# Aaron Copland - Simple Gifts



## HansZimmer (11 mo ago)

What about this? Vote in the poll, if you want.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

It's the Shakers' greatest hit.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

_Simple Gifts_ comes up in two Aaron Copland works: most famously, _Appalachian Spring_, but also in _Old American Songs_ where Copland takes American hymns and folk songs and orchestrates those songs in way that both preserves the integrity of the song and also puts on it that distinctive Copland touch. Copland's own recording of _Old American Songs_ that he made conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with William Warfield as the baritone is top-notch.

William Warfield and Aaron Copland:


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## radiodurans (Dec 8, 2018)

It's alright. Considering he didn't write the song, I would have liked him to have expanded it out more with more variations, layering, or something. "More notes", but what he scored is commendable.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

radiodurans said:


> It's alright. Considering he didn't write the song, I would have liked him to have expanded it out more with more variations, layering, or something. "More notes", but what he scored is commendable.


...but then "Simple Gifts" wouldn't be "simple". I think that if we listen to the arrangement from _Old American Songs_ we see that Copland worked very hard to orchestrate the hymn in way that makes it "classical" without taking away from integrity of the song, "Keeping it simple".


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

What an odd poll. Copland didn't write _Simple Gifts_, but the inclusion of it in _Appalachian Spring_ and _Old American Songs_ was very well done. _Appalachian Spring_, for me, is one of the best pieces written by an American composer.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I'm a fan of *Copland*, but this may be my _*least*_ favorite bit from him. 

I "get it" - he's invoking that simplistic rural American charm - and it works OK in the context of _Appalachian Spring, _but I'm not knocked out by its 'charming' inclusion.


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## Bernamej (Feb 24, 2014)

pianozach said:


> I'm a fan of *Copland*, but this may be my _*least*_ favorite bit from him.
> 
> I "get it" - he's invoking that simplistic rural American charm - and it works OK in the context of _Appalachian Spring, _but I'm not knocked out by its 'charming' inclusion.


Exactly, seems like not revealing of Copland himself at all.
I abstained.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

While is Copland is known for "Americana", he didn't start out that way. He studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and his very early music is more abstract and experimental. A long, long, time ago during the 1980s I read in an article from _Stereo Review_ (or was it _Opus_?) that Copland saw that Shostakovich was "communicating" with the people of the Soviet Union, and Copland wanted to adopt a style that celebrated the American musical heritage; hence Copland's most popular works: _Billy the Kid_, _Rodeo_, _Appalachian Spring_, etc. And here Copland led a whole school of American composers such as Roy Harris, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, and Leonard Bernstein, into making a contribution to classical music that was "American", and Copland's style has been imitated many times by other American composers and in the soundtrack of almost every Western movie that has ever been made. A lot of our favorite melodies by European composers were raided from the treasure troves of folk melodies taken from the composer's native land. It isn't the melody itself to which the composer can take credit; but it's the way that they orchestrate the melody and weave it into something that demonstrates master craftsmanship and also reflects the cultural heritage of the people and the nation.

Tchaikovsky didn't invent the _Volga Boatman_ melody that he made central to the lovely slow movement of his _String Quartet, _and Rimsky took the main theme for the rousing _Russian Easter Overture_ from preexisting Eastern Orthodox liturgical music. Vaughan Williams and Bartok were immersed in English and Hungarian folk music respectively. And so, was Copland intent on bringing American folk music and hymns to the fore in his own version of "Americana". 

One of Copland's later works is a serial composition, _Connotations for Orchestra_ which premiered during the early 1960s and is said to have left audiences completely mystified. Maybe they expected to hear something that reminded them of the great plains, dancing cowboys, or a simple church camp meeting; and instead they got noise. They thought they would get Grandma Moses or _American Gothic_, and instead they got Jackson Pollack. But if you place _Connotations_ side by side with _Rodeo_, _Appalachian Spring_, or _Old American Songs_; you see that it is the same Copland you know and love turned inside out. When we strip away the cowboy songs, the barnyard dancing, and the Shaker hymns; the masterful orchestration and color is still as vibrant. It's the way that Copland takes a _Simple Gifts_ and shades it and colors it that reveals the artist and the craftsman that he was.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Coach G said:


> While is Copland is known for "Americana", he didn't start out that way. He studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and his very early music is more abstract and experimental. A long, long, time ago during the 1980s I read in an article from _Stereo Review_ (or was it _Opus_?) that Copland saw that Shostakovich was "communicating" with the people of the Soviet Union, and Copland wanted to adopt a style that celebrated the American musical heritage; hence Copland's most popular works: _Billy the Kid_, _Rodeo_, _Appalachian Spring_, etc. And here Copland led a whole school of American composers such as Roy Harris, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, and Leonard Bernstein, into making a contribution to classical music that was "American", and Copland's style has been imitated many times by other American composers and in the soundtrack of almost every Western movie that has ever been made. A lot of our favorite melodies by European composers were raided from the treasure troves of folk melodies taken from the composer's native land. It isn't the melody itself to which the composer can take credit; but it's the way that they orchestrate the melody and weave it into something that demonstrates master craftsmanship and also reflects the cultural heritage of the people and the nation.
> 
> Tchaikovsky didn't invent the _Volga Boatman_ melody that he made central to the lovely slow movement of his _String Quartet, _and Rimsky took the main theme for the rousing _Russian Easter Overture_ from preexisting Eastern Orthodox liturgical music. Vaughan Williams and Bartok were immersed in English and Hungarian folk music respectively. And so, was Copland intent on bringing American folk music and hymns to the fore in his own version of "Americana".
> 
> One of Copland's later works is a serial composition, _Connotations for Orchestra_ which premiered during the early 1960s and is said to have left audiences completely mystified. Maybe they expected to hear something that reminded them of the great plains, dancing cowboys, or a simple church camp meeting; and instead they got noise. They thought they would get Grandma Moses or _American Gothic_, and instead they got Jackson Pollack. But if you place _Connotations_ side by side with _Rodeo_, _Appalachian Spring_, or _Old American Songs_; you see that it is the same Copland you know and love turned inside out. When we strip away the cowboy songs, the barnyard dancing, and the Shaker hymns; the masterful orchestration and color is still as vibrant. It's the way that Copland takes a _Simple Gifts_ and shades it and colors it that reveals the artist and the craftsman that he was.



Excellent points.

Both *Copland* and *Tchaikovsky* were obviously capable of more complex music, but they discovered that audiences love the patriotic, the uplifting, the spirited, the whimsical, and less complex. And tonality - audiences do love tonal music.

*John Williams* is very good at this, but Williams knows how and when to "mix it up", and the genre of film scoring requires a different sort of approach.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

It's OK with me, and of course it only represents one side of a wonderful composer. Another example - Leoš Janáček wrote a heck of a lot of folk-based songs both for voice/piano and for unaccompanied choir but I don't think it diminished his output as a whole.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

pianozach said:


> Excellent points.
> 
> Both *Copland* and *Tchaikovsky* were obviously capable of more complex music, but they discovered that audiences love the patriotic, the uplifting, the spirited, the whimsical, and less complex. And tonality - audiences do love tonal music.
> 
> *John Williams* is very good at this, but Williams knows how and when to "mix it up", and the genre of film scoring requires a different sort of approach.



John Williams also wrote a piece featuring the "Simple Gifts" tune.

[video]


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## Bernamej (Feb 24, 2014)

pianozach said:


> Excellent points.
> 
> Both *Copland* and *Tchaikovsky* were obviously capable of more complex music, but they discovered that audiences love the patriotic, the uplifting, the spirited, the whimsical, and less complex. And tonality - audiences do love tonal music.
> 
> *John Williams* is very good at this, but Williams knows how and when to "mix it up", and the genre of film scoring requires a different sort of approach.


So many other composers in that category though, too many to name.
Dvorak, Elgar, even Beethoven, etc...


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

Coach G said:


> ... Copland takes American hymns and folk songs and orchestrates those songs in way that both preserves the integrity of the song and also puts on it that distinctive Copland touch.


In my view, for the record, the ballet orchestration of this venerable Shaker hymn in Appalachian Spring is one of Copland's most sublime melodic achievements in classical music.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Speaking of Copland, there's a documentary about him tonight on PBS. As part of violinist Scott Yoo's Now Hear This series. As they say, check your local listings for air time.


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