Bill Hong wrote of Copland:

>Sometimes I get the impression that his works in the "Americana" vein
>(for want of a better term) are now viewed as naive or pollyannish in
>this cynical age.  Sometimes they do seem to overshadow his many other
>serious works, including the later ones that delve into the atonal.

Try as I will, I can't get into late Copland.  I know there are those who
love it, who regard it as the real Copland.  So when I read Bill's post,
I went back to the first Copland LP I ever bought, Antal Dorati's fabulous
old mono version of the 3rd symphony.  I've just listened to it and, a few
clicks and pops aside, it still sounds great.  I don't think it's just
nostalgia that makes me rate it above the other versions I have, including
two of Copland's and Bernstein's.  It just has an extra edge and more
excitement.  Pity Mercury didn't reissue it on CD.

Bill asked about favourite other works and versions.  I love Dorati's
versions of Rodeo, Billy the Kid, El Salon Mexico and Danzon Cubano, and
Morton Gould's Rodeo with the outrageous honky-tonk piano, and Walter
Susskind's Appalachian Spring.  The suite from The Tender Land with
Copland conducting, which has been re-released regularly, is one of my
very favourites.  Grohg and Hear Ye, Hear Ye should be better known, IMHO.
I've never been able to like the piano concerto, but I love the organ and
clarinet concertos.  I've always thought it a pity that Copland didn't
leave us a violin concerto.  These are not the only Copland I like but
that'll do.

>But am I right in sensing that there's something in the Billy the
>Kids, the Rodeos, the Appalachian Springs, that seems to "connect"
>with many music loving Americans who've ever considered the nature
>of their country's history and heritage?

At the heart of this question is that Copland probably more than any other
composer is thought to have mortgaged the "American" sound.  If I hear some
unfamiliar American music, I may well know it's by an American composer
because I can hear Copland's footprints in it.  But to me, it's not
American of itself - I've learned through years of listening that *some*
American composers have certain characteristics that I can identify.
Similarly, some composers sound English or French or whatever, because of
the influence of this or that composer.  But I can't imagine anyone but
an American composer writing, say, the second Gershwin prelude, the slow
movement of Ives' 2nd, or that wonderfully exuberant finale, punctuated by
rimshots, of Schuman's 3rd which is, for me, *the* great American symphony.
Do I hear mention of chickens and eggs?

Richard Pennycuick
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