Copland’s National Work: Appalachian Spring
Copland’s national work: Appalachian Spring
In the early 20th century, American artists sought the utility between music and society. Composers faced the dilemma of being a musician in a culture with little serious music tradition. Aaron Copland once wrote: “ (I) lived in an environment (New York City) that had little or no connection with serious music. Artists had deep desires to contribute meaningfully to the life of the nation and to see music filling a real need in American society. As a leading composer who sought the integration of music and life, Aaron Copland expressed his belief in Appalachian Spring that music should appeal to a broader public without losing high musical standards. To achieve this, Copland created the American modern style by combining Neo-classical elements such as motivic unity and variation technique into folk melody and style.
When he was young, Copland started to search for personal expression in music that can be related to its own culture and people. Living in the time of the mass music distribution media, such as Phonograph, radio, tape recording and television, Copland raised his dissatisfaction with composers’ efforts (including himself) to meet the needs of new public. In an autobiographical essay he wrote: “ composers were in danger of working in a vacuum. Moreover, an entirely new public for music had grown up around the radio and phonograph. It made no sense…to continue writing as if they did not exist.” Therefore, Copland started to compose music in Gebrauchsmusik (music for use), an aesthetic movement of modern European development. Music was written for varied purposes and performed in both amateur and professional stages, such as high school bands, radio, films/theater commission music, and ballets.
Among different Gebrauchsmusik music, Appalachian Spring is the greatest piece to reflect the modern American style that Copland achieved. In 1942, Copland received a commission from Elizabeth Sprague to write ballet
In the early 20th century, American artists sought the utility between music and society. Composers faced the dilemma of being a musician in a culture with little serious music tradition. Aaron Copland once wrote: “ (I) lived in an environment (New York City) that had little or no connection with serious music. Artists had deep desires to contribute meaningfully to the life of the nation and to see music filling a real need in American society. As a leading composer who sought the integration of music and life, Aaron Copland expressed his belief in Appalachian Spring that music should appeal to a broader public without losing high musical standards. To achieve this, Copland created the American modern style by combining Neo-classical elements such as motivic unity and variation technique into folk melody and style.
When he was young, Copland started to search for personal expression in music that can be related to its own culture and people. Living in the time of the mass music distribution media, such as Phonograph, radio, tape recording and television, Copland raised his dissatisfaction with composers’ efforts (including himself) to meet the needs of new public. In an autobiographical essay he wrote: “ composers were in danger of working in a vacuum. Moreover, an entirely new public for music had grown up around the radio and phonograph. It made no sense…to continue writing as if they did not exist.” Therefore, Copland started to compose music in Gebrauchsmusik (music for use), an aesthetic movement of modern European development. Music was written for varied purposes and performed in both amateur and professional stages, such as high school bands, radio, films/theater commission music, and ballets.
Among different Gebrauchsmusik music, Appalachian Spring is the greatest piece to reflect the modern American style that Copland achieved. In 1942, Copland received a commission from Elizabeth Sprague to write ballet
Bibliography: Butterworth, Neil. The music of Aaron Copland. England: Toccata Press, 1985. Copland, Aaron. Music and the Imagination. Massachuset: Harvard University Press, 1952. Copland, Aaron. "Appalachian Spring," in Norton Anthology of Western Music Vol. III edition 6, edited by Burkholder, Peter and Palisca, Claude V, 433-472. New York: W.W. Norton& Company Ltd., 2010. Pollack, Howard. Aaron Copland: The life and Work of an Uncommon Man. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999. Smith, Julia. Aaron Copland: His Work and Contribution of American Music New York: E.P.Dutton Company, 1955. [ 2 ]. Julia Smith, Aaron Copland: His Work and Contribution of American Music, (New York: E.P. Dutton Company, 1955), 165. [ 4 ]. Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1990), 400. [ 6 ]. Aaron Copland, “Appalachian Spring”, in Norton Anthology of Western Music Vol. III edition 6, ed. J. Peter Burkholder, Claude V. Palisca (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd.2010), 471. [ 7 ]. Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1990), 389.