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Often referred to
as the “Dean of
American Composers,” Aaron Copland
was a pivotal figure in the development
of the classical music identity of the
20th century United States. Whereas
George Gershwin saw to the acceptance
of jazz idioms into such “serious” music,
Copland was inspired by more widely
traveled, but no less boundary-pushing
traditions, including the “post-impres-
sionist” French composers like Milhaud
and Poulenc as well as the so-called
Second Viennese School of Schoenberg
and the works of Stravinsky. None-
theless, the jazz he encountered while
studying in Europe strongly influenced
his early works, including his Piano
Concerto (premiered just three years
after Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue
). Cop-
land went about the act of composing
in a similar manner to Gershwin, often
keeping a log of musical fragments that
he would later elaborate on or incorpo-
rate into sometimes multiple new works.
By the 1930s, he began seeking a more
“American” sound, and he found that
voice in
El Salón México
. Within the
next decade he solidified that status with
his ballet scores
Billy the Kid
,
Rodeo
, and
Appalachian Spring
, and he also began
touring as a guest conductor, frequently
presenting his own works and, gradu-
ally, the works of his fellow Americans
and others who inspired him.
Around this same time, Copland was
also heavily involved with the Tangle-
wood Music Center, bringing up a new
generation of American composers and
conductors. Here he brought under
his wing a bright, young talent by the
name of Leonard Bernstein. With the
immense popularity of
El Salón México
,
Copland’s publisher wanted versions of
the music for piano, so the composer
recommended Bernstein for the task.
[Both the two-piano version of this
piece and Copland’s
Appalachian Spring
score will be performed at Ravinia on
July 23.] As Bernstein developed his pri-
orities as a conductor, he undoubtedly
modeled his interests after his Tangle-
wood mentors like Copland and began a
lifelong passion for American and other
contemporary music.
Bernstein, of course, was catapulted
onto the national stage as a conductor
in the mid-1940s, making his Ravinia
debut in 1944, but Copland similarly
raised his profile as a conductor with
a broadcast appearance with the New
York Philharmonic in the ’50s. The elder
composer-conductor made his Ravinia
debut in 1956 and returned several times
as a conductor through the ’60s. His last
program at the festival, on July 23, 1968,
featured all American composers—Roy
Harris, Charles Ives, Charles Griffes, and
Samuel Barber—as well as selections
from his own
Old American Songs
and
the “Dance Symphony” from his early
ballet
Grohg
.
RUTH ORKIN (TANGLEWOOD); ROBERT LIGHTFOOT III (RAVINIA)
Top: (Left to right) Olivier Messaien, Serge Koussevitzky, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Lukas Foss at
Tanglewood in 1949. Above: Copland (left of lectern) returned to Ravinia after his last conducting appearance
to narrate his own
Lincoln Portrait
on July 4, 1982,with Erich Kunzel conducting the CSO.
July 23, 1968
50 YEARS AGO
ON THIS DATE
JULY 23 – AUGUST 5, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
19