0:00

I'm John Banther, and this is Classical

0:02

Breakdown. From

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WETA Classical in Washington,

0:07

we are your guide to classical music. In this

0:09

episode, I'm joined by WETA Classical's

0:12

Evan Keely, and we are diving into the

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life and music of one of the most iconic

0:16

American composers, Aaron Copland.

0:19

We look at his early life and experiences,

0:21

how the Great Depression affected his outlook,

0:24

his rise to fame, and his intentional pursuit

0:26

of an American sound. We also

0:28

look at why he was questioned for hours in a

0:30

Senate subcommittee hearing in 1953,

0:33

and which American composers we can look towards

0:35

today. " The

0:40

artist should feel himself buoyed up by his

0:42

community. In other words, art and the

0:44

life of art must mean something in the

0:46

deepest sense to the everyday citizen.

0:48

When that happens, America will have achieved

0:51

a maturity to which every sincere

0:53

artist will have contributed." That

0:55

is a quote from Aaron Copland, and a quote and

0:57

a sentiment that I fully agree with, and

0:59

one that we've unfortunately still not yet achieved,

1:02

in part, because, as we know of our own failures

1:04

over the last century, but I do see optimism

1:07

on this front with a living composer

1:09

that we'll mention towards the end. Now

1:12

Evan, I can't think of another composer who

1:14

has really helped define the American

1:17

sound with all the populist works

1:19

he wrote with the American stories, legends,

1:21

and folk tales.

1:22

Aaron Copland is a composer,

1:24

who is throughout his life really thinking

1:27

about the role of music

1:29

in public life, music as an expression

1:31

of a national

1:33

culture, a communal culture.

1:36

And we have things like Billy the Kid, Rodeo,

1:39

Appalachian Spring, Tender Land, and

1:41

so on. These American stories are

1:43

brought in, plenty are left out, as we

1:45

know, but he's not just writing music

1:47

about pretty mountains. Now before

1:49

we jump into it, I think many

1:51

might not know that there is another side to Copland,

1:54

that they may have not heard before. Did you know these works

1:56

were written by Copland?

2:20

( instrumental music)

2:26

And Evan, these aren't even isolated to a

2:28

couple of years like, " Oh, maybe he was in this place,

2:30

and he did this for a little bit." No. These were over

2:32

50 years apart.

2:33

There's a lot of pieces by Copland that

2:35

get a lot of attention, as well they

2:37

should. You mentioned Appalachian Spring,

2:40

and Billy the Kid, and so forth. They are fantastic

2:43

masterpieces.Copland was actually a very versatile

2:45

composer who spoke in a

2:47

variety of voices, and as

2:49

we look into his music, we really

2:51

discover the breadth of his expression.

2:54

Let's go right to his birth. He was born

2:57

in Brooklyn, New York, November 14th,

2:59

1900. The youngest

3:01

of five. His mother Sarah taught

3:03

the children to play piano, and it seems

3:05

that young Aaron might have gotten his first

3:08

lessons from his sister, Laurine,

3:10

who is someone who also supported his career. Also

3:12

reminds me of Mozart a little bit, taking lessons with

3:15

his sister. And then when he's

3:17

16 years old, Evan, he gets

3:19

to study with a well- known

3:21

composition teacher at the time, Rubin Goldmark,

3:24

who also taught Gershwin a little,

3:26

and this was an important moment for

3:28

Copland as he also wrote, " This

3:30

was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared

3:33

the floundering that so many musicians

3:35

have suffered through incompetent teaching."

3:38

And that's something we face. Right? When

3:40

you're in your late teens, early twenties, and you're studying

3:42

with other teachers, you have to start undoing

3:44

some of those bad habits.

3:45

He really was exposed to just the right

3:48

influences at just the right time early

3:50

on.

3:50

And he was also

3:52

staying in New York studying with this teacher. So,

3:55

he was exposed to a bunch of music.

3:57

I think the New York Symphony, as it was

3:59

called at the time, Chicago, Philadelphia

4:01

orchestras, Prokofiev, he

4:03

even saw him. I can't even imagine

4:06

that.

4:06

This is New York City shortly after

4:08

World War I, a pretty exciting time

4:10

in American music and life.

4:12

And it makes me wonder a little bit now as

4:14

we enter ... Or we're really in the mid- twenties

4:17

now, what that means 100 years

4:19

later. Maybe nothing, maybe something, but I

4:21

find myself thinking about that as we get

4:23

into these '20s. He continued

4:26

studying with Goldmark until he was 21

4:28

years old, and that's when he wrote

4:30

his piano sonata, and it's one

4:32

that we heard a little bit of before. It's his Piano

4:35

Sonata in G Major, and, Evan, this

4:37

is something I wish we had a little bit more from

4:40

Copland, maybe it's a little surface

4:42

level, but you can really ... I don't

4:44

know. There is something here. You can tell.

4:47

There is something there, and I

4:49

think what it is, it doesn't

4:51

sound like Copland. You listen to this music.

4:53

You might think, " This is very nice." You would

4:56

never guess who the composer is, and

4:58

it shows at the age of in his early

5:00

twenties, he's already got a technical mastery.

5:03

It's not a particularly original piece. He's

5:05

borrowing this late Romantic style.

5:08

But he shows that he really has the technical

5:10

aspects of crafting a musical

5:12

composition down very solidly for such

5:15

a young man.

5:16

And that's something that we recognize

5:18

in musicians too, there will be ...

5:21

Sometimes you have a teacher, and they will accept

5:23

a student into a conservatory, and some

5:25

might say, " Well, wait, they're not playing at

5:27

that exact same level," but then the teacher

5:29

might say, " You do not see what the rest

5:31

of us see," and then we

5:33

all know how that stuff plays out. It's

5:36

also a reason that maybe Nadia Boulanger

5:38

said, " One could tell his talent

5:40

immediately." And we know he studied

5:42

with Nadia Boulanger. In fact, he just meant to go for

5:45

a year. Right, Evan? And then he

5:47

switched from one teacher to Boulanger,

5:50

maybe he was a little hesitant

5:52

from what I read, but this was

5:54

a big change for him, staying not just

5:57

one year, but now three, and studying

5:59

with Boulanger. And this was a critical point

6:01

for him.

6:01

And many years later in 1950,

6:04

he's in his last forties, early fifties,

6:06

he writes to her, and he says, "

6:09

It's almost 30 years, hard to believe,

6:11

since we met, and I shall

6:13

count our meeting the most important of

6:15

my musical life. What you did

6:17

for me at exactly the period

6:19

I most needed it is unforgettable.

6:22

Whatever I have accomplished is intimately

6:24

associated in my mind with those early

6:27

years, and with what you have since

6:29

been as inspiration and example.

6:31

All my gratitude and thanks go to you,

6:34

dear Nadia." Now John, you and I had

6:36

a conversation in an earlier episode

6:38

of Classical Breakdown about the extraordinary

6:41

Nadia Boulanger, and the immense influence

6:44

that she had on 20th Century music,

6:46

especially as a composition teacher, and,

6:49

wow, we sure see that in

6:51

the music of Aaron Copland.

6:53

And speaking of, " Oh, you wouldn't guess this was Copland,"

6:55

he writes another work, a

6:57

Passacaglia when he was studying with

6:59

Boulanger, and I think she had all of her students I think

7:02

maybe write a Passacaglia, but you hear an immediate

7:04

jump I think in the depth of what he's

7:07

writing. Not so surface level of that piano

7:09

sonata. Now he's really thinking

7:11

about every decision I think because

7:13

Nadia Boulanger was making you think about every

7:15

decision that you made in your music.

7:17

(instrumental music)

7:24

After three years in Paris, he comes back to New

7:26

York. It's 1924, and

7:29

he's 24 years old, but he has

7:31

a little bit of a rough go at it. He has

7:33

a hard time making money playing in a dance

7:35

band. He moves back

7:37

in with his sister. But then he's playing

7:39

the piano trying to compose, and the neighbors are complaining, "

7:42

This is annoying. Don't do this." He gets

7:44

his own little private studio, fails

7:47

to get any students at first, but, thankfully,

7:50

he made some connections at the right time,

7:52

got his music in front of some people, and

7:54

he got some support through a patron, and

7:56

then the Guggenheim Foundation. And that allowed him to

7:58

survive for the next three years.

8:02

Another work he wrote at this time, and one

8:04

that's probably still unfamiliar, but a little

8:06

more familiar than maybe that Passacaglia

8:08

is that Symphony For Organ

8:10

and Orchestra, and we heard a little bit of it earlier.

8:12

It sounds like audiences, Evan, didn't quite know

8:15

what to make of this at

8:17

the premiere.

8:18

And he later reorchestrated

8:20

it without the organ, and replaced

8:23

that with brass, calling it a Symphony No. 1.

8:24

(instrumental music)

8:31

One thing I read that was, well,

8:33

just interesting in that we see his

8:36

life as it's moving forward, it's a little bit slow.

8:38

He writes slow. I

8:41

read that it could take him a year to finish a

8:43

composition, especially, something like

8:46

that symphony, and then the pain of it maybe

8:48

not premiering as you want, and then having to

8:50

rewrite it. It's a lot of work for

8:53

a time in which he's not necessarily thriving.

8:57

But starting in the '30s, that's

8:59

when we start to see some examples

9:02

of his populist style, works

9:04

like El Salón México, and

9:06

especially Billy the Kid. I

9:08

think that's one that really set

9:10

the tone for how we approach

9:12

American music, or how the west was depicted.

9:15

And then in the '40s, Evan, everything that we come

9:17

to know that we mentioned-

9:18

Quiet City, Lincoln Portrait is

9:20

from that period, the Rodeo, Appalachian

9:23

Spring, and I think Billy the Kid

9:25

is really a moment where he's

9:27

solidifying that, what we think of as the

9:29

Copland voice, that American sound.

9:31

( instrumental

9:45

music)

9:48

So, our big question right now is, well,

9:51

how did Copland write for the American

9:53

audience? Why was

9:55

this important, creating an American sound,

9:57

and was it intentional

9:59

on Copland's part? Part of this is

10:01

the environment that Copland is living

10:04

and observing in the late 1920s

10:06

into the '30s. A lot of us have grandparents

10:08

who lived through the Depression, and the stories

10:10

that they'd tell us of

10:13

just surviving this, and Copland was

10:15

greatly affected when he saw the working

10:17

class surviving, or not surviving during

10:19

the Depression. And he felt that artists have

10:22

a responsibility to the masses.

10:24

And this is a period of time in music,

10:26

in general, you think of earlier generations,

10:29

a composer like Béla Bartók, or

10:32

Ralph Vaughan Williams, and their respective

10:34

settings. They're really taking an interest

10:36

in folk music, and incorporating

10:38

that into this, what we think of as classical

10:48

music.

10:49

(Foreign language) .

10:49

This is also around the time the Library of Congress

10:51

is making these folk music recordings

10:54

in the United States, so there's this recognition

10:56

of there's a musical voice of the

10:58

people, and Copland is really

11:00

interested in this trend, and he's incorporating

11:03

it into his compositions.

11:05

That's important to remember, a good point, that this was

11:08

a wider thing too in the early 20th

11:10

Century, this reaching back into

11:12

folk music. We find

11:14

these simple folk- inspired

11:17

melodies in his music, open intervals that you

11:19

find on the guitar, or the banjo.

11:21

There's less emphasis on

11:23

melodic development, and

11:26

this was something that Copland was seeking out

11:28

to create intentionally. We have two examples we can

11:30

listen to real quick, Evan, that show

11:32

this I think. Here is

11:35

a little bit of a folk song, a cowboy song I think

11:37

called Great Granddad, and then

11:39

a moment that follows in Billy the Kid.

11:42

21 boys and not one lad. Never

11:44

got fresh with Great Granddad. For if

11:46

they had, it would have been right bad. (inaudible) to the hickory jab. (instrumental music)

12:00

Now even for us today, Evan, I don't have

12:02

any real identity, or understanding

12:04

of the Great Granddad tune, but you understand

12:07

those sentiments and intervals,

12:09

and it's right there in Copland's music.

12:12

And it sounds American.

12:13

Yeah.

12:14

Even if you and I didn't grow up with this music

12:16

in the same way that earlier generations of Americans

12:18

did, we hear this sound, and it resonates

12:21

with us as Americans I think.

12:23

Here's another example. This is McLeod's

12:26

Reel, and then a

12:28

moment from Hoe Down in Rodeo.

12:29

( instrumental music)

12:44

A couple things here, Evan. Again, we hear that

12:46

clearly, and also

12:48

that is a tune I think a lot of people might

12:50

recognize if you were alive in the '90s.

12:53

Beef, it's what's for dinner.

12:57

One, do you have to advertise to the

12:59

United States beef?

13:00

Yeah.

13:01

If your music is used to sell an entire

13:04

country that already eats all the beef, selling

13:06

them on beef, I don't know how more American

13:09

you get.

13:10

I quite agree, John. And it's also interesting

13:12

to notice the ways in which Copland, if

13:14

he does incorporate an actual folk

13:17

melody, he doesn't necessarily quote

13:19

it note for note.

13:20

Yeah.

13:20

There's almost

13:22

an homage rather than, " Okay.

13:24

I'm now going to quote this folk tune pitch

13:27

for pitch and rhythm for rhythm."

13:29

And I think that's why his music has

13:31

endured more, because it's capturing

13:33

all those characteristics, and

13:36

elements of those folk tunes, but

13:39

bringing it into something more that will last

13:41

longer, because, again, we don't have that same

13:43

identity with these folk tunes. But

13:45

we do with this music of Copland.

13:47

And this is coming out of a lot of these avant-

13:49

garde things that are happening. This is the '20s, the

13:51

'30s, the '40s, you think about

13:54

the Second Viennese School among

13:57

German- speaking composers, and so forth.

13:59

Copland's not quite in that vein, but

14:01

he's not without some influence.

14:04

That has some influence on him as well,

14:07

but as you were saying, John, there's really no mistaking

14:09

this for European music, and you're talking

14:11

too about Copland composing slowly,

14:14

and the way he crafts these

14:16

different sections together. He

14:18

once remarked, " I don't compose. I assemble

14:21

materials." Maybe that's

14:23

a little false modesty, but as

14:25

you listen to his music, you really get a sense that

14:27

that is his working style.

14:28

(instrumental music)

14:28

A lot of

14:36

transitions don't feel necessarily fully

14:38

prepared, but are often quite abrupt,

14:41

and that makes me think of, yeah, he's assembling these

14:43

things together. Another

14:49

point, and I know someone's eye twitched

14:51

when I said rodeo instead

14:53

of rodeo, you hear rodeo everywhere,

14:56

but I'm sorry. It's Copland-

14:58

Yeah.

14:58

... we have rodeos not too far

15:01

from where I live.

15:02

Yeah.

15:02

I wouldn't call it a, " Let's go to the rodeo."

15:04

Yeah.

15:04

( instrumental music)

15:12

There's a great biography on Aaron Copland

15:15

by Howard Pollack, and I

15:17

think he describes really what

15:19

Copland's doing quite succinctly.

15:21

I'll read from his book, " In discussing

15:24

what made Copland's music recognizably

15:26

American, critics typically mentioned

15:28

the allusions to and quotations of

15:30

American popular folk musics, the

15:32

jazzy polyrhythms, and irregular meters,

15:35

the vigor and angularity of some melodies,

15:38

the lean and bare textures, and

15:40

the favorite extremes of closely- knit

15:42

harmonies and widely spaced

15:44

sonorities, and the distinctively

15:46

brittle piano writing, and brassy percussive

15:49

orchestrations. Two things that stick

15:51

out there for me, Evan, are the

15:54

vigor and angularity of some

15:56

melodies. I think that's an important part of

15:58

this American difference

16:01

in the music, and you hear it in Copland, and then those

16:03

widely spaced sonorities.

16:04

( instrumental music)

16:10

One of the most famous pieces by Copland, and

16:12

we'll talk a little bit more about this is

16:14

the Fanfare For The Common Man, which has

16:16

these weird dah, dah, dah,

16:19

these fourths that it's not a melodic

16:22

line that you hear in Mozart,

16:24

or Haydn where the music is so triadic, and it's the

16:27

core of western music. Copland's

16:29

not completely divorced from that tradition,

16:31

but he's perfectly going to write these melodies

16:34

that defy the norms, and yet

16:36

they sound right, and they

16:38

sound American somehow.

16:40

And going back to Billy the Kid we see

16:42

these two things, specifically,

16:44

the Open Prairie is the first number and the ballet.

16:47

And there is this very strong,

16:49

song- like melody that is introduced,

16:52

and, although, it's song- like, it's also very

16:54

angular, and then those widely spaced

16:56

sonorities, they feel like those blocks

16:58

just shifting underneath. Also,

17:00

heavy downbeats, a marching forward

17:03

I hear in his music.

17:03

And the very first thing we hear in Billy

17:05

the Kid is these parallel fifths.

17:08

You have these woodwinds playing this little

17:10

duet, this very angular melody,

17:12

and they're playing in parallels fifths, which in

17:15

European music, that's, like, the great

17:17

no- no.

17:19

Yeah.

17:20

After the Middle Ages. Just completely

17:22

getting rid of this whole sound, and

17:24

he just jumps right back into it, and it

17:27

sounds right. It doesn't sound like, "

17:29

Oh, this is wrong. My theory teacher will

17:31

give me a bad grade on this exercise."

17:34

So, there's, again, that sense of defying

17:38

old norms, and creating something

17:40

new that sounds

17:43

whole, it sounds natural,

17:45

it doesn't sound forced, it doesn't sound contrived,

17:48

and it gives it that natural sound.

17:51

We were talking about Howard

17:53

Pollack and he remarks

17:55

about Copland's music, " If there's a school of

17:57

American composers, optimism is

18:00

certainly its keynote." Now I'm not

18:02

100% sure I agree with that, in general,

18:04

about American composers, but, certainly,

18:06

in Copland's music, there's that strain

18:08

of optimism we were talking about, Fanfare

18:11

For The Common Man and Billy the Kid,

18:13

and so forth. You definitely hear this sense of

18:15

possibility, this openness, this

18:18

sense of a world to be explored

18:20

and embraced, and this

18:22

naturalness and wholeness that

18:24

really comes out in this music.

18:26

Also in Billy the Kid, Street and A Frontier

18:29

Town also demonstrates his music is,

18:31

one, it has a drive. Sometimes it's a slow

18:34

burn, or headed towards one direction, and

18:36

it's often singular, and it's focused,

18:38

a single idea that's being worked through

18:40

rather than several ideas at once, like

18:42

in that symphony we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

18:44

The Pejačević. Yeah.

18:47

Also, we can't forget about film

18:49

scores with Aaron Copland.

18:51

Absolutely.

18:51

Of Mice and Men, Red Pony,

18:54

Our Town, and some of these have been made into suites

18:56

that are still played on

18:58

the concert stage.

18:59

Absolutely.

18:59

( instrumental music)

19:01

One thing that he did that I

19:03

understand was a bit different at this time was

19:05

Copland when he was writing for film scores, he often

19:07

used silence for

19:09

intense, or very intimate moments.

19:12

I think he said he wanted to let the music acknowledge

19:14

rather than dictate the emotion

19:16

onscreen.

19:17

And you and I talked about Korngold

19:20

a couple of episodes ago, who was a very

19:23

successful film composer, and

19:25

I think he had a very different approach, which was

19:27

to create this emotional palette. He wrote great

19:30

music for films. Absolutely, Korngold was

19:32

a wonderful composer. And I think Copland

19:34

has this very different approach, which

19:37

it reflects his sense of,

19:40

again, these use of silences, this use of openness,

19:43

these techniques, like, we were talking about parallel

19:46

fifths, and so forth that are part

19:48

of maybe a more restrained approach,

19:51

but it's, certainly, that distinctive

19:53

Copland voice comes through.

19:55

And here is something that Copland also does so

19:58

well I think, and that is writing

20:00

for voice and piano. His songs,

20:02

I think it took a while for American composers

20:05

to really learn how to, or just whatever,

20:08

figure out how to write art song in English,

20:10

but Copland I think really did a

20:12

great job.

20:13

(Foreign language) .

20:21

Yeah. Charles Ives I think laid the groundwork

20:24

for a lot of that in terms of American

20:26

song. Copland didn't write a huge

20:28

body of this

20:31

genre of music. 12 Poems

20:33

of Emily Dickinson is the work

20:35

that's I think best remembered in terms

20:37

of Copland's songs. He completed it in 1950.

20:41

And each of the 12 songs is dedicated

20:43

to another composer. Some of the dedicatees

20:45

include Elliott Carter, David

20:48

Diamond, Irving Fine, Lukas Foss,

20:50

Alberto Ginastera, these are some of the composers

20:53

he pays tribute to. And then later on

20:55

he orchestrated eight of those 12

20:57

songs, and he completed that orchestral

20:59

version in 1970. The

21:01

12 Poems of Emily Dickinson is

21:04

Copland's longest work for the solo voice,

21:06

and it's typical of his vocal writing. It's

21:09

very syllabic. You don't have these long

21:11

runs with the voice. It's almost like this

21:14

declamatory manner of setting

21:16

texts very much following natural

21:18

rhythms of spoken American English.

21:21

And Copland even said about this, " The poems

21:23

themselves gave me direction. One

21:26

that I hoped would be appropriate to Miss

21:28

Dickinson's lyrical expressive language."

21:30

He was really involved in this too.

21:32

He really immersed himself in this project.

21:35

He read biographies about

21:37

Emily Dickinson. Of course, he read a lot of her

21:39

poetry. She was very prolific. He even

21:41

went to her house in Amherst, Massachusetts.

21:44

He's trying to get into her spirit,

21:46

and seeking insight into her genius.

21:49

And we should also recognize that in

21:51

1950 when he completed this, the

21:53

editions of Dickinson's poetry that

21:55

were available to the public were heavily

21:57

edited, and then years

22:00

after that, people went back to her original

22:02

texts-

22:02

That's right.

22:02

... with words had been

22:04

changed in these earlier editions. They

22:06

took out her ... She had this very idiosyncratic

22:09

use of punctuation, especially

22:11

dashes, and this is not what Copland is

22:13

working with. So, if you know Emily Dickinson's poetry,

22:15

and you listen to this Copland

22:17

song cycle, you may feel a little cheated.

22:20

But that's what he had to work with. That's what everybody

22:22

had to work with at that point. And,

22:24

unfortunately, initially, this

22:27

song cycle was not well- received. Critics

22:29

panned it. So much so, he

22:31

wrote a letter to his good friend Leonard Bernstein

22:34

that, " Reviews were so bad, that

22:37

I decided I must have written a better cycle

22:39

than I had realized."

22:41

I love that.

22:42

But, of course, we now recognize this as some

22:44

of the finest compositions in the

22:46

American song literature, and

22:48

there are core components of the art song repertoire,

22:51

especially in America, especially in English

22:53

language singing. Again,

22:55

the influence of Charles Ives is hard to miss.

22:58

He wrote a lot of songs, but they

23:00

have a decidedly Copland- esque sound,

23:03

and I really hear them, as among other thins,

23:05

this American composer paying tribute

23:08

in a very reverent way to a great American

23:10

poet.

23:11

Aaron Copland really showed that you can write beautiful

23:14

art song in English, and I'm going to have to

23:16

go back now and listen to some more Charles Ives, because

23:18

I can't remember the last time I heard an Ives song,

23:20

but in just the few songs that Copland

23:23

wrote, he really cemented something. He

23:25

also has an opera in

23:27

English called The Tender Land, which he wrote in

23:29

1952. It was inspired

23:32

by pictures taken by Walter Evans that appeared

23:35

in the book Let Us Praise Now Famous

23:37

Men by James Agee, which profiled

23:39

American sharecroppers in the Great

23:42

Depression, which Copland was empathetic

23:44

towards. This seems important, Evan, this

23:47

tragic, horrible time in history, and it's

23:49

just 20 years later, and Copland is

23:51

going back, and writing music

23:53

for it. That's, like, if we went back 20 years now writing something

23:56

about 9/

23:58

11 victims, or 9/ 11 first responders,

24:00

for example.

24:01

Yeah. It was fresh in the national consciousness,

24:04

and this farm opera.

24:06

It's taking this

24:09

farming community, the central

24:11

character is an 18 year old woman who

24:13

has just graduated high school.

24:15

So, it's a coming- of- age story, but it's set in

24:17

this very particular cultural

24:19

context, and the music really reflects that.

24:22

It wasn't a great success initially. It's

24:25

the only full- length opera

24:27

that Copland wrote.

24:28

Yeah.

24:29

But it has endured. It still gets

24:31

performed today. There's a particular number

24:34

at the end of the first act, The Promise of Living,

24:36

and we often hear that in a concert

24:39

setting. It's actually very moving, this

24:41

musical tribute to this idea

24:44

of living in that kind of a setting,

24:46

and the hope and the possibility, and the struggle

24:49

that that represents. It's really

24:51

quite a touching musical number.

24:53

(Foreign language) .

25:01

And we will put a link on the show

25:03

notes page at www. ClassicalBreakdown.

25:05

org for that one. I hope there's a more

25:07

modern commercial recording made

25:11

at some point, because a lot of the

25:13

recordings are very ... It is of

25:15

its time and place in the 1950s. " Oh, gee

25:17

willikers, mister."

25:18

Yeah.

25:18

In some of the delivery.

25:22

It's worth listening to.

25:23

Copland, himself, remarked about this. He said, "

25:25

I wanted simple rhetoric, and a musical

25:28

style to match. The result was closer to

25:30

musical comedy than grand opera. The

25:32

music is very plain with a colloquial flavor.

25:35

I think of The Tender Land as being related to the

25:37

mood of Appalachian Spring, both the

25:39

ballet and the opera take place in rural

25:41

America, both make use of

25:43

folk materials to evoke a particular

25:45

landscape in a real way." So, that's

25:47

Copland's own remarks about The Tender Land,

25:50

and as you listen to it, you really hear that's

25:53

the effect that he's achieved.

25:55

Now this also ties into another aspect

25:57

of Aaron Copland's life in that he didn't

25:59

marry, and he never came out publicly.

26:02

This was also the time of things

26:04

like The Hays Code, but he was out as

26:06

gay to people who were closer to him. He

26:08

had a few long relationships, including

26:11

one with Erik Johns, who wrote the

26:13

libretto for The Tender Land. He also

26:15

traveled publicly with these people.

26:16

Yeah. Erik Johns is a long relationship,

26:19

a complicated relationship. The

26:21

two of them for many years

26:23

had various permutations

26:25

of their togetherness. Erik Johns

26:28

did, as you said, John, write the libretto for

26:30

The Tender Land. He was a dancer and a choreographer.

26:33

So, you have this creative partnership as well,

26:35

and it gives you a sense of the kind of circles

26:38

in which Copland moved. He was drawn

26:40

to very creative people, and

26:42

they to him, and the kinds

26:44

of relationships that he had, which in that era,

26:47

as you said, were not necessarily

26:49

openly talked about. He

26:51

and Leonard Bernstein were very close for many,

26:53

many years, and other

26:55

very famous people, famous

26:57

choreographers and composers, and conductors,

27:00

and musicians that were a part of his

27:02

life. And he had this real

27:04

charisma I think personally that really

27:07

drew people to him, and

27:09

he also ... You get a sense of him as

27:12

someone who is comfortable

27:14

with himself, and you certainly see that in

27:16

the kinds of political situations that

27:18

he found himself in.

27:21

Yes. All of this, it sounds like Copland was

27:23

very open and understanding

27:25

of other people.

27:26

Yes. I think so.

27:28

And we will get into why he was

27:30

questioned in a McCarthy Senate subcommittee hearing

27:32

right after this. Classical

27:38

Breakdown, your guide to classical music,

27:40

is brought to you by WETA Classical.

27:43

Join us for the music any time, day,

27:45

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28:02

Now if you can imagine it, in the 1920s, in the 1930s,

28:06

just having jazz idioms,

28:08

or Black idioms in your music,

28:10

that was enough to be labeled as a communist.

28:13

Sure. There was definitely a racist overtone

28:15

to a lot of the anti- communist

28:18

fervor in the United States in this era.

28:21

And Copland, he was very affected by

28:23

world events, as we know with the Great Depression,

28:26

but also more largely in

28:28

the world, and he was always

28:30

very up- to- date, well- read

28:32

on current events. He obsessively read

28:34

newspapers, he read progressive writers

28:37

like Upton Sinclair, and in times of

28:39

turmoil, he found himself unable to

28:41

focus on composing. Even I think he said to

28:44

Bernstein, " Congrats you can compose during this.

28:46

I can't."

28:46

Yeah. Yeah. He

28:49

never separates himself from the world, and

28:51

as we began the episode, we began

28:53

this conversation, John, we were talking about the ways

28:55

in which he sees art as being

28:57

a part of public life.

28:59

Yeah.

28:59

So, he's immersing himself as

29:01

a citizen of the country, and of the world,

29:04

and he's really connecting that with

29:06

his creative output.

29:08

Now he was never, technically,

29:10

affiliated with a, or the Communist

29:13

Party in the United States, which was also not

29:15

an uncommon position

29:17

for artists to have. But

29:19

in 1934, he wrote a song Into

29:21

The Streets, and he submitted it to a

29:23

contest for the magazine New Masses,

29:26

and then he ended up winning. I almost

29:28

think he thought he wasn't going to win.

29:30

Maybe he was surprised. And it was performed

29:32

at the Second Annual American Workers

29:34

Music Olympiad, and

29:37

this and some other aspects of his life give for

29:39

an easy read between the lines.

29:41

But he also tried to step away from this song

29:43

too, a little bit saying, " Oh, it's the silliest little thing I ever

29:46

did." He didn't even technically publish

29:48

it I guess, or include it in his catalog. Now

29:51

as absurd as it should seem

29:53

now, the federal government took a serious

29:56

interest in people like Aaron

29:58

Copland and Leonard Bernstein, also Charlie

30:00

Chaplin, and even Albert Einstein.

30:02

They took interest in them as being subversive.

30:05

They're lending their name and credibility to organizations

30:08

that are, well, subversive,

30:11

and they were labeled communists. Some people had

30:13

issues getting passports, that was Copland,

30:15

or visas, jail sentences,

30:18

destroyed careers, and just compare

30:20

that to how you think of Copland now.

30:22

Yeah. We think of him as the quintessential patriot,

30:26

and in his own lifetime, not necessarily

30:29

was he viewed that way.

30:31

This is what he said. He

30:34

said, " As I would not be

30:36

a slave, so,

30:38

I would not be a master. This

30:41

expresses my idea

30:43

of democracy. Whatever

30:46

differs from this to the extent

30:49

of a difference is no

30:51

democracy."

30:57

And it all comes to a head in 1953,

30:59

a performance of Lincoln Portrait was

31:01

canceled for the Eisenhower inaugural concert

31:04

when Fred Busby protested on

31:06

the House floor on January

31:08

3rd of 1953. And by May

31:10

25th, 1953, he was

31:13

questioned by Senators McCarthy and

31:16

Cohn for a couple of hours in

31:18

a Senate subcommittee hearing, and it's all just

31:20

because of they were asking

31:22

him about three trips he made, and

31:24

some lectures he made outside of the

31:26

United States. But apparently

31:28

Copland was calm through this whole

31:30

ordeal, and he just could not be pinned

31:32

down. And we actually have some of an exchange

31:35

here. I'll read the parts of the senators

31:37

starting with Cohn who is asking Copland

31:39

a question. Cohn, " Do you feel

31:42

communists should be allowed to teach in our schools?"

31:43

" I haven't given the matter such

31:46

thought as to come up with an answer."

31:48

Cohn, " In other words, as of today,

31:50

you don't have any firm thought?"

31:51

" I would be inclined to allow

31:53

the faculty of the university to decide that."

31:56

McCarthy jumps in, " Let's say you were on the faculty,

31:58

and you are making a designation, would

32:01

you feel communists should be allowed

32:03

to teach?"

32:03

" I couldn't give you a blanket

32:05

decision on that without knowing the case."

32:07

McCarthy again, " Let's say the teacher is

32:09

a communist period. Would you feel that

32:12

is sufficient to bar that teacher from a job

32:14

as a teacher?"

32:15

" I certainly think it would be

32:17

sufficient, if he were using his communist

32:19

membership to angle his teaching to

32:21

further the purposes of the Communist Party."

32:23

So, you hear these responses from Copland. He's

32:26

aware that people's lives are being destroyed

32:29

by some of these inquiries.

32:31

Yeah.

32:31

And, again, I don't think that he was a firmly

32:34

committed communist in any meaningful

32:37

sense. I think he had some sympathy to ... People

32:39

threw around the word communist quite a lot. I'm

32:41

certainly no fan of communism, but

32:44

also no fan of destroying people's lives

32:46

just because they have a political view, which might

32:49

be subversive to some folks who

32:52

are in positions of power. And

32:54

you see Copland really being very careful

32:57

and thoughtful in his answers. As you said,

32:59

John, he's calm, he's not getting

33:01

inflamed. He's aware of the

33:03

danger that he's in, and this could really

33:05

ruin him professionally and personally. But

33:08

he also I think is responding with a clear

33:10

conscience. He doesn't feel like he's subverting

33:13

the ... He's not trying to destroy the United States. He's not

33:16

a threat to national security. And

33:18

he has to go along with this, because

33:21

that's the environment in which he's living,

33:23

and I think he manages it with a great deal

33:25

of finesse.

33:27

And it shows the absurdity

33:29

here almost, like, a charade, and

33:32

I had the same sentiments on

33:34

these topics as you, Evan, but

33:36

I'm always curious why a

33:38

word, or a thought gets such a reaction.

33:40

Yeah.

33:41

And Aaron Copland after this

33:43

questioning said, " When

33:46

he touches on his magic theme, the commies,

33:48

or communism, his voice darkens like

33:50

that of a minister. He is a plebeian

33:52

Faustus, who has been given a magic

33:54

wand by an invisible Mephisto.

33:57

As long as the menace is there, the wand

33:59

will work. The question is

34:01

at what point his power grab will

34:03

collide with the power drive of his

34:05

own party?" That's

34:08

quite a final sentence there I think from Aaron

34:10

Copland, and then thinking about, Evan, Copland

34:13

being this patriot, how

34:15

does he go from this to that? Pollack wrote

34:17

in his book, " In November 1955,

34:19

the State Department said there was insufficient

34:22

evidence to warrant prosecution. Finally,

34:25

Copland was luckier than most, whose lives

34:27

and livelihoods were destroyed during

34:29

the era. It is rather astounding

34:31

how Copland's official reputation survived,

34:34

and thrived. His music graced

34:36

the second inaugural of McCarthy colleague

34:39

and Cold Warrior Richard Nixon, Jimmy

34:41

Carter and Ronald Reagan gave him presidential

34:43

awards and citations, and the

34:45

House of Representatives, which called him un- American

34:48

in 1953 gave him the Congressional

34:50

Gold Medal, it's highest civilian

34:53

honor in 1986." What

34:55

a change in 30 years.

34:57

Well, certainly, there's changes in the country

34:59

during that time, but it gives

35:01

you a sense of a number of things,

35:03

one of which is that Copland is able to

35:06

navigate these crises with ...

35:09

I think he was pretty savvy, and

35:11

he's also unwilling to

35:13

bend to the ... You think about these comments he's making

35:16

about McCarthy.

35:17

Yeah.

35:18

As this Faustian evil

35:20

wizard. So, he's, clearly,

35:23

in his conscience, not willing to bend

35:25

to these extremes, but at the same time,

35:27

he's doing so I think

35:29

because he's aware that, in fact, he's

35:31

not a threat. He loves America,

35:34

and he's expressing that love through

35:36

his music, and through his professional activity,

35:38

and he endures, he stays

35:41

on the path, and in the 1980s,

35:43

as he's, himself, in his

35:45

mid to late eighties, there's

35:49

more and more of a national recognition. Like

35:51

you said, the Congressional Gold Medal

35:53

is awarded to him in 1986,

35:56

and you really get a sense of his reputation

35:58

just really being cemented at that point, as

36:00

he's often called the dean of American composers.

36:03

Again, that's an awkward

36:06

thing to say about anybody, but there's

36:08

no question that he really is a representation

36:11

of I think the best

36:13

of what America is in terms of the

36:15

optimism, the hope, the possibility,

36:18

and this sense of freedom

36:20

that his music and his life express.

36:23

Yeah. I'm moved by how compassionate

36:25

he was, and unwilling to bend

36:27

to what he knew was right as

36:30

an artist. That hearing could have gone differently,

36:33

and we may not have the same

36:36

impression, or popularity

36:38

of his music now. Maybe it would only be rediscovered

36:41

now, if something worse had happened all

36:43

those years ago. But in the 1960s,

36:45

he stopped composing, and

36:48

I actually like his honesty on this

36:50

subject. He said, " It was exactly

36:52

as if someone had simply turned off a

36:54

faucet." I

36:56

love that. He's just being honest. Some artists

36:58

create until the very end, like Elliott

37:00

Carter, like his music, or not, I bet he's still composing,

37:03

I bet he's a ghost somewhere writing music down somewhere.

37:06

But for some, it's a natural

37:09

end. For other writers too,

37:11

I think Donald Hall, a poet, had the same

37:13

thing. It just turned off.

37:15

Yeah. Just reached a point of conclusion,

37:17

and he stops.

37:19

So, he conducts more actually. He recorded

37:21

all of his works for orchestra

37:23

with himself conducting. Was

37:25

he the best conductor of his music? That's a

37:28

debate, or whatever. But it's great that

37:31

we do have him conducting. And

37:33

then his health declines in the '70s and '80s,

37:36

and on December 2nd, 1990,

37:39

he passes away. And then his

37:41

ashes were scattered at Tanglewood,

37:43

the summer home of the Bosto Symphony

37:45

Orchestra. Now Tanglewood

37:48

is something that people might not know, but is so

37:50

important I think when we look at his legacy, Evan,

37:52

because Copland taught

37:55

so many teachers, but he didn't teach at

37:57

a conservatory at a university. Did

37:59

he?

37:59

Right. He didn't have a formal teaching

38:01

position, but he has an influence

38:03

not only just because of the popularity, and the success

38:06

of his music, but he has these relationships

38:08

with other composers. Very often, he would just give

38:11

three, or four lessons. He didn't have long-

38:13

term students like someone like Nadia Boulanger

38:15

did, but even there, you see

38:17

his influence stretching beyond

38:19

just the concert hall.

38:22

And Tanglewood, the summer home of the BSO

38:24

is one of the greatest musical

38:26

places really, musical festivals

38:30

that happen. If you ever get to

38:32

go, you absolutely should

38:34

try doing that. It's in western Mass, in

38:36

Lennox, but he's there, and students

38:39

are flocking to him in these summers to get

38:41

some lessons, and he has such a

38:43

profound effect, not on just the composers, but also

38:46

the musicians, and the atmosphere at Tanglewood.

38:48

I think the opening to Fanfare For The Common Man

38:51

is carved in stone at

38:53

Tanglewood.

38:54

We were talking about The Tender Land, which had its first

38:56

performance at City Center in Manhattan,

38:58

and then the version that we hear

39:00

today was one that he had revised

39:03

for a performance at Tanglewood. So,

39:05

there's this Copland music that's being performed

39:07

there during his life, and as you said,

39:09

John, his presence is

39:12

really ... He's in

39:14

the rocks, he's in the grass, he's

39:16

in the lakes and the trees of

39:18

Tanglewood. You and I, John, both have a Tanglewood

39:21

connection. We both spent summers

39:23

there. I can certainly attest

39:25

to his enduring

39:28

presence. I was at Tanglewood during the

39:30

summer of 1990, which was this last

39:32

summer of his life. He didn't

39:34

come out to see us there. He

39:36

was in the final months of his life.

39:38

Also, the final summer of his

39:40

close friend Leonard Bernstein, and

39:43

I attended a concert at Tanglewood

39:45

in August of 1990. Bernstein

39:47

was conducting. He was visibly

39:50

ailing. There were rumors about his

39:52

health. In fact, he died in October

39:54

of that year, about eight weeks after this concert

39:57

that I saw, which was the second- to- last concert

40:00

Bernstein ever conducted-

40:02

Wow.

40:02

... and it was Aaron Copland's Symphony

40:04

No. 3, which Copland completed in

40:06

1946, and Bernstein

40:08

was dying at that point, but his power

40:11

was certainly not diminished and this was one

40:13

of the most memory, and magnificent

40:16

concerts I have ever experienced.

40:18

Clearly, you could just feel Bernstein

40:21

knew, and loved his friend's music in a

40:23

profound way, and, of course, he was such an incredible

40:25

conductor. He could bring that out

40:28

of the orchestra, which gave just a stunning

40:30

performance of this piece. The third

40:33

symphony, we keep talking about the Fanfare

40:35

For The Common Man, which he wrote in

40:37

1942, and then 1946,

40:39

he finishes this symphony, which incorporates

40:42

the fanfare into the third

40:44

and fourth movements. And, in fact, the beginning of

40:46

the fourth movement, you hear the fanfare

40:48

in its entirety, and then the whole

40:51

rest of the piece plays on it, and builds

40:53

on it, and I had this experience

40:57

of hearing this live with Leonard Bernstein

40:59

conducting. And for the first

41:01

time in my life, I really understood that old

41:03

story about the Handel's Messiah,

41:05

and the king standing up during the Hallelujah

41:07

chorus, because if you know the

41:09

piece, if you know the third symphony, there's

41:12

this hint of the fanfare,

41:15

and then all of a sudden, it just bursts forth.

41:17

And I actually twitched in my chair, like, "

41:19

Oh, it's time to stand up now."

41:20

Yeah.

41:20

And I had to restrain myself, "

41:23

No. No. We're actually not going to do that,"

41:25

but that sense of this affirmation

41:27

of human dignity, that's in that music.

41:29

1942. What's happening in the world?

41:32

What's happening in Europe? What horrors

41:34

are unfolding with the Nazis

41:36

and the Japanese empire in

41:39

Asia? And Copland writes this

41:41

music to affirm the

41:44

dignity of the human person. It's a defiant

41:46

no to fascism, and

41:49

to extremism of every kind, and

41:51

then he creates this whole symphony around it. And

41:53

I'm hearing this piece, Leonard Bernstein is conducting

41:55

it, and that sense of Copland

41:57

just permeating Tanglewood forever

42:00

and ever is a visceral

42:03

experience for me as a young man

42:05

in 1990.

42:07

Well, I am very jealous that you got

42:09

to be there in 1990, and it's funny, I'm

42:11

99.9% sure we had

42:14

friends in common playing in

42:16

that concert, or even there.

42:17

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. Well, you

42:20

went to New England Conservatory, I went to Boston

42:22

University, lots of connections

42:24

that you and I could enjoy.

42:27

And you also have a video

42:29

of Bernstein, a video of that I can put on the

42:31

show notes page-

42:33

Yes.

42:33

... or maybe a link.

42:34

Yes. Yes. We'll put that on the show notes page. I

42:36

think that emerged many years later this

42:38

video got discovered, but it's

42:41

so moving to see that.

42:43

So, who is doing

42:45

this today? Copland's mission

42:47

of, " The artist should feel himself buoyed

42:49

up by his community." In other words, art

42:52

and the life of art must mean something in

42:54

the deepest sense to the everyday citizen.

42:57

And I don't mean, like, who is exactly the

42:59

next Copland, per se, but

43:01

along these lines, the first person that popped

43:04

into my head and someone else I asked about it too was Carlos

43:07

Simon.

43:07

Yeah.

43:08

Maybe we're a little biased, we're in his hometown

43:10

of Washington DC, he's still the

43:12

composer- in- residence at The Kennedy Center.

43:14

So, we're hearing his music pretty often

43:16

in premieres too, but you look

43:18

at his music, like, Tales

43:21

of Folklore Symphony, which has

43:23

a striking depiction of John Henry.

43:25

It is so much fun to

43:27

listen to, and I'll put a link up on the show notes page

43:29

too. Or his Requiem For

43:31

The Enslaved, which brings together multiple

43:34

styles of music in a tribute to

43:36

the 272 men, women, and

43:38

children that were sold in 1938

43:40

by Georgetown University. So,

43:43

he's telling the stories, he's telling

43:45

the folk stories and legends of

43:48

this country, and the people that have been,

43:50

that we've cast aside, and through

43:52

all of it what I hear in Simons'

43:54

music is also the optimism.

43:56

Yes. The sense of possibility-

43:58

Yes.

43:58

... and hope and never

44:00

giving up, even despite the horrors

44:02

and the injustices.

44:03

Yeah.

44:04

And, again, Carlos Simon I think, like Copland,

44:06

is a composer who is very much rooted

44:09

in a sense of music, composition,

44:12

performance as elements of public

44:14

life, and it's not just

44:16

this pedantic lecture about, "

44:18

Oh, this is how our society should be." It's really

44:20

an artistic exploration

44:22

of the challenges, and

44:25

the wrongs, and the hurt, but also the incredible

44:27

possibility. Yeah. I agree with you, John,

44:29

Carlos Simon is a wonderful composer

44:31

who really embodies that spirit. Terence

44:34

Blanchard is another one that I think of, Fire

44:36

Shut Up In My Bones, the opera that

44:38

he composed based on the memoir

44:41

by Charles M. Blow. Very American

44:43

story about this young man growing

44:45

up in Louisiana, and going to college,

44:48

and, of course, Terence Blanchard,

44:50

a great jazz

44:53

composer, and performer incorporates

44:55

this very American sound into

44:58

that music as well.

45:00

So, that's Aaron Copland. Quite

45:02

a life from 1900 to 1990,

45:05

someone who really stood up for himself,

45:08

and for those that he thought he should be standing up for

45:10

too. And he wrote in such a style that

45:12

really defined how we were writing

45:14

orchestral music here.

45:16

And I want to end by reflecting on

45:18

where he is in the course of history

45:20

in terms of what came before him. You think about

45:23

the so- called the Boston Six,

45:26

American composers like John Knowles

45:28

Paine and Amy Beach, who were

45:30

trying to create a uniquely

45:33

American voice. They were trying to show in the late

45:35

19th and early 20th Centuries that American

45:37

composers had something to say

45:39

that was just as worthwhile as European

45:42

composers. And they were wonderful composers,

45:44

but they're writing in a very European style.

45:47

Copland comes along, he's the next

45:49

generation, or a couple of generations

45:52

after that whole movement, and

45:54

you can definitely see the ways in which ideologically,

45:57

and in terms of a moral principle, a

45:59

cultural principle, he's following in that

46:01

vein. But composers like

46:03

Charles Ives, Aaron Copland

46:05

are really trying to find a voice that's not only

46:07

worthy of admiration in the context

46:10

of the Euro- American

46:12

tradition of music, but to write something

46:15

that's really exceptionally and

46:17

undeniably American. And

46:19

I think Copland is really a very,

46:21

very important composer to think about in

46:24

terms of the creation

46:26

of an American sound.

46:29

Beautifully said. And that's Aaron Copland.

46:31

What a life from 1900 to 1990,

46:34

and everything that he gave us, and everything

46:36

that we are still building off on today.

46:39

Thank you so much, Evan.

46:40

Thank you, John.

46:43

Thanks for listening to Classical Breakdown,

46:45

your guide to classical music. For

46:47

more information on this episode, visit the

46:49

show notes page at www.ClassicalBreakdown.org. You

46:52

can send me comments, and episode ideas to

46:54

www. ClassicalBreakdown@WETA.

46:57

org. And if you enjoyed this episode,

46:59

leave a review in your podcast app. I'm

47:01

John Banther. Thanks for listening to Classical

47:03

Breakdown from WETA Classical.