“Fanfare for the Common Man” (1942)
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
[View the bottom of this page to listen to this selection as you enjoy the Program Notes]
“It seemed to me that if the fighting French got a fanfare, so should the common man, since, after all, it was he who was doing the dirty work in the war.”—Aaron Copland
By the late 1930s, American composer Aaron Copland came up against a reality that many of today’s orchestras face: symphonic music audiences were shrinking. He fretted over how to bring new audiences into the concert hall, and, basically, make orchestra music more popular.
Copland’s plan included abandoning his more serious compositional style for one offering a more approachable musical language. He began to quote folk music and incorporate jazz- inspired rhythms and elements of popular songs to express his ideas.
There’s no greater example of Copland’s new approach than his “Fanfare for the Common Man”—a work that pays homage to the everyday Joe and is familiar to almost everyone. However, many may not realize that this piece was commissioned by a British conductor named Eugene Goossens.
By early 1942, with World War II underway, all those in America were called upon to do their part. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conductor, Goossens, got in the spirit and hoped to arouse patriotic sentiment by inviting 17 leading composers, including Copland, to submit fanfares that would be performed at subscription concerts throughout the upcoming season.
Each fanfare would honor some aspect of the war effort, usually highlighting a branch of the military or an ally, but more generally, promoting feelings of patriotism and national unity.
Copland’s fanfare was inspired in part by a 1942 speech by Vice President Henry Wallace, proclaiming the dawning of the “Century of the Common Man.”
Premiering on March 12, 1943, Copland’s three-minute “Fanfare for the Common Man,” a musical call for courage, stirred the strongest patriotic feelings of the group.
Differentiating itself from other fanfares, Copland’s is slow and majestic. Most fanfares have a martial feel, with a quick tempo and a march rhythm, but Copland called for his to be played “very deliberately.” He described it as “a certain nobility of tone,” which suggested slow rather than fast music. Familiar, wide-open intervals of fifths and fourths make Copland’s music sound undeniably American.
From the opening bars, a majestic use of percussion gives the fanfare its gravitas—percussive drums, gong, and timpani, heralding something big and important. Then, establishing the main theme, a succession of trumpet notes plays in unison, simple, solemn and heroic.
French horns harmoniously join the trumpets. Finally, the roar of trombones and tuba emerge and rise as the fanfare builds to its powerful summit. Soaring and inspiring, the fanfare takes less than four minutes to play, yet manages to leave an indelible impression.
The piece later served as the intro to the finale of Copland’s Third Symphony, of which he said was “reaching for the grandest gesture.”
But not all of Copland’s fellow artists were as enthusiastic as the public about “Fanfare for the Common Man.” A few critics even claimed that the music provoked the kind of extreme nationalist feelings that caused wars.
Today, “Fanfare for the Common Man” is frequently used to inject a feeling of heroism at political rallies, sporting events, and in movies and TV programs. Jazz and rock stars have taken inspiration from Copland’s piece. The jazz clarinetist Woody Herman’s orchestra arranged a version, and in the mid-1970s, the Rolling Stones opened their shows with part of the fanfare.
Rock bands Styx and Emerson, Lake & Palmer also adapted it. In 1986, Joan Tower was inspired to write a retort, “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.”
Copland’s iconic fanfare became his most popular work and, for many, his style came to define Americanism in music, which is why he became known as the Dean of American Composers.