"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sunday Classics preview: American treasures, Copland-style
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Thanks to skillful organ registration (and of course skillful playing), this 1995 rendition of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man on the organ of Washington National Cathedral by the cathedral's organist and choirmaster from 1985 to 2002, Douglas Major, works surprisingly well, doesn't it?
by Ken
The Fanfare for the Common Man originated as one of 18 fanfares premiered at the start of concerts in the 1942-43 season by the Cincinnati Symphony's music director, Eugene Goossens, who had similarly commissioned fanfares for concerts during World War I. Goossens commented of Copland's effort, "Its title is as original as its music." The composer subsequently recycled it as the opening of the fourth movement of his Third Symphony.
Since its creation, the Fanfare has tended to take on a more upbeat character, and tonight it herald's a Sunday post of some just-for-fun American treasures, including more Copland.
Here, by the way, is how the Fanfare sounds in more conventional orchestral form, conducted by the composer:
I was just talking to my kids about how one of the most interesting and fantastic things about music, compared to other artforms, is that there is no "definitive" canvas. A composition can be like a road map that evolves over time ... and an orchestra can get from the beginning to the end in many different and equally interesting ways. I love Copland and I loved hearing the variation in these clips. Thanks for posting.
Actually, Daro, it was "organ registration." Organs do often require "restoration," and you hope that that too is skillfully done, but this was skillful organ registration.
Thanks for the observations, Dr. Tex. I can't tell you how much I disbelieve in the idea of "definitive" performances, which is why I've been trying to include multiple performances, with the idea that beyond being "better" or "worse" (although of course some are), they may simply be different, and tell us more about the possibilities built into the music.
Maybe one of these days we'll revisit the Old American Songs in an assortment of performances. (You'll notice that I discreetly bypassed the most famous of them, "Simple Gifts.") The difficulty is that I don't know that many good recordings. A lot of singers like to get either cute or folksy with this material, or condescend to it. I think that perhaps is why both sets of Warfield recordings hold up so well; he sings "up," not down, to the material, really giving it everything he's got.
By the way, if anybody knows of a recording of the Old American Songs by the bass-baritone Donald Gramm, I'd love to know about it. As far as I know, he never recorded them commercially, but he did sing them in recital, more beautifully than anyone I've heard.
5 Comments:
I was just talking to my kids about how one of the most interesting and fantastic things about music, compared to other artforms, is that there is no "definitive" canvas. A composition can be like a road map that evolves over time ... and an orchestra can get from the beginning to the end in many different and equally interesting ways.
I love Copland and I loved hearing the variation in these clips.
Thanks for posting.
Organ restoration... he said organ restoration hehehe.. ahehe.. he...
Actually, Daro, it was "organ registration." Organs do often require "restoration," and you hope that that too is skillfully done, but this was skillful organ registration.
Thanks for the observations, Dr. Tex. I can't tell you how much I disbelieve in the idea of "definitive" performances, which is why I've been trying to include multiple performances, with the idea that beyond being "better" or "worse" (although of course some are), they may simply be different, and tell us more about the possibilities built into the music.
Maybe one of these days we'll revisit the Old American Songs in an assortment of performances. (You'll notice that I discreetly bypassed the most famous of them, "Simple Gifts.") The difficulty is that I don't know that many good recordings. A lot of singers like to get either cute or folksy with this material, or condescend to it. I think that perhaps is why both sets of Warfield recordings hold up so well; he sings "up," not down, to the material, really giving it everything he's got.
By the way, if anybody knows of a recording of the Old American Songs by the bass-baritone Donald Gramm, I'd love to know about it. As far as I know, he never recorded them commercially, but he did sing them in recital, more beautifully than anyone I've heard.
Ken
shot down again!
Thanks Keni, interesting.
Love Copland AND Warfield.
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