Appalachian Spring
Ballet in one act by Copland, choreographed by Martha Graham (1944, Washington, dc).
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Ballet in one act by Copland, choreographed by Martha Graham (1944, Washington, dc).
Modern dance work in one act with choreography by Graham, music by Copland, sets by Noguchi, and costumes by Edythe Gilfond. Premiered 30 Oct. 1944 at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, with Graham, O'Donnell, Cunningham, and E. Hawkins. It portrays a young American bride and her husband taking possession of their land and their future life under the presiding gaze of a revivalist preacher and a pioneer woman. In its celebratory depiction of the pioneer ethos it represents the culmination of Graham's handling of American themes during the 1930s and 1940s.
Appalachian Spring is a ballet score by Aaron
Copland that premiered in October 1944, and achieved widespread popularity as an
orchestral suite. The ballet, scored for a thirteen-member
chamber orchestra, was created at the request of choreographer and dancer Martha Graham and commissioned by
The story told is a spring celebration of the American pioneers of the 1800s after building a new Pennsylvania farmhouse. Among the central characters are a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a revivalist preacher and his followers.
In 1945, Copland rearranged the ballet work as an orchestral suite, preserving most of the music. The ballet and orchestral work were well received. The latter was credited as more important in popularizing the composer. In 1972, Boosey & Hawkes published a version of the suite fusing the structure of the orchestral suite with the scoring of the original ballet: double string quartet, bass, flute, clarinet, bassoon, and piano. All three versions continue to be performed in full.
The orchestral suite is divided in eight sections, which Copland describes as:
The original ballet version is divided in 14 movements. The movements that do not appear in the orchestral suite all occur between movement 7 and the last movement. The seventh section, which is a set of variations on the Shaker melody Simple Gifts (1848), is the most recognizable section from the ballet, and has been featured in many television commercials. Copland published independent arrangements of this section for band (1958) and orchestra (1967) titled Variations on a Shaker Melody. Each variation takes the simple theme with changes limited to key, accompaniment, register, dynamics, tone color, 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 variations of this section use only a part of the folk tune, first an extraction 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, "The Bridge", even though it has no direct relation to the story of the ballet:
O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!
Copland was often amused when people told him he captured the beauty of the Appalachians in his music.[citation needed]
The ballad is used by West Virginia University, the clock tower at Woodburn Hall plays the melody daily at 1:30 PM.
Appalachian Spring premiered on October 30, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Graham dancing the lead role. The set was designed by the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
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