Copland: Symphony No. 3 / Billy The Kid

Description

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)Symphony No.3Billy the Kid (Suite) Arguably the greatest American composer of the lastcentury and without doubt one of its most unmistakable voice" AaronCopland was also a distinguished pianist, conductor and writer Although perhapsbest known for his three ballets Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942)and Appalachian Spring (1943-44), he produced major works in a varietyof genres including two operas, The Second Hurricane (1936) and TheTender Land (1952-54), film scores, symphonies, concertos, choral andchamber music, as well as a significant contribution to the solo piano repertoire. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 14th November 1900,Copland began theory and composition lessons in 1917 with Rubin GoldmarkContinuing his studies with Goldmark unti11921, he then became a student of NadiaBoulanger in Paris and under her guidance produced his first orchestral score,the one-act ballet Grohg (1922-25), inspired by F.W Murnau's film Nosferatu.Of even greater note, Boulanger asked Copland to write a work for her Americandebut as organist resulting in the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra(1924), first performed by the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch(who jokingly remarked of its dissonance - 'If a young man at the age of 23 canwrite a symphony like that, in five years he will be ready to commit murder').The work was also performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under SergeKoussevitzky, who was to become a key supporter of the composer, not onlycommissioning and performing his works but also appointing Copland assistantdirector of the Berkshire Music Center where he taught from 1940 to 1965 The OrganSymphony secured another Boston commission for Copland, the five-movementsuite Music for the Theatre (1925). Both the latter work, thejazz-influenced Piano Concerto (1926), which received a criticalmauling, and the Symphonic Ode (1928-29), which Copland regarded as oneof his most important works, were all given their first performances underKoussevitzky. Copland's next compositions such as the Piano Variations(1930) and the Short Symphony (1932-33) adopted a more austere, abstractstyle. Then, at the instigation of the Mexican composer Carlos Chivez, he madethe first of several visits to Mexico in 1932, a country which made a deep impressionon him and inspired his first international success, the delightful andimmediately accessible orchestral work El salon Mexico (1933-36).Throughout the late 1930s and 1940s his reputation steadily grew with thecomposition of the aforementioned ballets, film scores and patriotic works suchas the Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man (bothdating from 1942). With the composition of the Piano Quartet (1950)Copland entered yet another stylistic period, employing his own highly personalapplication of the twelve-note technique which he used in such major works asthe Piano Fantasy (1955-57) and the orchestral works Connotations(1961-62) and Inscape (1967). As well as being