Copland Appalachian Spring
AARON COPLAND 1900 - 1990
Appalachian Spring (Ballet for Martha)
“What I was trying for in the simpler works was only partly a larger audience, they also gave me a chance to try for a home-spun musical idiom. I like to think that I have touched off for myself and others a kind of musical naturalness that we have badly needed”
So wrote Aaron Copland in a letter of 10th April 1943 to the critic Arthur Berger, mailed from Hollywood where Appalachian Spring was begun. Copland then went to Mexico, where the ballet, written for Martha Graham, was completed the following year. It is therefore perhaps something of a surprise to realise that this tonal landscape of simple Pennsylvania farmland should have been composed in California and in a Latin country! Nevertheless, Copland’s score, which was originally conceived for a chamber orchestra of thirteen instruments, was to become, in its orchestral expansion, a composition that more than any other was to extend his influence among other American composers, and for which he was subsequently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
The story told in the ballet is a spring celebration of the American pioneers of the 1800s following the building a new Pennsylvania farmhouse. Among the central characters are a newly married couple, a neighbour, a revivalist preacher and his followers.
The orchestral suite is divided in eight sections, played without interruption, for which Copland’s own descriptions are as follows:
1 Very slowly. Introduction of the characters, one by one, in a suffused light.
2 Fast. Sudden burst of unison strings in A major arpeggios starts the action. A sentiment both elated and religious gives the keynote to this scene.
3 Moderate. Duo for the Bride and her Intended – scene of tenderness and passion.
4 Quite fast. The Revivalist and his flock. Folksy feeling – suggestions of square dances and country fiddlers
5 Still faster. Solo dance of the Bride – presentiment of motherhood. Extremes of joy and fear and wonder.
6 Very slowly (as at first). Transition scene to music reminiscent of the introduction.
7 Calm and flowing. Scenes of daily activity for the Bride and her Farmer husband. There are five variations on a Shaker theme. The theme, sung by a solo clarinet, was taken from a collection of Shaker melodies compiled by Edward D. Andrews, and published under the title "The Gift to Be Simple." The melody I borrowed and used almost literally, is called "Simple Gifts."
8 Moderate. Coda. The Bride takes her place among her neighbors. At the end the couple are left "quiet and strong in their new house." Muted strings intone a hushed prayerlike passage. The close is reminiscent of the opening music.
The seventh section is the most recognizable part of the ballet. Each variation takes the simple Shaker theme with changes limited to key, accompaniment, register, dynamics, tone colour, and tempo. The second variation provides a lyrical treatment in the low register while the third contrasts starkly in a fast staccato. The last two use only a part of the folk tune, first an extract treated as a pastoral variation and then as a majestic closing. In the ballet, but not the suite, there is a lengthy intermediary section that moves away from the folk tune preceding the final two variations.
Originally, Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as Ballet for Martha. Shortly before the premiere, Graham suggested Appalachian Spring, a phrase from a Hart Crane poem, and this was the title that was adopted, even though it has no direct relation to the story of the ballet.
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