Old American Songs, First Set
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Although best known for his instrumental works, Aaron Copland composed a couple dozen vocal and choral compositions, of which perhaps only the Twelve Poems Of Emily Dickinson are heard with any regularity, along with the Old American Songs. These arrangements of ten folksongs appeared in two volumes, 1950 and 1952. That the first set should have been introduced by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten at the 1950 Aldeburgh Festival (Suffolk, England) suggests that Copland may have taken his cue from Britten’s own imaginative settings of British and French folksongs---the two men had been good friends dating back to Britten’s sojourn in America 1939-42. (It is interesting to point out that Britten actually produced a setting of an American folksong, a little-known, haunting reworking of John Jacob Niles’ “I Wonder as I Wander, ” which has become a classic American folksong.)
As with Britten, Copland’s “arrangements” are not mere “accompaniments, ” but genuine reworkings of great freshness and invention. Originally written for piano, the songs are all the more memorable in their orchestra versions, with colours and rhythms which often hearken back to the familiar ballets and concert works of the 1930s and ‘40s.
“The Boatmen’s Dance” is a minstrel tune by Daniel Decatur Emmett (best known as the composer of “Dixie”), with an accompaniment imitating minstrel banjo playing. “The Dodger is a satirical political song from the presidential campaign of 1884. “Long Time Ago” is a simple, sweetly nostalgic 19th century ballad. “Simple Gifts” was originally a melody composed in the 1840s for use in the religious ceremonies of the Shakers by Elder Joseph Brackett (1797-1882), which has become indelibly associated with Copland’s much-loved Appalachian Spring. Although increasingly victimised through use in splashy TV commercials, the original hymn remains a perfect expression of its words, “ to come down where we ought to be…” Unlike the grandeur of the Appalachian Spring setting, here Copland unfolds the song in his own unique vein of simplicity. The set concludes with a delightful nonsense song, “I Bought Me a Cat, ” with mischievous barnyard sounds and imitations heard in both voice and orchestral background.
NCO Concert
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