Martha Graham and Aaron Copland

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Martha Graham and Aaron Copland

• But art is eternal, for it reveals the inner
  landscape, which is the soul of man. -Graham

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Who was Martha Graham?

• American, lived from 1894 to 1991
• In 1911, saw ballet dancer Ruth St. Denis perform
  at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles and
  enrolled in the Denishawn School, an
  arts-oriented junior college.
• Her first role to draw attention was in
  Xochital, where she danced as an attacked Aztec
  maiden.
  
• She created 181 ballets working with various
  artists and musicians of her time.
  

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The Martha Graham Dance Company

• Founded in 1926 in a small Carnegie Hall studio
  in New York City.
  
• Her main idea was to increase the expression of
  emotion through dance.
  
• Her ballets were inspired by a variety of
  sources, including modern painting, religious
  ceremonies of Native Americans, Greek mythology
  and the American frontier.
• She composed her ballets as gesamtkunstwerks,
  where she created the choreography, helped to
  produce the music, and designed costumes, sets,
  and props.

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Frontier (1935)

• This was an early piece from the company, a solo
  about the pioneer woman.
  
• Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese-American sculptor,
  created a sparse, 3-dimensional design for the
  set, different from the flat backgrounds of the
  time.
• Louis Horst created the score for the piece.

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Who was Aaron Copland?

• American, lived from 1900 to 1990.
• When he was 16, he went to Manhattan to study
  with Rubin Goldmark, a private music teacher who
  taught him the fundamentals for counterpoint and
  composition.
• His entry piece was Symphony for Organ and
  Orchestra, which he was required to write by one
  of his teachers for the Boston Symphony
  Orchestra.

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What did Aaron Copland do?

• He tried to find a serious style that sounded
  American, rather than European, as encouraged by
  Nadia Boulanger.
  
• In the 1920s, he tries out his own version of
  symphonic jazz, in works such as Music for the
  Theater and Piano Concerto.
  
• He created a music-appreciation book for many
  readers, What to Listen for in Music.

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Copland Composing for Movies

• He was searching for a wide audience with which
  to share his popular symphonic music.
  
• He composed for Of Mice and Men (1939), Our
  Town, (1940), and The Heiress (1949).
  
• For The Heiress, he won an Academy Award.

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Appalachian Spring (1942)

• This was Graham and Coplands collaboration.
• The ballet tells the story of a spring
  celebration of 1800 American pioneers.
  
• Appalachian Spring is essentially a dance of
  place. You choose a piece of land, part of the
  house goes up. You dedicate it. The questioning
  spirit is there and the sense of establishing
  roots. -Graham

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Sources

• http//marthagraham.org/resources/about_martha_gra
  ham.php
  
• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/g
  raham_m.html
  
• http//www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/copland.ht
  ml
  
• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/c
  opland_a.html
  

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If you want to see more modern dance

• Come to the Spring Dance Concert!
• This Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm.