American Composers Return from Europe:

1
Chapter 76

• American Composers Return from Europe
• Copland and Barber

2
Lecture Overview

• American artists in Paris in the 1920s
• Nadia Boulanger teaching and influence
• Aaron Copland
• life and works
• Piano Variations
• Appalachian Spring, Suite 1945, Variations on a
  Shaker Hymn
• Samuel Barber
• life and works
• (optional Adagio for Strings)
• Hermit Songs, Sea-Snatch
• Review

3
The Life of Aaron Copland (19001990)

• 1900 born in Brooklyn, NY
• 1921-24 Paris, studies with Nadia Boulanger
• 1924 settles in New York
• 1928 founds the Copland-Sessions Concerts of
  Contemporary Music
• 1940-65 teaches at Tanglewood
• 1972 final compositions
• 1990 dies in North Tarrytown, NY

4
Principal Compositions by Aaron Copland

• Orchestra symphonies (3), character pieces
  include
• El Salón Mexico
• Lincoln Portrait (with narration)
• Outdoor Overture
• Opera and ballets ballets include
• Appalachian Spring
• Billy the Kid
• Rodeo
• Chamber music works include Violin Sonata and
  Nonet for strings
• Piano works include
• Piano Blues
• Piano Fantasy
• Sonata
• Piano Variations
• Songs Emily Dickinson songs, folk song
  arrangements
• Writings include the book Music and Imagination
  (highly recommended)

5
Aaron Copland, Piano Variations, 1930
Theme-and-variations form
6
Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring, Suite 1945,
Variations on a Shaker Hymn
Theme-and-variations form
Gb
7
The Life of Samuel Barber (19101981)

• 1910 born in Philadelphia
• 1924 -32 studies at the Curtis Institute of
  Music, composition with Rosario Scalero
• 1939-42 teaches composition at Curtis
• 1962 wins Pulitzer Prize for Piano Concerto
• 1966 premiere of Antony and Cleopatra for the
  opening of the Metropolitan Opera House at
  Lincoln Center
• 1981 dies in New York

8
Principal Compositions by Samuel Barber

• Orchestra symphonies (2), character pieces,
  concertos
• Operas and ballets include
• Medea (ballet)
• Vanessa (opera)
• Antony and Cleopatra (opera)
• Chamber music includes String Quartet,
  instrumental sonatas,
• Piano character pieces, Sonata (1949)
• Songs about 40, including
• Hermit Songs
• Knoxville Summer of 1915

9
Samuel Barber, Hermit Songs, 1953, Sea-Snatch
Free ternary form
10
Review Key Terms

• Nadia Boulanger
• Walt Whitman
• Martha Graham
• Simple Gifts
• Adagio for Strings