AARON COPLAND COMPOSITIONS FULL

The 'Saturday Night Waltz' is also very beautiful, with a sweep of violins, and finally the 'Hoe-Down', with those country fiddles we all know from popular commercials. Night music outside.' The 'barroom piano' represents inside music, and after, the orchestra takes on the Left Hand and a clarinet plays a variant of the Right Hand, suggesting nighttime music. De Mille's request for Copland was that he had 'Dance music inside. I particularly like 'Ranch House Party,' which Copland did not include in his suite, with its opening 'honkey-tonk' piano solo.

The 'Corral Nocturne' takes place during the sunset with simple strings triads, and a forlorn duet between the bassoon and oboe suggests the Cowgirl's loneliness. De Mille staged the passage differently, which shows an interesting mismatch of the composer and the choreographer. One example of a musical quote is 'If He'd Be a Buckaroo' in the first movement 'Buckaroo Holiday,' which to Copland depicts the Cowgirl preparing to ride a bronco. Agnes de Mille created the scenario and had specific instructions for Copland in how she wanted different sections of the piece, like 'girl rides alone - twelve measures' or 'fiddle-tune hit hard', the latter of which I am of course having lots of fun with playing in the 'Hoe-Down'. The five sections also use quotes from various folk songs, many of which popular country artists have replicated. 'Rodeo' is about a Cowgirl who is on a ranch in the middle of Texas, and goes from afternoon to evening, trying to get the attention of the Buck, being very lonely.

AARON COPLAND COMPOSITIONS FULL

Plus, I am playing his Suite from 'Rodeo' that he extracted in 1943 from the full ballet, so it's been nice to get to know this particular piece a little more!

Having spent some time today listening to bits of Copland's music and reading Howard Pollack's biography on him, I thought it would be fun to share a little about the American composer I've known for a long time but haven't really known.

Aaron copland compositions