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
... movement and a politi- cal party . Ultimately his politics are best described as progressive , although this should not obscure his attachment to more radical ideas , especially early in the decade . These facts — the sense of hope and ...
... movement and a politi- cal party . Ultimately his politics are best described as progressive , although this should not obscure his attachment to more radical ideas , especially early in the decade . These facts — the sense of hope and ...
Page 9
... 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 unions , the ...
... 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 unions , the ...
Page 11
... movement is not to collapse aesthetics into politics but , rather , to establish ideological affinities that go beyond explanations of authorial intent or mechanical causality.43 And historical context becomes more Introduction : II.
... movement is not to collapse aesthetics into politics but , rather , to establish ideological affinities that go beyond explanations of authorial intent or mechanical causality.43 And historical context becomes more Introduction : II.
Page 12
... movement ' in the arts was actually a misnomer , ” Harold Clurman warned readers in the closing pages of The Fer- vent Years . “ It was a form of loose talk that misrepresented the true nature of things . The so - called ' Left movement ...
... movement ' in the arts was actually a misnomer , ” Harold Clurman warned readers in the closing pages of The Fer- vent Years . “ It was a form of loose talk that misrepresented the true nature of things . The so - called ' Left movement ...
Page 15
... movements , Progressivism in the early decades of the twentieth century was a varied social , economic , and cul- tural philosophy that generally decried vulgar competitive individualism in hopes of reconciling private desires with ...
... movements , Progressivism in the early decades of the twentieth century was a varied social , economic , and cul- tural philosophy that generally decried vulgar competitive individualism in hopes of reconciling private desires with ...
Contents
3 | |
15 | |
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 Abraham Lincoln aesthetic Agnes de Mille aligned American Music Appalachian Spring artists audience ballet Billy the Kid Burke capitalism Carlos Chávez CCLC Charles Seeger Chávez City Clurman Collective Communist Party composer concert contemporary context Copland's music Cowgirl CPUSA Cuban Cultural Front dance Danzón Danzón Cubano democracy democratic Denby Denning Depression Documentary economic El Salón México explained Fanfare film Frontier Gebrauchsmusik Harold Clurman Henry History Howard Pollack Ibid ideal ideology idiom images individual industrial Kostelanetz Koussevitzky labor left-wing politics leftist Lincoln Portrait mass melody Mexican Mexico Modern Music movement Mumford Music League narration National notes opening orchestral performance Piano piece Pioneer Popular Front premiere progressive Progressivism quoted radical recalls revolutionary rhythmic rhythms Rodakiewicz Rodeo Roosevelt rural Salón México scenario score Second Hurricane seems social solo song Soviet style symbolic theme Third Symphony tion traditional tune University Press urban Wallace West Workers World writing York