Sunday, November 14, 8900

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)


Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as “the dean of American composers.” Copland's music achieved a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles, and the open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. He incorporated percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords and tone rows. Aside from composing, Copland taught, presented music-related lectures, wrote books and articles, and served as a conductor (generally, but not always) of his own works.

Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Lithuanian Jewish descent. Before emigrating to the United States from Scotland, Copland's father Anglicized his surname “Kaplan” to “Copland.” Throughout his childhood, Copland and his family lived above his parents' Brooklyn shop and were active members of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes, where Aaron celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. At the age of 15 he took an interest in music and aspired to be a composer, even though his parents had never encouraged him or directly exposed him to it. His musical education included time with Leopold Wolfsohn, Rubin Goldmark (who also taught George Gershwin), and Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris from 1921 to 1924.

Aaron Copland greatly admired Igor Stravinsky, who was in many ways his model.

Stravinsky's rhythm and vitality is apparent in many of his works.

As a result of his training by Nadia Boulanger, he had a special affection for French composers, including Debussy, Ravel, and the members of Les Six. He claimed Gabriel Fauré to be his favorite composer.

Another inspiration for much of Copland's music was jazz. His earlier works especially demonstrate the influence of jazz rhythmic, timbral, and harmonic practices.

One of Copland's first significant works upon returning from his studies in Paris was the neoromantic ballet Grohg. This ballet, suggested to Copland by the film Nosferatu, provided the source material for his later Dance Symphony.

Copland composed the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra in 1924, whose Boston premiere brought him into contact with


Serge Koussevitzky, another figure who would prove to be influential in Copland’s life. A composer with a penchant for promoting the promising work of others, Koussevitzky performed twelve Copland works during his tenure as conductor of the Boston Symphony. Copland’s relationship with Koussevitzky was apparently unique, as his interpretations of Copland’s works reflected the particular admiration that the latter had for the young composer.

Symphony No. 1 ("Organ") (1924)

Music for the Theatre (1925)

I. Prologue









II. Dance









III. Interlude


[Josephine Baker (1906-1975)]

IV. Burlesque









V. Postlude

***

Burlesque refers to theatrical entertainment of broad and parodic humor, which usually consists of comic skits (and sometimes a strip tease). While some authors assert that burlesque is a direct descendant of the Commedia dell'arte, the term "burlesque" for a parody or comedy of manners appears about the same time as the first appearance of commedia dell'arte.

With its origins in 19th-century music hall entertainments and vaudeville, in the early twentieth century burlesque emerged as a populist blend of satire, performance art, and adult entertainment, that featured strip tease and broad comedy acts that derived their name from the low comedy aspects of the literary genre known as burlesque.

In burlesque, performers, usually female, often create elaborate sets with lush, colorful costumes, mood-appropriate music, and dramatic lighting, and may even include novelty acts, such as fire-breathing or demonstrations of unusual flexibility, to enhance the impact of their performance.

Put simply, burlesque means "in an upside down style." Like its cousin, commedia dell'arte, burlesque turns social norms head over heels. Burlesque is a style of live entertainment that encompasses pastiche, parody, and wit. The genre traditionally encompasses a variety of acts such as dancing girls, chanson singers, comedians, mime artists, and strip tease artistes, all satirical and with a saucy edge. The strip tease element of burlesque became subject to extensive local legislation, leading to a theatrical form that titillated without falling foul of censors.

***

During this period in Copland’s life, he sought to support himself through teaching and lecturing, before attaining financial security through grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, in 1925 and 1925.

Copland’s compositions in the early 1920's reflected a prevailing attitude among intellectuals that they were “chosen” in a way, and that music, like other art, need not be accessible to anyone but a select cadre of individuals who could appreciate it. Toward this end, Copland formed the Young Composer’s Group, modeled after France's “Six,” gathering together promising young composers and acting as a sort of benevolent dictator for their interests.

Other major works of his first period include the Music for Theater in 1925 and the Piano Concerto in 1926. However, this jazz-inspired period was brief, as his style evolved toward the goal of writing more accessible works.

He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1925 and again in 1926.

Piano Concerto (1926)

Symphonic Ode (1929)

Piano Variations (1930)

Mounting troubles with the Short Symphony (1933) caused him to rethink this paradigm, as the idea of orchestral music for a select group was financially contradictory. In many ways, this shift mirrored the German idea of Gebrauchsmusik, as composers sought to create music that could serve a utilitarian as well as artistic purpose.

Statements (1935)

Impressed with the success of Virgil Thomson’s Three Saints in Four Acts, Copland wrote El Salón México in 1936, which was met with popular acclaim, in contrast to the relative obscurity of many of his previous works. This work also marked the return of jazz patterns to Copland’s compositional style, though they appeared in a more subdued form than before, as part of a whole rather than as a centerpiece. At a time when conservatories were teaching more astringent methods of composition, Copland held on to the respect of academics by reasoning that he wanted to see if he couldn't say what he had to say in the simplest possible terms.

En Salon Mexico (1936)

The Second Hurricane (1936)

Copland defended the Communist Party USA during the 1936 presidential election.



Copland exerted a major influence on the compositional style of his friend and protegé Leonard Bernstein, from their first meeting in 1937. Bernstein was considered the finest conductor of Copland's works.



Billy the Kid (1938)











An Outdoor Overture (1938)

Of Mice and Men (1939)



While his ballets found success on the stages of America, Copland sought to enter another arena, the emerging industry of motion pictures. He saw this as both a challenge for his abilities as a composer and an opportunity to expand his reputation and audience. However, the tendency of studios to edit and cut movie scores went against Copland’s desire for creative control over his work. Copland found a kindred spirit in director Lewis Milestone, who recognized the benefits of allowing Copland to supervise his own orchestration and refrained from interfering with his work. This collaboration resulted in the notable film Of Mice and Men (1939) that earned Copland his first nomination for an Academy Award. In a departure from other film scores of the time, Copland’s work largely reflected his own style, instead of borrowing from the late Romantic period. Additionally, he rejected the common practice of using leitmotiv to identify characters with their own personal themes.

His scores for Of Mice and Men (1939) received an Academy Award nomination.

It is difficult to overestimate the influence Copland has had on film music. Virtually every composer who scored for western movies, particularly between 1940 and 1960, was shaped by the style Copland developed.

Quiet City (1939)

Our Town (1940, Academy Award nominee)

Danzon Cubano (1942)


Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)









Fanfare for the Common Man, scored for brass and percussion, was written in 1942 at the request of the conductor Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It would later be used to open many Democratic National Conventions.

Lincoln Portrait (1942)

The same year Copland wrote A Lincoln Portrait which became popular with a wider audience, leading to a strengthening in his association with American music.

Rodeo (1942)

The ballet Rodeo, a tale of a ranch wedding, written around the same time as Lincoln Portrait in 1942 is another enduring composition for Copland, and the "Hoe-Down" from the ballet is one of the most well-known compositions by any American composer, having been used numerous times in movies and on television.

The North Star (1943, Academy Award nominee)



Appalachian Spring (1944)



Very Slowly









Allegro









Doppio movimento (Shaker Tune Variations)









Copland was commissioned to write a ballet, Appalachian Spring, originally written using 13 instruments, which he ultimately arranged as a popular orchestral suite. The commission for the work came from


[Martha Graham in 1948]

Martha Graham, who had requested of Copland merely "music for an American ballet." Copland titled the piece "Ballet for Martha," having no idea of how she would use it on stage. Graham created a ballet she called Appalachian Spring (from a poem by Hart Crane), which was an instant success, and the music acquired the same name. Copland was amused and delighted later in life when people would come up to him and say: "You were so right -- it sounds exactly like spring in the Appalachians," as he had no particular program in mind while writing the music.

Copland was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in composition for Appalachian Spring.

Symphony No. 3 (1946)

The fanfare was also used as the main theme of the fourth movement of Copland's Symphony No. 3, where it first appears in a quiet, pastoral manner, then in the brassier form resembling the original.

Copland composed three numbered symphonies, but applied the word “symphony” to more than just symphonies. He rewrote his early three-movement Organ Symphony omitting the organ, calling the result his Symphony No. 1. His 15-minute Short Symphony was the Symphony No. 2, though it also exists as the Sextet. The Symphony No. 3 is in the most traditional format of the three (four movements; second movement, scherzo; third movement, adagio) with a run-time of approximately 45 minutes. Copland's Dance Symphony was hurriedly extracted from the earlier unproduced ballet Grohg to meet an RCA Records commission deadline.

Clarinet Concerto (1948)

I. Slow

II. Rather Fast











Jazz influence is again apparent in later works such as the Clarinet Concerto commissioned by


Benny Goodman. Certainly this aspect of his work as much as any other contributed to the common identification of his music as representative of a burgeoning school of uniquely American art music in the 20th Century.

The Red Pony (1948)

Copland’s work in the late 1940's included experimentation with Schoenberg’s 12-tone system, a development that he recognized the importance of without fully embracing. However, in contrast to the Second Viennese School, Copland’s use of the system emphasized the importance of the “classicalizing principles” in order to prevent the material from falling into “near-chaos.”

Also, he found the atonality of serialized music to run counter to his desire to reach a wide audience. He would later adapt the 12-tone system into a ten- or 11-tone system, reserving one or two notes as tonal anchors.

His score for William Wyler's 1949 film, The Heiress won an Academy Award. Several themes he created are encapsulated in the suite Music for Movies, and his score for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel The Red Pony was given a suite of its own. This suite was one of Copland's personal favorites.

Old American Songs (1950)

Copland was investigated by the FBI during the Red scare of the 1950's and found himself blacklisted. Because of the political climate of that era, A Lincoln Portrait was withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower. That same year, Copland was called before Congress where he testified that he was never a communist. Outraged by the accusations, many members of the musical community held up Copland's music as a banner of his patriotism. The investigations ceased in 1955 and were closed in 1975. Copland was never shown to have been a member of the Communist Party.

The Tender Land (1954)

Despite the difficulties that his suspected Communist sympathies posed, Copland nonetheless traveled extensively during the 1950's and early 1960's, observing the avant-garde styles of Europe while experiencing the new school of Soviet music. Additionally, he was rather taken with the work of Toru Takemitsu while in Japan, and began a correspondence that would last over the next decade. In observing these new musical forms, Copland revised his text The New Music with comments on the styles that he encountered. In particular, while Copland appreciated the importance of the work of John Cage and others, he found these trends in music to render it impersonal and inaccessible to a wider audience.

Later in life, Copland found himself composing less as his career as a conductor expanded. Though not enamored with the prospect, Copland found himself without new ideas for composition, saying “It was exactly as if someone had simply turned off a faucet.”

In 1960, RCA Victor released Copland's recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra of the orchestral suites from Appalachian Spring and The Tender Land; these recordings were later reissued on CD, as were most of Copland's Columbia recordings (by Sony).

His score for the 1961 independent film Something Wild was released in 1964 as Music For a Great City.

Connotations (1962)

Music for a Great City (1964)

Copland was a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the U.S. and the UK. He made a series of recordings of his music, especially during the 1970's, primarily for Columbia Records.

In 1976, the composer toured US universities conducting their orchestras in concerts comprising his own works.

Copland is documented as a gay man in Howard Pollack's biography, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. A moral conservative by nature, Copland was an affable, modest and mild-mannered man. Like many of his contemporaries he guarded his privacy, especially in regard to his homosexuality, but was one of the few composers of his stature to live openly and travel with his lovers, most of whom were talented, much younger men. Among Copland's love affairs, most of which lasted for only a few years yet became enduring friendships, were ones with photographer Viktor Kraft, artist Alvin Ross, pianist Paul Moor, dancer Erik Johns, and composer John Brodbin Kennedy.

Copland died of Alzheimer's disease and respiratory failure in North Tarrytown, New York (now Sleepy Hollow), on December 2, 1990.

Notable students

Elmer Bernstein
Paul Bowles
Mario Davidovsky
Jacob Druckman
Alberto Ginastera
Elliot Goldenthal
Alvin Lucier
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Charles Strouse
Michael Tilson Thomas

[8901 Loewe / 8900 Copland / 8900 Weill]

Tuesday, March 2, 8900

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) - Threepenny


Kurt [Julian] Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950) grew up in a religious Jewish family, composed a series of works before he was 20 (including the song cycle Ofrahs Lieder with a text by Yehuda Halevi translated into German), and studied music composition with Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin.

***

Sonata for Cello and Piano (1920)

Symphony No. 1 for orchestra (1921)

String Quartet, Op. 8 (1923)

Quodlibet: Suite for orchestra from the pantomime Zaubernacht, Op. 9 (1923)

Frauentanz: sieben Gedichte des Mittelalters for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon, Op. 10 9(1923)

Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12 (1924)

Der Protagonist, Op. 15 (Opera in one act, text by Georg Kaiser) (1926)

Der Neue Orpheus, Cantata for soprano, solo violin and orchestra, Op. 16 (text by Yvan Goll) (1927)

Royal Palace, Op. 17 (Opera in one act, text by Iwan [Yvan] Goll) (1927)

Der Zar lässt sich photographieren, Op. 21 (Opera in one act, text by Georg Kaiser) (1927)

Mahagonny (Songspiel) (Bertolt Brecht) (1927)

***

Although he had some success with his instrumental works -- influenced by Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky -- Weill tended more to vocal music and musical theatre.


He met the actress-singer Lotte Lenya (1898-1981) in 1924 and married her twice, the first in 1926.




Weill's best-known work is The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper, 1928), a reworking of the John Pepusch /

John Gay (1685-1732) Beggar's Opera, to a libretto of


Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), directed by Erich Engel in 1928. The Threepenny Opera contains the oft-covered Ballad of Mack the Knife (Die Moritat von Mackie Messer), as well as Cannon Song (which proved to be the opening night hit), Pirate Jenny, and Solomon Song.

The Threepenny Opera

1. Overture



2. Ballad of Mack the Knife











3. Peachum's Morning Chorale



6. Cannon Song



13. Barbara Song (Ballad of Sexual Dependency)











14. Pirate Jenny











Weill's music theatre and songs were extremely popular by late 1920's early 30's, admired by composers such as Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Darius Milhaud and Stravinsky, but criticized by Schoenberg (who later revised his opinion) and Anton Webern.

***

Berlin im Licht Song. March for military band (wind ensemble) or voice and piano (1928)

Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Music), Suite for wind orchestra based on the Threepenny Opera (1928)

1928 – Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen for chorus a cappella or voice and piano (Bertolt Brecht) (1928)

Das Berliner Requiem (Berlin Requiem). Cantata for three male voices and wind orchestra (Bertolt Brecht) (1928)

Der Lindberghflug (first version). Cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Music by Weill and Paul Hindemith and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht (1929)

***

Happy End (Elisabeth Hauptmann and Bertolt Brecht) (1929)

Surabaya Johnny


***

Der Lindberghflug (second version). Cantata for tenor, baritone, and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra. Music entirely by Weill and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht (1929)

***

Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) (Bertolt Brecht) (1930)

Alabama Song

***

Der Jasager (Elisabeth Hauptmann and Bertolt Brecht) (1930)

***

Weill's working association with Brecht, although successful, came to a temporary end over differing politics in 1930. According to Lenya, Weill commented that he was unable to "set the communist party manifesto to music."

As a prominent and popular Jewish composer, he was a target of the Nazi authorities, who criticized and even interfered with performances of his later stage works, Die Bürgschaft (The Pledge) (Caspar Neher) (1932), and Der Silbersee (Silver Lake) (1933).

Weill fled Germany in March 1933, going first to Paris, where he worked once more with Brecht (after a project with Jean Cocteau failed) -- the ballet The Seven Deadly Sins (Die sieben Todsünden, chanté for voices and orchestra).

Lenya and the composer divorced in September of that year.

In 1934 Weill completed his Symphony No.2 , his last orchestral work, conducted in Amsterdam and New York by Bruno Walter; and also Marie galante for voices and small orchestra (book and lyrics by Jacques Deval)

A production of his operetta A Kingdom for a Cow (Der Kuhhandel, Robert Vambery, unfinished) took him to London in 1935, and later that year he came to the United States in connection with The Eternal Road, a "Biblical Drama" (Desmond Carter, first, unfinished version in German with a text by Franz Werfel, directed by Max Reinhardt), that had been commissioned by members of New York's Jewish community and was premiered in 1937 at the Manhattan Opera House, running for 153 performances.

Weill believed that most of his earlier work had been destroyed, and he seldom (and reluctantly) spoke or wrote German again, with the exception of letters to his parents who had escaped to Israel.

Rather than continue to write in the same style that had characterized his European compositions, Weill made a study of American popular and stage music, and his American output, though held by some to be inferior, nonetheless contains individual songs and entire shows that not only became highly respected and admired, but have been seen as seminal works in the development of the American musical.

***

Johnny Johnson (Paul Green) (1936)

***

Weill married Lenya again in 1937. The singer took great care to support Weill's work, and after his death she took it upon herself to increase awareness of his music, forming the Kurt Weill Foundation.

Weill worked in America with writers such as Edward Hungerford (Railroads on Parade, 1938), Fritz Lang (the film score You and Me, 1938), Maxwell Anderson (Knickerbocker Holiday, including September Song, 1938; Ballad of Magna Carta: cantata for narrator and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra), and Moss Hart and Ira Gershwin (Lady in the Dark, including My Ship, 1940)

In the 1940's, the composer lived in downstate New York near the New Jersey border and made frequent trips both to the city and to Hollywood for his work for theatre and film. Weill was active in political movements encouraging American entry into World War II, and after America joined the war in 1941, he enthusiastically collaborated in numerous artistic projects supporting the war effort both abroad and on the home front. The composer and Maxwell Anderson also joined the volunteer civil service by working as air raid wardens on High Tor Mountain between their homes in New City and Haverstraw, New York.

***

Fun to be Free Pageant (1941)

And What Was Sent to the Soldier's Wife? (Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?): Song for voice and piano (Bertolt Brecht) (1942)

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Patriotic song arrangements by Weill for narrator, chorus, and orchestra (1942)

***

Weill became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943.

***

One Touch of Venus (Ogden Nash) (1943)

Speak Low

***

The Firebrand of Florence (Ira Gershwin) (1945)

Down in the Valley (1945)

Hatikvah: Arrangement of the Israeli National Anthem for orchestra (1947)

Four Walt Whitman Songs for voice and orchestra (or piano) (1947)

Street Scene (Elmer Rice and Langston Hughes) (1947) - Inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score

Love Life (Alan Jay Lerner) (1948)

Lost in the Stars (Maxwell Anderson) (1949)

Huckleberry Finn (Maxwell Anderson, unfinished, 1949)

***

Weill died in New York City in 1950 and is buried in Mount Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw. The text (with music) on his gravestone comes from the song A Bird of Passage from Lost in the Stars:

This is the life of men on earth:
Out of darkness we come at birth
Into a lamplit room, and then -
Go forward into dark again.
(lyric: Maxwell Anderson)

Over fifty years after his death, Weill's music continues to be performed both in popular and classical contexts. In Weill's lifetime, his work was most associated with the voice of his wife, Lotte Lenya, but shortly after his death Mack the Knife was established by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin as a jazz standard. His music has since been recorded by many performers, including The Doors, Lou Reed, Todd Rundgren, and John Zorn. Teresa Stratas, Ute Lemper, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Marianne Faithfull have recorded entire albums of his music.

[Contrapuntal concerns in excerpts from
Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera: Ballad of Mack the Knife and
George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: Summertime]

[8900 Copland / 8900 Weill / 8899 Ellington]