Music for the Common Man : Aaron Copland during the Depression and War: Aaron Copland during the Depression and WarIn the 1930s, Aaron Copland began to write in an accessible style he described as "imposed simplicity." Works like El Salon Mexico, Billy the Kid, Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring feature a tuneful idiom that brought the composer unprecedented popular success and came to define an American sound. Yet the cultural substance of that sound--the social and political perspective that might be heard within these familiar pieces--has until now been largely overlooked. While it has long been acknowledged that Copland subscribed to leftwing ideals, Music for the Common Man is the first sustained attempt to understand some of Copland's best-known music in the context of leftwing social, political, and cultural currents of the Great Depression and Second World War. Musicologist Elizabeth Crist argues that Copland's politics never merely accorded with mainstream New Deal liberalism, wartime patriotism, and Communist Party aesthetic policy, but advanced a progressive vision of American society and culture. Copland's music can be heard to accord with the political tenets of progressivism in the 1930s and '40s, including a fundamental sensitivity toward those less fortunate, support of multiethnic pluralism, belief in social democracy, and faith that America's past could be put in service of a better future. Crist explores how his works wrestle with the political complexities and cultural contradictions of the era by investing symbols of America--the West, folk song, patriotism, or the people--with progressive social ideals. Much as been written on the relationship between politics and art in the 1930s and '40s, but very little on concert music of the era. Music for the Common Man offers fresh insights on familiar pieces and the political context in which they emerged. |
From inside the book
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Page 8
... left- wing politics—have thus far seemed no more than a loose set of biographical correlations. How Copland's music relates to its social context and reveals a political alignment are questions that have yet to be fully answered. And ...
... left- wing politics—have thus far seemed no more than a loose set of biographical correlations. How Copland's music relates to its social context and reveals a political alignment are questions that have yet to be fully answered. And ...
Page 9
... left-wing social movement known as the Popular Front. Most familiar as a specific policy of the Communist International, the Popular Front may also be construed as an indigenous, broad-based, left- wing coalition of American labor ...
... left-wing social movement known as the Popular Front. Most familiar as a specific policy of the Communist International, the Popular Front may also be construed as an indigenous, broad-based, left- wing coalition of American labor ...
Page 10
... left-wing ideas about the aesthetici- zation of politics and politicization of aesthetics. Denning's central metaphor is that of “labor” and “laboring,” referring in part to the expanded role of unions in American politics, the ...
... left-wing ideas about the aesthetici- zation of politics and politicization of aesthetics. Denning's central metaphor is that of “labor” and “laboring,” referring in part to the expanded role of unions in American politics, the ...
Page 12
... Left. During the s, “the term 'Left movement' in the arts was ... wing politics was mainstream politics. Yet once America had passed through ... Left' writers, 'foreign' ideas, 'un-American' ideals and other spurious epithets that ...
... Left. During the s, “the term 'Left movement' in the arts was ... wing politics was mainstream politics. Yet once America had passed through ... Left' writers, 'foreign' ideas, 'un-American' ideals and other spurious epithets that ...
Page 15
... left-wing causes during the s, Perlis maintains that “Copland was not by nature a political person” and describes the composer as a “fellow traveler” during the Depression era, someone associated with but not committed to the ...
... left-wing causes during the s, Perlis maintains that “Copland was not by nature a political person” and describes the composer as a “fellow traveler” during the Depression era, someone associated with but not committed to the ...
Contents
2 Expanding America | 43 |
3 Creating Community | 71 |
4 The Dancing of an Attitude | 111 |
5 In Wartime | 147 |
Conclusion | 193 |
Notes | 203 |
Index | 245 |
Other editions - View all
Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War Elizabeth B. Crist Limited preview - 2009 |
Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War Elizabeth B. Crist Limited preview - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
Aaron Copland aesthetic Agnes de Mille aligned American Music Appalachian Spring artists audience ballet Billy the Kid Billy’s Burke Carlos Chávez CCLC Charles Seeger Chávez City Clurman Collective Comintern Communist Party composer concert conflict contemporary context Copland’s music Cowgirl Cuban Cultural Front dance Danzón defined definition democracy democratic Denby Depression different documentary effect effort El Salón México explained Fanfare figure film final find finished first frontier Gebrauchsmusik Harold Clurman Henry Howard Pollack Ibid ideal ideology individual industrial influence Koussevitzky left-wing leftist Lincoln Portrait mass melody Mexican Mexico Modern Music movement Mumford narration National notes off offers Office orchestral performance piece Pioneer political Popular Front progressive Progressivism proletarian quoted radical reflect revolutionary rhythmic rhythms Rodakiewicz Rodeo Roosevelt rural Salón México scenario score Second Hurricane Seeger seems significance social solo song Soviet style theme tion traditional tune University Press urban Waldo Frank Wallace West Workers writing wrote York