This week is Thanksgiving* and so calls for what is perhaps the most American of all classical music, Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. Most of the composers we see here on Sunday Classical were child prodigies, going to the Paris Conservatoire before they were 12 years old or such. Not so with Copeland, who was a distinctly American self-made-man story.
His family wasn't musical, and when he was young you would have thought that his older brother was the only musical talent in the family. He got his first piano lessons from his older sister, who he was very close to - but that only took him so far. And so he signed up for a Music Correspondence Course and got lucky. His teacher was a no-nonsense German who schooled him in Romantic era composers. As he said later in life, "This was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared the floundering that so many musicians have suffered through incompetent teaching."
What stuck ended up making him hugely popular with general audiences in the USA. His Fanfare For The Common Man is perhaps his most recognizable work. Artistically, you can compare this with Norman Rockwell's famous Freedom Of Speech painting:
Artistically, you can pair Appalachian Spring with Rockwell's Freedom From Want painting. You cannot find a more iconic portrait of Thanksgiving than this:
Of course the "Serious" Art Establishment hated both Rockwell and Copeland. Audiences didn't care, since both artists captured the essence of America itself. And so spend some time with this music which is accompanied with a lovely series of photographs of the Appalachian Mountains. They too, capture the essence of America itself.
*Offer void in Canada.
1 comment:
Oddly enough I was just listening to Appalachian Spring yesterday -- a wonderful piece of music.
And BP there is no "e" in Copland's name not to be pedantic, but I thought I would point it out, though it sounds like it should have one.
His Fanfare for the Common Man always gives goosebumps, what an amazing talent!
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