aworks :: "new" american classical music

Four Piano Blues (1926-48). Aaron Copland /performance discrimination policy/

For some reason, I can't create new playlists on rdio. My short-term workaround is to instead spend all week playing with the Amazon Cloud Player service. Amazon now allows you to play any MP3s you buy from them in a browser. But more importantly, you can upload MP3s you own and play those. So far, so good.

The first interesting thing I've noticed with my uploads is that I own at least five recordings of Aaron Copland's Four Piano Blues:

1. Robert Silverman
2. Dorello Sorro
3. Lara Downes
4. Mark Anderson
5. Eugenie Russo

As I don't believe in performance discrimination, I recommend them all.

And as I also believe in "newness," here's a performance on YouTube I've not heard/seen before, in this case, by Alvaro Ordoñez:

And I had a nice summary of Four Piano Blues links back in 2006.

Hoedown (1942). Aaron Copland /also not completely ludicrous/

ELP via Wikipedia

Speaking of ELP and Aaron Copland, I should point out the Emerson, Lake and Palmer version of Copland's Hoedown is also not completely ludicrous:

Hoedown (Taken From Rodeo) - E...

Lincoln Portrait (1942). Aaron Copland /aaron and abraham and barack/

barbara gallardo via Flickr

Deceptively Simple has found a YouTube video of Barak Obama narrating Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait.

I happened to blog about the performance at the time in 2005. Unfortunately, the link to the Chicago SunTimes article I used no longer works and a quick search on the site doesn't turn it up. I don't really remember why I thought this important enough to post although I was aware of Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention the year before. But any additional context remains cloudy.

In any case, the quote from the newspaper about Obama's performance skills foreshadows recent events:

Obama brought an orator's skill without an actor's slick veneer to Copland's "Lincoln Portrait.'' The comforting quality of his voice gave added emotional resonance to Lincoln's words.

El Salón México (1932-36). Aaron Copland

Ever since we realized my iPod was in the middle of the wash machine cycle earlier this week, I've returned to listening to my legacy CDs. I continue to be impressed by how good the music of Aaron Copland sounds when transcribed for piano. Maybe it's the mixture of astringency and warmth.

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out of stock eugenie russo cd at amazon. el salón méxico on wikipedia.

Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). Aaron Copland /keeping score, blog edition/

• 10:00 I'm bloggingthe PBS/San Francisco Symphony tv special Keeping Score: Revolutions in Music based on the life and music of Aaron Copland, America's greatest composer. It's rated TV G. "A great nation deserves great art." Just sayin'.
• 10:01 It's the man in black, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), asking why the music of Aaron Copland (henceforth AC) sounds "American." The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) plays Fanfare for the Common Man (FCM) accompanied by anonymous but possibly American musicians giving pithy statements about AC.
• 10:04 Dixieland jazz in Prague as MTT rides the train to the city to conduct the Third Symphony. Europeans are startled by American classical music. We probably startle them in other ways as well.
  
• 10:06 Now from Prague, SFS plays the Third although a hundred years ago, Europeans gave the US our musical culture and as a bonus. Dvorak showed up later in the century. This material is not covered in quite the depth as say the Horowitz book, although the gratuitous NYC videos here are nice.
• 10:09 Hello immigrants George & Ira, Irving, Aaron etc. And we see buildings where AC grew up and sheet music for Jewish Yankee Doodle Dandy. Brooklyn also had jazz and streets. Hello, gramophone.
• 10:12 Aaron takes the Paris Metro. AC knew he could find a teacher, a Stravinsky and musical action, all in Paris. "Says you!" was the modern attitude of the time and included, gasp, tone clusters.
• 10:14 Back to NYC. Hello, Rockefeller Center, the Today Show, and modernist abstraction.
• 10:15 All that noise so we'll make a quick trip to the retreat at Yaddo. Then, MTT plays a bit of Piano Variations. "The notes are dealt out one by one like tough cards in a poker game." MTT now wearing blue. The orchestral version is "big and defiant" and may be headache-inducing for those who prefer their AC "populist."
• 10:20 Bread lines as the depression hits. Music and video gloomy. AC gloomy until he gave talks at the New School for Social Research where the proletariat brotherhood rallied.
  
• 10:23 The Library of Congress released folk music recordings which got composers thinking of how to incorporate native material into their work, leading to mash-ups, remixes etc. But first, hello El Salon Mexico, AC's first populist work, "a user-friendly version of the Piano Variations." That's essentially what he's about, isn't it?
• 10:27 Drum corps arrangement of AC music played at Kezar Stadium in SF. Amoeba Records down the block of course. Oh wait, it's Viking Stadium instead. No Amoeba near Concord I'm afraid, though 40% off at the Tower Records there if you hurry. That Harry Partch DVD is still in stock.
• 10:28 MTT meets AC, circa the sixties? LB meets AC, circa 1937. Such American enthusiasm. And our first cowboy scene shown to the tune of, wait for it, Billy the Kid. Will the Russian/Hollywood movie composers be mentioned? MTT still in blue.
• 10:32 Open chords, open sound, open prairie, open sadness. Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell does this best, by the way, on the greatest Americana recording ever including songs by Muddy Waters, Madonna, Dylan, Ives etc.
• 10:34 World War II approaches. Copland's music has new purpose and unites without scaring. Now we're on a houseboat playing Fanfare for the Common Man, where tourists on their way to Alcatraz Island may also be approaching. Battle stations. More guitar-like open intervals. Take it home, MTT. Salute.
• 10:39 Appalachian Spring via a YouTube-quality ballet video. Hello, Martha Graham. Then, a woman wrestling some modernist fabric to the tune of Lamentation. AC as quiet, gentle synthesizer and then some cow footage, probably downtown San Jose in the sixties. MTT back in black, then returning to blue. Harmony "slowed-down" a la Mahler.
• 10:44 Now back to YouTube battle footage. Simple Gifts melody and variations, of course. Over the shoulder shot of MTT conducting the clarinetist to break any monotony.
• 10:47 Some monotony so quick check of late-breaking posts over at Bloglines. But I'm back. The music is agitated and furious and a struggle and about all the sacrifice necessary to get to the final melodic closure you know you want. MTT in fighting black.
• 10:52 Finally, Gift to be simple! Gift to be free! Such deep passion, all via MTT!
• 10:53 Summation time: Outsider gets self, art, music, society, belovedness. Queue the flute, then fade to black.
• 10:55 Hello Diane Nicolini, which means it's time to hawk DVDs. Wait, finally a shot of a wood block.
• 10:56 Closing credits. "No dated, silly, Canadian performances by ELP were used in the making of this production. Major funding and pseudo-commericals until the top of the hour brought to you by..."

aaron copland: aworks wikipedia wikipedia en español appalachian spring: aworks wikipedia fanfare for the common man: aworks wikipedia

The Second Hurricane (1936-8). Aaron Copland /solidarity?/

Spoken text from The Second Hurricane, Aaron Copland's opera for high-school students:

But nobody wants to help anybody. See, when people are scared, they act tough and try to be bossy. Nothing ever gets done that way. That's the trouble with our heroes at this moment. It's everyone for himself instead of everyone cooperating and sticking together and doing something. So with this big storm coming on, they get scared, and they get bossy. Each one thinks he knows what is best to do so they all separate.

Piano Fantasy (1955-57). Aaron Copland /tim page's 20th century/

Tim Page has his list of 25 recordings to represent 20th century classical music.

Hoe-Down (1942). Aaron Copland

Orlan Charles plays the ELP interpretation of Aaron Copland's Hoedown on YouTube:

npr: terry teachout chat on aaron copland

Four Piano Blues (1926-48). Aaron Copland /links/

• Overview
  • The Aaron Copland Collection score images.
  • Contrasted with George Gershwin's music by "Blue" Gene Tyranny.
• Movements
  • I. Freely poetic. Dedicated to the premiere performer Leo Smit.
  • II. Soft and languid. Dedicated to pianist Andor Foldes.
  • III. Muted and sensuous. Dedicated to pianist William Kapell.
  • IV. With bounce. Dedicated to pianist John Kirkpatrick.
• Related Works
  • Hear Ye! Hear Ye!: The second movement reworks music from Copland's ballet.
  • Five Sentimental Melodies: Blues No. 2 became the fourth movement.
• Recordings
  • American Songfest. John Charles Schucker. Albemarle Records. 2002. Fourth movement only. CD reviewed by Raymond Beegle and Henry Fogel.
  • Blue. James Lent. CD Baby. 2000. Third movement also available as a stream.
  • Mark Anderson.
  • Joan Singer Spicknall.
  • Robert Davidovici.
  • James Tocco.
  • Leo Smit.
  • Andrew Willis.
  • Michel Legrand.
  • Joanna MacGregor.
  • Eric Parkin.
  • ...
    

Sextet (1937). Aaron Copland /wgbh/

Pilgrimage to Parnassus asks if WGHB in Boston is fulfilling Aaron Copland's mandate:

WGBH is currently airing self-congratulatory spots, playing clips of an address Aaron Copland gave on its inaugural broadcast. To paraphrase, Copland says that 'GBH should particularly focus on music of our own time and place, to the point that contemporary American music is as well known as that of the classical masters. It's great talk, and I absolutely agree with the sentiment, but it made me consider; does WGBH actually do that?

He also points out the WGBH-run Art of the States site. From Art of the States, a Real streaming version of Aaron Copland's Sextet here although for some reason, I get no audio...