The Classical Music Book

287

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Le Sacre du

printemps 246–251 ■ Les Biches 262 ■ Romeo and Juliet 272

MODERN 1900 –1950

to say what he had to say “in the

simplest possible terms.” What

Graham had requested was

perfectly captured in his skeletal

musical language that created a

rich sense of space hitherto

unknown in American music.

Emotional inspiration

Copland found his theme for the

work in the first line of a Shaker

hymn: “Tis the gift to be simple.”

The Shakers were an American

Protestant sect known for their

plain way of living. The clarity of

texture suffuses the ballet, its

warmth flooding the entire score,

from the opening sense of dawn

breaking over a Shaker farmstead.

The music perfectly captures the

tenderness of young love, the gaiety

and buoyant dances of the ensuing

wedding, and the most magical

moment of all—the ending of the

ballet, when the newlyweds, alone

for the first time, realize the sheer

immensity of what they have

done. They are pioneers, about to

start their life together in a new

country. Although they are safe

in their home, they must tame and

cultivate the unconquered land

stretching out before them.

These mixed feelings of

comfort, awe, fear, optimism,

vulnerability, and courage were

transformed by Copland into pure,

deeply moving music. ■

Aaron Copland

The son of Russian immigrant

parents, Copland was born in

Brooklyn, New York, in 1900.

Studying in Paris with the

composer Nadia Boulanger,

he came under the influence

of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and

Poulenc. In collaboration

with Roger Sessions, he

ran the Copland-Sessions

concert series (1928–1931) to

encourage young American

composers. His own music

brought him worldwide fame

in the 1940s, although his later

serialist works were less

well received.

Copland taught at the

new Berkshire Music Center

in Massachusetts from 1940,

and in 1951 he became the

first American composer to

be appointed as Harvard’s

Norton Professor of Poetry

(poetry in its broadest sense).

Around this time, he was

falsely accused of communist

activities. In 1960, he moved

to Rock Hill, New York, where

he lived until his death in 1990.

Other key works

1930 Piano Variations

1942 Fanfare for the

Common Man

1967 Inscape

Martha Graham performs as the

young bride in Appalachian Spring at

a New York theatre. The music, which

Copland also reshaped as an orchestral

suite, won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1945.

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