland made a concert suite for full orchestra that was introduced by Artur Rodzinski and the New York Philharmonic-Symphony on October 4, 1945. The San Francisco Symphony first played the Suite from Appalachian Spring in December 1945 with Pierre Monteux conducting. The most recent subscription performances of the concert suite for full orchestra were in March 1993 under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt. The score calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, xylophone, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tabor (long drum), wood block, claves, glockenspiel, triangle, piano, harp, and strings. Performance time: about twenty-four minutes. Few nights in the history of the arts in America can rival October 30, 1944, when the ballet Appalachian Spring received its first performance, at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

That the music was by Aaron Copland and the choreography was by Martha Graham speaks for the consummate level of creativity that was put before the audience. By the time Appalachian Spring appeared, Copland had already won his place in the hearts of balletomanes through his scores for Billy the Kid (1938) and Rodeo (1942), and Graham’s name had become synonymous with the new direction of modern dance. But others who were involved in the project were as eminent in their own ways. Erick Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, both of whom would go on to lead their own dance companies to renown, shared the stage with Graham in the performance, and the acclaimed artist Isamu Noguchi designed the set. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, doyenne of Washington's cultural patrons, demurred when initially approached to finance a collaboration. She wanted her money to support composers who were not yet well known. But Harold Spivacke, head of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, convinced her to make an exception in this case. On July 23, 1942, Mrs.

Coolidge wrote to Copland, “allowing myself the pleasure of asking you if you would accept a commission of $500, to be applied to the writing of a music score for a new dance program for Martha Graham.” She expressed the wish that the new work would be ready to be unveiled in September 1943, at the Pittsfield Festival in Massachusetts. In fact, Copland and Graham had flirted with the idea of collaborating as early as 1941, when Graham was envisioning a ballet provisionally titled Daughter of Colchis that might be described as Medea set in New England. When Copland didn’t evince much enthusiasm, Graham turned her thoughts instead to something that would reflect the sort of gentle spirit that had made such an impact in Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town. This would be the emotional heart of Appalachian Spring. A round-robin of correspondence ensued between Graham, Copland, Mrs. Coolidge, and Spivacke, with Graham developing her conception through a series of greatly evolving scripts with various titles and far greater emphasis on general mood-setting and details of character than on what could be called a clear-cut plot.

According to Copland, the first script he received from Graham began: “This is a legend of American living. It is like the bone structure, the inner frame that holds together a people.” Such an approach was not atypical of Graham’s method, and, although it understandably vexed many of the composers with whom she worked, it appears not to have rattled Copland, who diplomatically called his score-in-progress simply Ballet for Martha and wisely allowed the project to develop considerably in Graham’s imagination before he invested much time in actually committing music to the page. As it developed, Graham’s scenario seemed a conflation of many strands of American social history, all intersecting around the time of the Civil War in some generalized place in the American heartland. In the end, several of these strands, as encapsulated in specific characters, were deleted from the action, including a fugitive slave and a Pocahontas-like Indian girl. Others were added to take their places, but the new characters seemed more connected to what was emerging from the encyclopedic mish-mash to become the work’s focus. The setting itself also grew more precise.

It was to be rural western Pennsylvania, a region well known to Graham, who spent her childhood in the town of Allegheny, not far from Pittsburgh. The 1943 deadline Mrs. Coolidge had hoped for became impractical. The fact that Copland’s Hollywood obligations would bring him twenty times the fee he would get for the new ballet helped him clarify his priorities. The ballet’s premiere was accordingly pushed back and the venue changed to the Library of Congress. Since the action of the ballet takes place in the springtime, nearly everybody assumes, not unreasonably, that the “spring” of Appalachian Spring refers to the season. In fact, the title was attached to the piece only a few weeks before the premiere, when Graham stumbled across those words in a poem by Hart Crane. In the poem the Appalachian spring is unquestionably a stream of water trickling through the hills, rather than a season. Graham seems to have been taken with the words in a relatively abstract sense, and since no babbling brook appears in the setting of her ballet, it seems likely that she herself meant the title to refer to the season rather than to the stream.

That’s certainly the implication in the brief scenario she supplied for the ballet’s premiere: Part and parcel of our lives is that moment of Pennsylvania spring when there was “a garden eastward of Eden.” Spring was celebrated by a man and woman building a house with joy and love and prayer; by a revivalist and his followers in their shouts of exaltation; by a pioneering woman with her dreams of the Promised Land. In the end, the ballet’s plot was straightforward. A bride and bridegroom get to know one another, somewhat shyly and nervously, and members of their community, including a revivalist preacher, express their own sentiments. The couple grows more comfortable with the ritual of daily life that lies ahead, their humility underscored by Copland’s use of the Shaker tune “Simple Gifts,” and they greet the future with a sense of serenity. The “Simple Gifts” section of Appalachian Spring is the part that has lodged most insistently in the popular memory, and Copland’s variations on that melody are indeed remarkable. Nonetheless, it is a curious inclusion in the context of the final scenario.

Copland later remarked, “My research evidently was not very thorough, since I did not realize that there have never been Shaker settlements in rural Pennsylvania!” Although the general sound of Appalachian Spring can be found elsewhere in Copland’s works of this period, this is the music that established its vocabulary as representing the quintessential “American sound.” Rich in wide-open, disjunct intervals, it’s a sound that became much imitated by American composers in ensuing years—including very often by Copland himself. The fact that it seemed to evoke something inherently American made it irresistible to composers of strictly commercial music, and in a sentimentalized form it thrives to this day as the inspiration for countless movie and television soundtracks. Copland himself was aware of the pitfalls of empty nostalgia that might torpedo his score, and some years later, after he had conducted it frequently, he would write, “I have often admonished orchestras, professional and otherwise, not to get too sweet or too sentimental with it.” So immense was the popularity of this piece that Copland ended up molding his original score into five distinct arrangements plus two stand-alone settings of the “Simple Gifts” segment. Mrs.

Coolidge’s commission had stipulated that Copland’s score should not require more than twelve instruments, which was already more than Graham would have preferred, since her company was normally able to take along only nine musicians when they toured. In deference to Graham’s practicalities, Copland initially intended to employ only a double string quartet (four violins, two violas, and two cellos) plus piano. Yet when Copland learned that another work on the Library of Congress program, by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, was scored for these instruments plus a woodwind quartet, he felt no compunction to limit himself to his original instrumentation. Mrs. Coolidge consented to the expansion, and though the Chávez piece dropped from the program, Copland’s somewhat expanded scoring remained. In 1945, Copland extracted eight sections of the ballet score (played without any interruption) and expanded the instrumentation for full orchestra. Copland provided the following outline to help the audience imagine the action the music was meant to portray: 1. Very slowly. Introduction of the characters, one by one, in a suffused light. 2. Fast. Sudden burst of unison strings in A-major arpeggios starts the action.

A sentiment both elated and religious gives the keynote to this scene. . . . 3. Moderate. Duo for the Bride and her Intended—scene of tenderness and passion. 4. Quite fast. The Revivalist and his flock. Folksy feelings—suggestions of square dances and country fiddlers. 5. Still faster. Solo dance of the Bride—presentiment of motherhood. Extremes of joy and fear and wonder. 6. Very slow (as at first). Transition scenes reminiscent of the introduction. 7. Calm and flowing. Scenes of daily activity for the Bride and her Farmer-husband. There are five variations on a Shaker theme. The theme, sung by a solo clarinet, was taken from a collection of Shaker melodies compiled by Edward D. Andrews, and published under the title The Gift to Be Simple. The melody I borrowed and used almost literally is called “Simple Gifts.” 8. Moderato. Coda. The Bride takes her place among her neighbors. At the end the couple are left “quiet and strong in their new house.” Muted strings intone a hushed, prayer-like passage.

We hear a last echo of the principal theme sung by a flute and solo violin. The close is reminiscent of the opening music. This orchestral setting became the “standard version” for most listeners, and of course its texture is considerably more lush than the original ensemble of thirteen players provided. But not everyone agreed that bigger was necessarily better in this case, where spareness of style seemed frankly elemental to the conception of the work. Although several colleagues urged Copland to create a version of Appalachian Spring crafted for concert performance but using the original orchestration, he resisted for a perfectly practical reason. As he explained to Vivian Perlis, “I thought that once the listening public had become used to the large version, the thirteen-instrument one would sound ‘skinny,’ so I was hesitant about making it available.” But in the end he acquiesced, and in the late 1960s he prepared arrangements of both the full ballet score (with some alterations for concert presentation) and of the full-orchestra suite of 1945 retrofitted for the original scoring of thirteen instruments.

Copland himself was pleased with the results, telling Perlis: “Often people (particularly the English) tell me they like the thirteen-instrument version better than the full orchestra because it seems more intimate and more touching. I, myself, am glad to have both arrangements available. In time, I have come to think that the original instrumentation has a clarity and is closer to my original conception than the more opulent orchestrated version.” —James M. Keller More About the Music Recordings: Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (RCA Red Seal) | Aaron Copland leading the London Symphony Orchestra (CBS) Reading: Copland on Music, by Aaron Copland (Norton) | Aaron Copland: A Reader: Selected Writings, 1923-1972, edited by Richard Kostelanetz (Routledge) DVD: Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony explore Copland and the American Sound in an episode of Keeping Score, available from SFS Media, and online at keepingscore.org.

San Francisco Symphony Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin - Copland Rodeo, Dance Panels, El salón México, Danzón c by HIGHRESAUDIO - issuu RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO –4– orchestra be a small one, and Copland obliged by utilizing what is essentially a chamber ensemble with only six woodwinds and five brass. Then, a curious thing happened. Copland played the score on the piano for Robbins who went into rehearsal right away, but when he began working with the company he could not remember the music – only the rhythmic counts – and became captivated by what the dancers were doing without the music. So it was that he continued in this vein and did not use Copland’s score at all. As Robbins later recalled, “I was sorry I wasn’t able to do Dance Panels, but in a very real way, Aaron’s music was the accidental genesis of my ballet without music, Moves.” Nothing more happened until 1962, when the Bavarian State Opera in Munich asked Copland if they could mount the work as part of the celebrations surrounding the opening of their new house that November.

AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO Copland was asked to conduct the performance, and although he and the Opera’s management tried to get Robbins to do the choreography, he declined to do so. Two other choreographers were approached, including Eugene Loring (who had done the original production of Billy the Kid), but nothing worked out. Finally, Heinz Rosen, the music director of the Opera, decided to stage it himself, and brought in two principals outside the company, one from the New York City Ballet and the other from the Paris Opera. Unfortunately, a whole string of problems ensued which undermined the performance, which was not a success, and as Copland sadly wrote in his diary, “Somebody, some day will make a good ballet out of the piece – it’s so very danceable, but I’m afraid it’s a lost cause here.” In 1965 the New York City Ballet mounted a version of the ballet with a bizarre story line under the title Shadow’d Ground, but it found no favor with audience or critics.

Because of the fact there was no plot to the original, and because it is marvelously wellconstructed, Dance Panels works beautifully as a concert work, and with the original title was given its first performance in this way as part of the Ojai Festival in California in –5– May of 1966 conducted by Ingolf Dahl. The work consists of seven contrasting sections, each one of which has its own individual character, and the first and last sections which mirror each other are slow, quiet waltzes. El Salón México (1932, rev. 1936) During a visit to Germany in 1927, Copland wrote to a friend, “It seems a long time since anyone has written an España or a Boléro – the kind of brilliant piece that everyone loves.” It was almost 10 years before he produced El Salón México, but it quickly became one of the most popular and frequently-played short orchestral works by any American composer. It was first performed in a two-piano version in New York in October of 1935, with Copland and John Kirkpatrick at the keyboards.

Then, its orchestral première came in August of 1937 in Mexico City with Carlos Chávez conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de México. The first U.S. performance was part of an NBC radio broadcast in May of 1938 with the famous NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by – of all people – Sir Adrian Boult. The first actual U.S. concert performance was given by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in October of that year. AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO About this brilliantly-scored and dynamic work, Copland wrote: “During my first visit to Mexico in the fall of 1932 I conceived the idea of writing a piece based on Mexican themes... From the very beginning, the idea of writing a work based on popular Mexican melodies was connected in my mind with a popular dance hall in Mexico City called Salón México...

All that I could hope to do was to reflect the Mexico of the tourists, and that is why I thought of Salón México, because in that ‘hot spot’ one felt, in a very natural and unaffected way, a close contact with the Mexican people... Something of [their] spirit is what I hope to have put into my music.” When Copland first visited the dance hall he was quite taken aback when he was frisked by a guard before entering, but greatly amused by a sign on the wall which read: “Please don’t throw –6– lighted cigarette butts on the floor so the ladies don’t burn their feet.” As he was writing the work he became concerned that as an “outsider” he might not be able to do what he intended: “I felt nervous about what the Mexicans might think of a ‘gringo’ meddling with their native melodies.” These fears were quickly put to rest when, “at the first of the final rehearsals I attended...

as I entered the hall the orchestral players, who were in the middle of a Beethoven symphony, suddenly stopped what they were doing and began to applaud vigorously.” That première performance on August 27, 1937 was a great critical and popular success, one local critic writing that “Copland has composed Mexican music... embodying the very elements of our folk song in the purest and most perfect form.” The work is based on several authentic Mexican folk tunes from two major collections he was given (not from any of the tunes he heard in the dance hall), but “based on” is the operative phrase, as Copland had no qualms about changing and adapting the originals as he saw fit. As he mentioned to Vivian Perlis for her remarkable two-volume biography of the composer, “My purpose was not to quote literally, but to heighten without in any way falsifying the natural simplicity of the Mexican tunes.” AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO Danzón Cubano (1942, rev. 1945) In 1941, when it seemed likely that the U.S.

might become directly involved in the armed conflicts in Europe and Asia, our government embarked on a scheme to strengthen the ties which already existed with our neighbors to the south. As part of this effort, Copland was dispatched as a kind of cultural ambassador on a friendship tour of nine Latin-American countries. In 1937 he had happily visited Cuba on the way home from the première of El Salón Mexico in Mexico City, and the fond memories he had of that country made him eager to return to Havana. While there in 1941, he went to a large dance hall (rather like a Cuban version of Salón Mexico) in which there were two orchestras playing at both ends of the hall. Copland decided to sit right in the middle so he could hear both ensembles at the same time, an arrangement which Charles Ives –7– would have loved! During this visit Copland made quite a number of sketches of popular Cuban dance music. What eventually became the Danzón Cubano resulted from a commission from the League of American Composers for a concert in 1942 marking that organization’s 20th birthday.

The original, two-piano version of the piece was given its première by the composer and Leonard Bernstein in December of that year in New York’s famous Town Hall. Copland came up with several titles for the work before settling on Danzón Cubano for the première of the orchestral version given by Reginald Stewart and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in February of 1946. Just as he had done with El Salón Mexico, Copland wanted to utilize authentic native forms, rather than the commercialized Cuban ballroom dances of the day. Again, to quote Copland from the Vivian Perlis biography, “[the work] is based on Cuban dance rhythms, particularly the Danzón, a stately dance quite different from the rhumba, conga and tango, and one that fulfills a function rather similar to that of the waltz in our own music, providing contrast to some of the more animated dances. The special charm of the Danzón is a certain naïve sophistication. Its mood alternates between passages of rhythmic precision and a kind of non-sentimental sweetness under a nonchalant guise.

Its success depends on being executed with precise rhythmic articulation.” Because of the demands of the orchestral version, Copland asked for a slower tempo than that of the two-piano original, and in so doing brought into sharper focus many of the intricacies and rhythmic complexities which make the work so fascinating. As to the overall concept of the piece, Copland has written, “I did not attempt to reproduce an authentic Cuban sound, but felt free to add my own touches of displaced accents and unexpected silent beats. In fact, I arranged one of the tunes in the traditional ‘blues rhythm,’ giving the final product something of an inter-American flavor.” AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO Charles Greenwell All of the quotations reproduced in these notes are taken from Copland: 1900 Through 1942, Aaron Copland and Vivian Perlis (St. Martin’s/Marek, New York, 1984). Used with permission.

–8– Detroit Symphony Orchestra The internationally acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in December 2012, is known for trailblazing performances, visionary maestros, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and an unwavering commitment to Detroit. Esteemed conductor Leonard Slatkin, called “America’s Music Director” by the Los Angeles Times, became the twelfth Music Director of the DSO during the 2008-09 season and acclaimed conductor, arranger, and trumpeter Jeff Tyzik was appointed Principal Pops Conductor in November 2012. The DSO’s performance schedule includes Classical, Pops, Jazz, Young People’s, Neighborhood concerts, and collaborations with chart-topping musicians from Smokey Robinson to Kid Rock. A commitment to broadcast innovation began in 1922 when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a radio broadcast and continues today with the free Live from Orchestra Hall webcast series. Making its home at historic Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, one of America’s most acoustically perfect concert halls, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact and serve the community through music.

AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO For more information: visit dso.org or download the free DSO to Go mobile app. –9– Leonard Slatkin Internationally renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin is currently Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and of the Orchestre National de Lyon and Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He is also the author of a new book entitled Conducting Business. His previous positions have included a seventeenyear tenure with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, a twelve-year tenure with the National Symphony as well as titled positions with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the New Orleans Philharmonic. Always committed to young people, Leonard Slatkin founded the National Conducting Institute and the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and continues to work with student orchestras around the world.

Born in Los Angeles, where his parents, conductor-violinist Felix Slatkin and cellist Eleanor Aller, were founding members of the Hollywood String Quartet, he began his musical studies on the violin and studied conducting with his father, followed by training with Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at The Juilliard School. His more than 100 recordings have brought seven GRAMMY® Awards and 64 GRAMMY® Award nominations. He has received many other honours, including the 2003 National Medal of Arts, France’s Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton for service to American music. AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO –10– THE 2xHD MASTERING PROCESS This album was mastered using our 2xHD proprietary system. In order to achieve the most accurate reproduction of the original recording we tailor our process specifically for each project, using a selection from our pool of state-of-the-art audiophile components and connectors.

The process begins with a transfer to analog from the original 24bits/96kHz resolution master, using cutting edge D/A converters. The analog signal is then sent through a hi-end tube pre-amplifier before being recorded directly in DXD using the dCS905 A/D and the dCS Vivaldi Clock. All connections used in the process are made of OCC silver cable. DSD and 192kHz/24Bit versions are separately generated, directly from the analog signal. 2xHD was created by producer/studio owner AndrĂŠ Perry and audiophile sound engineer RenĂŠ Laflamme.

Feel the warmth AARON COPLAND: RODEO • DANCE PANELS • EL SALÓN MÉXICO • DANZÓN CUBANO 2xHD Mastering: René Laflamme 2xHD Executive Producer: André Perry Aaron Copland's <i>Rodeo</i> at American Ballet Theatre Aaron Copland's Rodeo at American Ballet Theatre Now Playing: High Quality 16:9 (480x270, 820Kbps) Play Medium Quality 16:9 (320x180, 400kbps) Views: 4353 On October 16, 1942, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo premiered Agnes de Mille's Rodeo at the Metropolitan Opera House. Frederic Franklin was cast as the Champion Roper in the original production opposite Agnes de Mille as the Cowgirl.

This Fall, American Ballet Theatre celebrates the 70th Anniversary of de Mille's famous Western love story with a special anniversary performance of Rodeo on October 16 at New York City Center - 70 years to the day of Rodeo's World Premiere. Here, Frederic Franklin recounts that first performance and discusses a notable turning point in Rodeo's creation. Rodeo will be performed on October 16, 18 and 20 as part of ABT's 2012 Fall Season at New York City Center. Featured Clips BALLET - JOFFREY'S 'RODEO' - NYTimes.com By ANNA KISSELGOFF Published: October 27, 1983 DEBUTS have studded the Joffrey Ballet's current and lively run at the City Center, and one of the happiest was in the season's first performance of Agnes de Mille's ''Rodeo'' Tuesday night. Miss de Mille's 1942 Americana classic remains spankingly fresh in the Joffrey production. The visual impact is unusually striking.

Oliver Smith's backdrop of a ranch corral glows against a red-orange sky that Thomas Skelton's lighting sets seemingly ablaze. Unlike American Ballet Theater's production, the Joffrey version uses the original Kermit Love costume designs, and they make a difference in brightness and contrast. Still supervised by Miss de Mille, the Joffrey ''Rodeo'' has demonstrated the ballet's enduring worth. Rather than resembling a period piece from a more innocent time, it charms and reaches into emotions that have no period. The beauty of Aaron Copland's famous score, conducted spiritedly by Jonathan McPhee, is responsible in part for this timelessness. But perhaps it is also that the Joffrey casts have consistently located the truth of Miss de Mille's every gesture. On this occasion it was Carole Valleskey who made a triumphant debut as the cowgirl who learns how to get a man. No one should miss her performance. When she first comes tumbling out on her imaginary bucking bronco, an object of consternation to the cowboys and of giggling derision to some visiting lady folk, her outcast situation is defined. She etches every movement in extraordinary detail with dramatic pulse.

We see her every muscle react to the invisible horse. She makes us believe she is out of control - a metaphor for the emotions she cannot control as well. Miss Valleskey, pretty and childlike, and the entire cast turn ''Rodeo'' into the happy ballet it should be. Luis Perez is charming as the Champion Roper who wins her, and Jerel Hilding is stalwart as the Head Wrangler. Charlene Gehm minces correctly as the Ranch Owner's daughter. Kim Sagami and Carl Corry make a comic courting vignette believable. Miss de Mille's use of a real square dance, a ''running set,'' went over like wildfire with the audience. Is there still room for a ballet like ''Rodeo?'' The answer is obvious. There were also debuts in the three major roles of Michel Fokine's ''Petrouchka.'' Cameron Basden's Ballerina Doll was superb in an unusual daintiness mixed with superciliousness. Philip Jerry's blackamoor was rightly dominating, turning the pas de deux with the doll into the parody of classical ballet that Fokine intended.

Glenn Edgerton's Petrouchka was a welcome surprise, if still at arm's length from tragedy. His forte was to capture the helplessness and rag-doll softness of the puppet character. The scene in his room was perfect, addressed to the audience, clear in gestures that explained the puppet's plight. Jiri Kylian's ''Return to the Strange Land'' received its first performance this season with Mr. Perez and Leslie Carothers making debuts, joined by Beatriz Rodriguez, Mr. Edgerton, Tom Mossbrucker and Mr. Hilding. As well as the Joffrey dances it on pure dance terms, this elegiac tribute to the late John Cranko was meant to be more than an enigmatic series of shapes formed by the dancers' bodies. It should not recall an essay on architecture. Other debuts to mention are James Canfield's filled-out portrayal as the painter in Antony Tudor's ''Offenbach in the Underworld'' Friday and Mr. Corry's polished solo in the Kylian ''Dream Dances'' Sunday afternoon. On that program, Mr.

Jerry was notable for his electric personification of Death in Kurt Jooss's ''Green Table.'' This 1932 antiwar ballet never loses its power, and Mr. Jerry's brilliance is to make the allegorical figure of Death all the more dangerous by imbuing it with youthful crackling energy. Miss Rodriguez's resistance fighter is outstanding for the same kinetic reasons. No one should miss ''The Green Table.'' photo of Luis Perez Milestones of the Millennium: Appalachian Spring "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copland with Robert Kapilow and John Adams Aaron Copland�s "Appalachian Spring� captures the essence of an ideal America, one of open fields and endless possibilities. But when Copland began his Pulitzer Prize-winning ballet score in 1942, he couldn�t have foreseen that it would become one of the most inspiring and symbolic works of the century. In fact, he wasn�t even sure what the title would be. On this edition of Milestones of the Millennium, we examine the story behind this American masterpiece and hear commentator and composer Robert Kapilow dissect its deceptively simple harmonies.

In an interview with NPR music commentator Fred Calland, Copland said, �The fate of pieces is really rather curious�you can�t always figure out in advance exactly what�s going to happen to them.� While Copland was aware that the ballet would deal with pioneering American themes, his working title was simply, �Ballet for Martha.� Dancer Martha Graham had been commissioned to choreograph the ballet and danced the leading role. Copland readily admitted that the pastoral beauty of Appalachia wasn�t on his mind when he wrote the score: �I gave voice to that region without knowing I was giving voice to it.� Graham chose the title after Copland had written much of the score, though he said that her dance style must have evoked Appalachia. The music and dance were perfect complements; together they reflect youthful aspiration in the American heartland. Copland was no stranger to Americana and adventure. His 1942 score for the ballet �Rodeo� captivated audiences and critics alike with vivid images of life in the American west. We hear �Saturday Night Waltz� and the rambunctious �Hoedown� from �Rodeo,� with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Composer Robert Kapilow deconstructs �Appalachian Spring� at the piano in NPR's studio. He says you can hear the essence of the whole ballet in the opening chords. By improvising on simple tonal elements from these chords, Copland creates repeating patterns which Kapilow describes as being �centered in the earth.� Then after adding slight chord variations, Copland introduces a simple melody, descending like sunlight upon a pastoral scene. The effect is like a flowering at dawn, as Copland creates the perfect setting for the ballet�s primary characters, two young newlyweds on the western Pennsylvania frontier. An emotional highpoint of the score is a melody based on a traditional Shaker song, �Simple Gifts.� We hear a chorus sing the original hymn that provided Copland his inspiration, then listen to Copland�s beautiful solo vocal and instrumental adaptations. Throughout the work, Copland brilliantly weaves melodies that evoke simplicity and the �earnest but good-natured piety� of Shaker culture. Composer John Adams discusses the Shaker influence on American culture and how Copland allowed that to shape the piece.

Music critics were in awe of Copland�s ability to capture a vast emotional world within the limits of the 13-piece orchestration prescribed by the original score (which, in turn, was dictated by the size of the Coolidge Auditorium orchestra pit at the Library of Congress, site of the ballet's premiere). With some strings, a few woodwinds and piano he achieves remarkable effects. In letters to friends, the prolific 40-year-old composer expressed great satisfaction with the �sonorities� of his score. As Kapilow demonstrates, Copland concludes the entire work with an ingenious return to the primal chords with which he starts. Prophetically, Copland's completion of �Appalachian Spring� was itself a new beginning. Listen as PT host Lisa Simeone explores Copland's "Appalachian Spring" with commentary by Robert Kapilow and John Adams, and interviews with the composer himself. It's another online feature from Milestones of the Millenium . (This audio segment requires the free RealPlayer 5.0 or higher. Portions of the music have been edited from this online version. You can also listen with a 14.4 connection)

Question: In what year was the first performance of Copland's ballet Rodeo?
Answer: 1942