Aaron Copland : Greatest Hits

Genre: Classical Dates: 1920's - 1970's

Again, I am not an expert of classical music, but I know enough to include Copland as a definitive American composer. Again, let me turn you over to the editors of All Music for a specific description: “Few figures in American music loom as large as Aaron Copland. As one of the first wave of literary and musical expatriates in Paris during the 1920s, Copland returned to the United States with the means to assume, for the next half century, a central role in American music as composer, promoter, and educator. Copland's sheer popularity and iconic status are such that his music has transcended the concert hall and entered the popular consciousness; it both accompanies solemn and joyous celebrations the world over (Fanfare for the Common Man) and punctuates the familiar words "Beef: It's What's for Dinner!" (Rodeo) for millions of television viewers….[Beginning in the late 1920s], Copland drifted toward an incisive, austere style that captured something of the sobriety of Depression-torn America. The most representative work of this period — the Piano Variations (1930) — remains one of the composer's seminal efforts. He tried to avoid taking a university position, instead writing for journals and newspapers, organizing concerts, and taking on administrative duties for composers' organizations, trying to promote American music. By the mid-1930s, taking the direct engagement of and communication with audiences as one of his central tenets, Copland's compositions developed (in parallel with other composers like Virgil Thomson and Roy Harris) an ‘American’ style marked by folk influences, a new melodic and harmonic simplicity, and an appealing directness free from intellectual pretension. This is nowhere more in evidence than in Copland's ballets of this period, and it finally earned him the respect of the general public. While Copland gradually became less prolific from the mid-1950s on, he continued to experiment and explore "fresh" means of musical expression, including a highly individual adoption of 12-tone principles in works like the Piano Fantasy and Connotations for orchestra Still, the fundamentally lyrical nature of Copland's language remained intact and occasionally emerged — with an often surprising retrospective air — in works like the Duo for flute and piano (1971). He continued to teach and write and received numerous awards both in America and abroad. In 1958, he began conducting orchestras around the world, performing works by 80 other composers as well as his own over the next 20 years. By the mid-'70s, Copland had for all intents and purposes ceased composing. One of the last of his creative accomplishments was the completion of his two-volume autobiography (with musicologist Vivian Perlis), an essential document in understanding the growth of American music in the twentieth century.”

Playlist:

1 Fanfare for the Common Man, for brass & percussion (from Symphony No. 3)

2 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Very slowly

3 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Allegro

4 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Moderato: The Bride and her Intended

5 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Fast: The Revivalist and his Flock

6 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Allegro: Solo Dance of the Bride

7 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Meno mosso

8 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Doppio movimento: Variations on a Shaker Hymn

9 Appalachian Spring, ballet for 13 instruments: Moderato: Coda

10 Rodeo, selections from the ballet (including 'Four Dance Episodes'): Buckaroo Holiday

11 Rodeo, selections from the ballet (including 'Four Dance Episodes'): Corral Nocturne 12 Rodeo, selections from the ballet (including 'Four Dance Episodes'): Saturday Night Waltz

13 Rodeo, selections from the ballet (including 'Four Dance Episodes'): Hoe-Down 14 Lincoln Portrait, for speaker & orchestra

15 Ceremonial Fanfare, for brass ensemble

16 Quiet City, for English horn, trumpet & strings (from the incidental music)

17 Music for Movies, suite for orchestra: New England Countryside

18 Music for Movies, suite for orchestra: Barley Wagons

19 Music for Movies, suite for orchestra: Sunday Traffic

20 Music for Movies, suite for orchestra: Grovers Corners

21 Music for Movies, suite for orchestra: Threshing Machines

22 El Salón México, for orchestra

23 Billy the Kid, ballet: The Open Prairie

24 Billy the Kid, ballet: Street in a Frontier Town

25 Billy the Kid, ballet: Celebration - Billy in Prison – Waltz

26 Danzón Cubano, for 2 pianos (or orchestra [1945])

27 Dance Symphony, for orchestra (arr. of ballet 'Grogh'): Lento - molto - adagio molto 28 Dance Symphony, for orchestra (arr. of ballet 'Grogh'): Andante moderato

29 Dance Symphony, for orchestra (arr. of ballet 'Grogh'): Allegro vivo