Carl’s Classic Coffee Break

I have known Copland’s Appalachian Spring for nearly forty years but it was only recently that I discovered it was originally scored for a chamber ensemble of thirteen instruments, the largest orchestra that could be accommodated in the pit of the theatre at the Library of Congress where it was first performed.

Appalachian Spring was created for choreographer and dancer Martha Graham and premiered in 1944.  The story concerns a pair of pioneering newlyweds in Pennsylvania but Copland was always firm that he did not create a musical representation of the Appalachian Mountains.  The title was given to the completed score by Martha Graham.

When Aaron first presented me with the music its title was Ballet for Martha - simple, and as direct as the Shaker theme that runs through it. I took some words from the poetry of Hart Crane and retitled it Appalachian Spring. When Aaron appeared in Washington for a rehearsal, before the October 30, 1944, premiere, he said to me, “Martha, what have you named the ballet?”
And when I told him he asked, “Does it have anything to do with the ballet?”
“No”, I said, “I just like the title.”

Appalachian Spring is essentially a dance of place. You choose a piece of land, part of the house goes up. You dedicate it. The questioning spirit is there and the sense of establishing roots.
(Martha Graham, Blood Memories)

While writing the work over the course of a year, Copland wrote that it was somewhat foolish to do as the ballet and its corresponding scores were historically short-lived. Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for this ballet and the full orchestral score has been a firm favourite ever since.

The reason for its popularity is easy to hear. Copland builds a whole world of musical sonorities on the simplest of materials, pairs of oscillating chords, scale passages and a shaker tune, ’tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free’, embody an idealised version of the pioneering lifestyle of freedom, independence and self-sufficiency.

The chamber ensemble version of Appalachian Spring will be performed by The Welsh Sinfonia in the concert hall of Cardiff University on October 11th, 2009.  If you can’t wait until then there are some excerpts on You Tube.