The American Stravinsky: The Style and Aesthetics of Copland's New American Music, the Early Works, 1921-1938

Abstract

[...]she builds upon the seminal studies that came before her; by combining the socio- historical context of Copland's life with detailed musical analysis of his modern compositional techniques, she ultimately reveals Copland's lifelong commitment to creating modern American music. Introducing Copland's early fascination with European modernism in chapter 1, "Scherzo humoristique (Cat and Mouse)," Murchison explains Copland's early adop- tion of these ideals while in secondary school, which he learned by attending live performances, listening to contemporary recordings, and independent score study.

The American Stravinsky: The Style and Aesthetics of Copland's New American Music, the Early Works, 1921-1938. By Gayle Murchison. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012. [xviii, 285 p. ISBN 9780472099849. $80.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.

Widely regarded as the quintessential composer of American music, Aaron Copland played a crucial role in the devel- opment of twentieth-century art music. From his early experimentation with jazz idioms to the incorporation of folk tunes in his later compositions, the Dean of American Composers was dedicated to creating music with a distinctly "American" sound. Scholars often debate the source of inspiration for this artistic vision and how Copland achieved his compositional style, with each argument contributing to a richer understanding of the composer's works. Taking this important discussion one step further, Gayle Murchison, in her The American Stravinsky: The Style and Aesthetics of Copland's New American Music, the Early Works, 1921-1938, delves into Copland's compositions, arguing convinc- ingly that Copland did not simply see him- self as an American composer, but rather a modern American composer. Offering a de- tailed investigation of Copland's life and careful analysis of his early musical compo- sitions, Murchison reveals the distinctly modernist tendencies permeating his works. Indeed, throughout her thorough study, she successfully challenges the stan- dard convention of dividing Copland's ca- reer into stylistic periods. Instead, she demonstrates how Copland maintained consistent compositional techniques throughout his career, shifting only the "foreground elements of his music or the source of his borrowed melodies and rhythms" (p. 234). This crucial discovery within Copland scholarship reveals a com- positional consistency underlying Cop- land's oeuvre that had not yet been clearly addressed.

Targeting a musically literate audience, Murchison, in an eloquent, well-executed, and accessible manner, reveals Copland's adaptation of modern European composi- tional techniques, and explains how he made them his own. Murchison's strong musical analysis and accompanying score excerpts are a particular highlight of this study. She offers a fresh understanding of Copland's groundbreaking works through the lens of modern European influence, while providing a language with which to discuss Copland's complexity. Moreover, she builds upon the seminal studies that came before her; by combining the socio- historical context of Copland's life with detailed musical analysis of his modern compositional techniques, she ultimately reveals Copland's lifelong commitment to creating modern American music.

The text proceeds chronologically, fur- ther contributing to Murchison's argu- ment, for one may easily observe the same modernist elements pervading Copland's compositions throughout the decades. Introducing Copland's early fascination with European modernism in chapter 1, "Scherzo humoristique (Cat and Mouse)," Murchison explains Copland's early adop- tion of these ideals while in secondary school, which he learned by attending live performances, listening to contemporary recordings, and independent score study. She notes that "before he had even gradu- ated high school, Copland had been ex- posed to the music of the leading Euro- pean modernists, ranging from Debussy to Stravinsky" (p. 12). Highlighting this influ- ence on Copland's early compositions, she provides a detailed analysis of Scherzo hu- moristique (Cat and Mouse), highlighting Copland's early exploration of an ultra- modern style. She first illuminates Debussy's influence on Copland's use of pentatonic and whole tone scales before ar- guing convincingly for Stravinsky's role as "the composer after whose music Copland modeled his own" (p. 29). Citing octatoni- cism, black and white key division, the im- portance of the tritone, and the use of VII-I harmonic progressions, her analysis clearly attributes Stravinsky's Petrushka as the inspi- ration for Copland's early modernist work. Indeed, it is during this early stage that Copland began developing the modernist style that remained consistent throughout his career.

Paris marked the next step in Copland's compositional development, and, as Murchison explains in chapter 2, "Boulanger and Compositional Maturity," it is here that he grew from an eager young student to a mature composer. With Boulanger's emphasis on technique, her concept of la grande ligne, and her fostering of Copland's interest in Stravinsky, Cop- land's well-renowned teacher left a lasting impression on his compositional career, which Murchison illustrates through analy- ses of Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra and the second movement, Rondino, of the Two Pieces for String Quartet. Noting the latter as a form of col- lage, Murchison identifies not only evi- dence of Boulanger's la grande ligne, but also of Stravinsky's interlocking polyrhyth- mic ostinatos and of various rhythmic and harmonic jazz elements, explaining that Copland "juxtaposes the old and the new, recycling classical form, canon, Renais- sance techniques, and contrapuntal texture of the past with the contemporary tech- niques of Stravinskian modernism" (p. 47). Such clear, compelling analyses throughout chapter 2 simultaneously offer a fresh ap- proach to understanding the complexities of Copland's early works while creating a basis to consider his later compositions.

Focusing largely on Copland's explo- ration of jazz in chapters 3 and 4, Murchison discusses the composer's use of the idiom both prior to and throughout his time in Paris. She first highlights Copland's original conception of jazz as a primarily rhythmic phenomenon that uniquely com- bines polyrhythms and cross-rhythms, which she demonstrates in her analysis of Copland's Three Moods (also known as Trois esquisses). This understanding of Copland's jazz background prepares one for chapter 4, in which Copland, inspired by the French neoclassicists, fully embraces jazz as "a style that was both modern and Ameri- can" (p. 82). Importantly, Murchison re- veals that Copland saw jazz as only one ele- ment of a composition, believing that one must incorporate these innovative rhythms with other modern aesthetics in order to create a successful work. Revealing Cop- land's theory in practice, she follows with analyses of Grohg and Dance Symphony, high- lighting the composer's combination of jazz rhythms, Boulanger's counterpoint, Stravinsky's polyrhythms and shifting metri- cal accents, and Les Six's neoclassicism, concluding, "Copland realized that a syn- thesis of modernist harmonic, tonal, and melodic techniques and jazz-derived and jazz-influenced rhythms could be the style and substance of a technically mature, modern, urban American art music that equaled that of Europe" (p. 94). Indeed, throughout chapters 3 and 4, Murchison builds a strong, convincing argument re- garding the critical role of jazz in Cop- land's compositions, revealing that Cop- land did not abandon the idiom upon his movement to a more accessible style, but rather adapted the rhythmic elements to fit within his changing aesthetics.

Copland's return to the United States in 1924 marked the beginning of his American career, and chapters 5 and 6 in- vestigate his compositional style of the mid-to-late 1920s. Chapter 5, "Back in the United States: Popular Music, Jazz and the New American Music," investigates Copland's overt use of jazz idioms in his early large-scale works. Providing a layered investigation of Copland's Music for the Theatre-a particularly noteworthy and comprehensive analysis-Murchison re- veals not only Copland's direct borrowing of jazz idioms, including melody, orchestra- tion, and rhythm, but also his continued modernist influences from Stravinsky and French neoclassicism. Further, she presents the composition as "a portrait of Copland's . . . race, ethnicity and sexuality" (p. 113). This connection to Copland's life proves highly convincing, as Murchison builds upon the studies of Julia Smith and Howard Pollack, while investigating Cop- land's personal connection to the tune The Sidewalks of New York, which he incorporates within the composition. (Julia Smith, Aaron Copland: His Works and Contributions to American Music [New York: E. P. Sutton, 1955]; Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999]). By combining both technical and historical analytic approaches, Murchison's multi-level investigation of Music for the Theatre offers a sound, detailed explanation of Copland's five-movement work.

While studying in Paris, Copland spent the summers of 1922 and 1923 visiting dif- ferent music meccas in Eastern Europe, learning the various compositional tech- niques of composers including Bartók, Schoenberg, Webern, and Hába. Not sur- prisingly, Copland learned much from his travels, which Murchison discusses in chap- ter 6, "European Influence beyond Stravin- sky and Les Six: Hába and Schoenberg." She investigates Copland's incorporation of Eastern European influences with his Jewish heritage in his composition Vitebsk, arguing that his inspiration did not neces- sarily come from an expression of faith, but rather as an imitation of these modernist composers who similarly integrated folk songs into their compositions. Indeed, Vitebsk is Copland's only explicitly "Jewish" work, and his borrowing of folk tunes, Murchison explains, "was like working with jazz, and later, cowboy songs and Anglo- American ballads and hymns . . . the world's folk music traditions were his musi- cal oysters" (p. 147). By understanding Copland's use of Jewish folk tunes as a medium to explore modernist techniques, one further appreciates the composer's commitment to creating a modern Ameri- can sound.

Chapters 7 through 10 reveal Copland's move toward an accessible musical style in- fluenced largely by the Great Depression, leftist politics, and fellow politically active artists. Murchison stresses that despite Copland's shift to composing for a wider audience, he nevertheless maintained the modern musical techniques of Stravinsky, Milhaud, and Debussy, only presented in a simplified form. In chapter 7, "Toward a New National Music during the 1930s: Copland's Populism, Accessible Style and Folk and Popular Music," Murchison notes a shift in Copland's audience; his ultra- modern sounds of the 1920s were rendered too demanding for the listeners of the 1930s. Finding inspiration in Hindemith's Gebrauchsmusik, Copland responded to this change by composing works for the amateur musician, as seen in the choral work What Do We Plant? and the piano pieces "Sunday Afternoon Music" and "The Young Pioneers."

Chapter 8, "Copland's Journey Left," provides a necessary look into Copland's involvement with the leftist ideals of the 1930s. Labeling Copland a "fellow trav- eller" in leftist politics, Murchison explains how his newly accessible music aligned closely with the Left's social function for music. Through a compelling analysis of "Into the Streets May First," Copland's workers song for The Composers' Collec- tive, Murchison explains how Copland combined "simplicity of melody with a mildly adventurous modulation" resulting in an accessible modern mass song (p. 180). As the 1930s progressed, however, the Left grew interested in American folk music due to its accessibility to the working man. As Murchison explains, Copland too began using such "folk music to create his version of populist music that sprouted from the aesthetic ideology shaped by his engagement with the cultural politics of the Popular Front" (p. 189). Indeed, while involved with The Composers' Collective, Copland quickly discovered the value of American folk tunes in creating an accessi- ble art music, a concept that he maintained for much of his remaining compositional career.

Closely investigating Copland's use of folk tunes in both El Salón México and Billy the Kid (chaps. 9 and 10, respectively), Murchison reveals how Copland largely adapted his earlier compositional tech- niques such as ostinatos, pedals, poly- rhythmic complexities, and bitonality into a more accessible idiom, while simul- taneously pulling from Stravinsky's use of segmented folk tunes. This approach, Murchison argues, results in a sort of "de- ception," for while the folk melodies sug- gest simplicity, the underlying structural ideas remain highly sophisticated. Within her analysis of El Salón México in chapter 9, " 'Folk' Music and the Popular Front," Murchison reveals a further connection be- tween the composition and leftist politics, as "Mexican society was seen as harmo- nious, in contrast to life in the modern United States" (p. 193). With the onset of World War II, however, many artists shifted their concentration to the war effort, and as Murchison makes clear in her analysis of Billy the Kid, Copland similarly moved away from the strong political left. Within her analysis Murchison identifies several impor- tant connections between these two folk- inspired compositions, through Copland's combination of modernist aesthetics with traditional folk tunes. Indeed, with "Billy the Kid Copland had now moved beyond ap- propriating folk songs of another culture to appropriating that of his own America," all within an accessible modern style (p. 229).

Occasionally one may find the analysis of Copland's sociocultural background repeti- tive within Murchison's text, as many of the ideas (for example nationalism and the de- sire to create an American music) perme- ate much of Copland's career. This is not necessarily a fault, however, as it reinforces the importance of Copland's cultural sur- roundings to his compositional approach. The only drawback of The American Stravinsky is that Murchison stops at 1938; her new take on Copland studies is both compelling and successful, and one eagerly awaits her analysis of Copland's later musi- cal works as well.

From interlocking polyrhythms and bitonal poles to New Left ideals and Cop- land's homosexuality, Murchison's thor- ough analysis of Aaron Copland's early life and works offers a new perspective on this "Composer from Brooklyn." Ultimately pro- viding a fresh approach to understanding Copland's music, Murchison offers a timely study that opens many doors for further in- vestigation of Copland's compositions.