Aaron Copland
(1900-1990)

Letter from Home

Composed 1944

Written during the final year of World War II, Letter from Home is Aaron Copland’s deeply personal reflection on separation, memory, and longing. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman for a patriotic broadcast on the Philco Radio Hour, the piece was premiered on October 17, 1944. Whiteman had invited several notable composers—including Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein, and even Igor Stravinsky—to contribute works that could uplift a wartime audience. Copland, by then a household name thanks to Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man, responded with a small but resonant gem.

Though intended to evoke the universal experience of receiving a letter from home, Copland was also channeling his own grief and isolation. While composing the work in rural Mexico, he learned of his mother’s death and his father's declining health through letters from his sister. His brother Ralph was serving in the army. These emotional burdens subtly shaped the music’s introspective tone, giving the piece a depth of honesty and intimacy rarely found in wartime commissions.

The score opens with a nostalgic clarinet melody, soon joined by warm, middle-register strings and winds. Solo trumpet and oboe lines, gently echoed by the ensemble, create a call-and-response effect—like memories surfacing from a quiet reverie. The music swells into a brief but powerful climax, suggesting the overwhelming emotions a soldier might feel when reading a letter from home. This tension soon dissolves into tranquil cadences, closing with a sense of resolution, gratitude, and tenderness.

Copland later orchestrated the piece for full concert performance, preserving its intimate character. Letter from Home stands as one of Copland’s most lyrical and heartfelt works—a musical portrait not just of wartime America, but of the quiet emotional toll carried by those far from loved ones. Its warmth still resonates today.                                        

Instrumentation – two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings

Duration – 6 minutes