Appalachian Spring Program notes

**Suite from Appalachian Spring [Original Instrumentation]**

Aaron Copland

Born November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York | Died December 2, 1990 in North Tarrytown, New York

Appalachian Spring is Copland’s best loved work
It immortalized the Shaker hymn “’Tis a Gift to be Simple”
The ballet score captures the simplicity and honesty of America’s pioneer roots
It exists in versions for full orchestra and the more intimate chamber version we hear

Appalachian Spring is one of three “folk ballets” that constitute the foundation of Aaron Copland’s substantial reputation. (The other two are Billy the Kid and Rodeo.) Only his Fanfare for the Common Man is arguably better known than these ballets. Appalachian Spring‘s sentimental appeal derives from the strong sense of Americana with which Copland suffused his score. Even though the only borrowed melody is the Shaker tune “‘Tis a gift to be simple,” his original music communicates the sense that we have always known it. Somehow Copland distills the essence of our nation’s spirit in ways that speak to us all.

The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation commissioned Copland to compose this ballet for Martha Graham in 1943. He completed the score in 1944 while teaching at Harvard. The premiere took place in Washington, at the Library of Congress’ Coolidge Auditorium that October; Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham danced the principal roles. Appalachian Spring was an immediate success, earning the New York City Music Critics’ Circle Award for the outstanding theatrical work of the 1944-1945 season, and the Pulitzer Prize in music for 1945.

The ballet scenario takes place in the early nineteenth century. A young farming couple in Pennsylvania Dutch country are being married; the wedding celebration centers around their new pioneer farmhouse in the Appalachian foothills. A gentleness of spirit permeates Copland’s lovely music. He later acknowledged the essential message that guided his thinking when he composed Appalachian Spring:

I knew certain crucial things — that it had to do with the pioneer American spirit, with youth and spring, with optimism and hope.

Instrumentation: Copland scored the original ballet for just thirteen instruments: flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, four violins, two violas, two cellos, and double bass.

Lincoln Portrait

Aaron Copland

Copland’s music evokes the homespun America of “Mom and apple pie”
Lincoln Portrait combines music and narration to celebrate our greatest President
The narrator does not enter until almost halfway through the piece
Sharp-eared listeners will catch a snippet of “Camptown Races”

During the summer of 1942, André Kostelanetz was guest conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony. Kostelanetz sought out several American composers, asking them to express their musical concept of an individual great American. The United States had declared war on Japan the previous December, and was now actively involved in the Allied effort to defeat Hitler. With patriotism at fever pitch, a unified war effort drew Americans together as it has rarely done in the past century.

Kostelanetz wanted the piece to reflect American life and the best aspects of this country’s ethos and character. “I want to discover what music can do to mirror the magnificent spirit of our country,” he explained. Copland was already too old to serve in the armed forces – but he knew how to write the kind of music that would serve and strengthen America’s fighting spirit. He selected Abraham Lincoln. He approached his subject in the form of narrative with supporting music. The result was Lincoln Portrait.

Copland chose his texts almost exclusively from Lincoln’s writings and speeches, also including some biographical information. The speaker does not enter until almost halfway through the work; however, once the narration has commenced, Lincoln’s voice becomes the most significant component of the orchestra. The instruments themselves, after their lengthy introduction, are largely background.

Copland incorporates phrases from “The Camptown Races” and “The Pesky Sarpent.” These familiar tunes, along with a noble atmosphere that is Copland’s own, contribute to the inherent dignity of this American classic.

Instrumentation: two flutes (both doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, glockenspiel, sleigh bells, xylophone, celesta, harps, solo speaker and strings.

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47

Dmitri Shostakovich

Born September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg | Died August 9, 1975 in Moscow

This symphony is considered Shostakovich’s greatest orchestral work
Angular and severe, the opening gesture suggests the harshness of life in Soviet Russia
The scherzo relieves the tension, introducing a whisper of warmth
Triumph after struggle prevails in the mighty finale

Shostakovich was the greatest symphonist of the 20th century. His contribution is important not only because he left 15 examples (more than any other symphonist of his stature), but also because they are musically so substantive. There are striking parallels to Beethoven in Shostakovich’s career. Among the most startling is the role that a Fifth Symphony played in each of their output. In both cases, the Fifth is considered to be a pivotal work, one that delineated a major shift in his music. Shortly before his Fifth Symphony’s premiere, Shostakovich wrote:

The theme of my symphony is the development of the individual. I saw man with all his sufferings as the central idea of the work, which is lyrical in mood from start to finish; the finale resolves the tragedy and tension of the earlier movements on a joyous, optimistic note.

Listeners who know the Beethoven Fifth will immediately sense a kinship. Beethoven’s symphony deals with the struggle against Fate, in which man emerges triumphant in the finale. Another factor the works have in common is their unification by a concise musical motto that recurs in almost every movement. In Beethoven it is the famous “fate knocking at the door” that opens the symphony; in Shostakovich it is a pronounced iambic (short-long) rhythm, which is particularly dominant in the opening Moderato.

Shostakovich wrote his Fifth Symphony on the heels of a major musical and political setback: Joseph Stalin’s adverse reaction to Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and his subsequent attack in Pravda in January 1936. The following year, 1937, was the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution. For that occasion, Shostakovich composed his Fifth Symphony. The new work put him back in official good graces. With this symphony, Shostakovich responded successfully to Stalin’s political directive for music with a mission. He composed, as it were, a Soviet symphony; this was the piece that won governmental approval, becoming Shostakovich’s passport to official “rehabilitation.” The symphony also did a considerable amount to build Shostakovich’s reputation outside the Soviet Union. And yet, in spite of its surface compliance with the party line, it is still a work of passion and heartfelt emotion, managing to be personal without sacrificing power.

The degree to which the Fifth Symphony remained personal to the composer emerges in his later writings. In particular, Solomon Volkov’s Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, first published in 1979, includes the following remarkable passage:

I discovered to my astonishment that the man who considers himself its greatest interpreter [the Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky] does not understand my music. He says that I wanted to write exultant finales for my Fifth and Seventh Symphonies but I couldn’t manage it. It never occurred to this man that I never thought about any exultant finales, for what exultation could there be? I think that it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth. The rejoicing is forced, created under threat, as in Boris Godunov. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, “Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,” and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, “Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.”

What kind of apotheosis is that? You have to be a complete oaf not to hear that. [The author Alexander Alexandrovich] Fadeyev heard it, and he wrote in his diary, for his personal use, that the finale of the Fifth is irreparable tragedy. He must have felt it with his Russian alcoholic soul.

Shostakovich’s trenchant and bitter remarks imply a layer of irony in the finale that encourages thoughtful listening. Even those who know the Fifth Symphony well are likely to hear it with fresh ears in the context of these comments. It is only fair to note that Volkov’s Testimony is highly controversial and that scholars and musicians have challenged its authenticity. In her landmark 2000 biography, the American scholar Laurel E. Fay noted, specifically with respect to the last movement:

The ‘finale problem’ in Shostakovich’s symphonic works was an issue that would crop up again, notably in connection with his Tenth Symphony. In the light of comments attributed to the aging, embittered composer in Testimony, the suggestion has gained wide currency that Shostakovich may have deliberately set himself up to fail in crowning the Fifth Symphony with a genuinely jubilant finale, intending instead to convey the sense of rejoicing under duress.

It is food for thought. Nevertheless, as Fay observes, the musical substance of Shostakovich’s symphony ultimately contributed to its acceptance and acclaim by musicians and audiences worldwide, regardless of any overt or implicit political agenda.

While the two outer movements have become the Fifth Symphony’s best known segments, the inner two better reflect Shostakovich’s emerging style. The scherzo, a quasi-Schubertian country dance tinged with Mahlerian satire, shows the dry, sardonic side of Shostakovich’s personality to perfection. And the slow movement, a showcase for the string section, embodies the tragedy and poetry inherent in the human condition. The Fifth Symphony is usually regarded as the window looking into Shostakovich’s middle period, but its music has such consummate maturity that it more than foreshadows the rich masterpieces that would follow during and after the Second World War.

Instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, 2 harps, bells, xylophone, celesta, piano, and strings