Composed 1944/1945; Duration: 24 minutes

First BPO Performance: March 5, 1946 (William Steinberg, conductor) 
 
Last BPO Performance: September 26, 2020 (JoAnn Falletta, conductor)

Martha Graham and Aaron Copland were artists of similar age whose careers paralleled but represented the spectrum of American artistic ideals; Copland a Jewish composer from Brooklyn, Graham a Protestant dancer from rural Pennsylvania. And yet this one-time collaboration that marked two brilliant careers premiered October 30, 1944 at the Library of Congress, as the ballet Appalachian Spring was an artistic landmark that helped define American music.  

The Shakers were a tiny proto-communistic and pacifist Protestant sect related to the Quakers, and lived mostly in New England until they were almost nonexistent by the Great Depression. The ideals of these people reflected common populist political views of Copland’s time, and their dramatic representation was near-mythological, providing the simplistic and idyllic setting for Graham’s choreography.

Copland’s official synopsis of the ballet: “A pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania Hills in the early part of the last [i.e., nineteenth] century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, that their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests, now and then, the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end, the couple is left quiet and strong in their new house.”  

The original production was composed for thirteen instruments, but the more famous suite, performed by a larger orchestra and usually without dancers, premiered in October of 1945 by the New York Philharmonic and was the version that was ultimately awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Copland evokes the open plains and expansive skies of the frontier with simple melodies that leap across the page. With few notes, he harnesses pentatonic themes to create new pioneer songs and orchestrates spacious harmonies that conjure bountiful plains.

In a time of war, Copland’s populism united and inspired America’s people. With a tonal language that was uniquely traditional and ground-breaking, he elicited pride for the strengthened bonds of the nation. The brave young couple of Appalachian Spring calmly looks forward to a simple life of pious devotion. Subtitled Ballet for Martha, Copland’s masterpiece ends with a calm chorale of his optimistic themes, evoking America’s resolve for unity and peace.–Chaz Stuart