{"id":790,"date":"2017-09-06T14:01:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T18:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=790"},"modified":"2017-09-06T14:01:40","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T18:01:40","slug":"copland-and-the-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2017\/09\/copland-and-the-cold-war.html","title":{"rendered":"Copland and the Cold War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PostClassical Ensemble<\/a>\u2019s most recent WWFM \u201cPostClassical\u201d radio show is \u201cCopland and the Cold War\u201d \u2013 aired last Friday and now archived.<\/a><\/p>\n

Our two-hour program includes Aaron Copland\u2019s prize-winning New Masses<\/em> workers\u2019 song \u201cInto the Streets, May First\u201d as well as a re-enactment of Copland\u2019s 1953 grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy starring myself and Bill McGlaughlin.<\/p>\n

And \u2013 sampling one of PostClassical Ensemble\u2019s three Naxos DVDs presenting classic 1930s films with newly recorded soundtracks — we audition and discuss Copland\u2019s least-known important score: his music for the classical 1939 documentary The City<\/em>. Scripted by Lewis Mumford, this film \u2013 far better known to film-makers than to musicians \u2013 advocates government-built \u201cnew towns.\u201d Its images of happy workers remind my wife \u2013 a native of Communist Hungary \u2013 of the propaganda films she knew as a child.<\/p>\n

How far did Copland migrate to the left in the 1930s? Citing Howard Pollack\u2019s biography, I read a couple of 1934 letters in which Copland excitedly described his participation in Communist Party functions among Minnesota farmers:<\/p>\n

“It’s one thing to talk revolution . . . but to preach it from the streets out loud — well, I made my speech and now I’ll never be the same. Now when we go to town, there are friendly nobs from sympathizers. Farmers come up and talk as one red to another. One feels very much at home, not at all like a mere summer boarder.”<\/p>\n

This Cold War chapter concludes a fascinating and at times chilling three-part compositional odyssey charted by \u201cthe dean of American composers.\u201d He began as a high modernist in 1930 with his lean, hard, and dissonant Piano Variations \u2013 a breakthrough in American music. Then, spurred by Mexico and the Depression, he turned himself into a populist and composed the ballets by which we know him best. It was during the beginning of this period that he addressed Communist farmers, scored The City<\/em>, and won a New Masses<\/em> contest for the best workers\u2019 song.<\/p>\n

These political adventures returned to haunt Copland in the fifties \u2013 during which decade he was bluntly interrogated by McCarthy and observed by the FBI (we now know that the switchboard agent at Tanglewood Festival was an informant). His Lincoln Portrait<\/em> was dropped by from the Eisenhower inauguration following protests from Republicans in Congress who marked him as a former fellow traveler or worse. Copland now turned his back on the \u201cnew audience\u201d he had once wooed, returning to his modernist roots in a series of non-tonal compositions beginning with the bleak Piano Quartet of 1950.<\/p>\n

The result is a veritable American fable \u2013 suggesting, among other things, that the US is less hospitable to political artists than was the Mexico of Diego Rivera, from which Copland drew instruction. Copland\u2019s Mexican colleague Carlos Chavez at various times conducted Mexico\u2019s first permanent orchestra, ran the National Conservatory of Music, and directed the National Institute of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

Looking back at his Mexican visits of the 1930s, and doubtless reflecting upon the American prominence and influence of such outsiders as Arturo Toscanini, Copland said: \u201cI was a little envious of the opportunity composers have to serve their country in a musical way. When one has done that, one can compose with real joy. Here in the U.S. A. we composers have no possibility of directing the musical affairs of the nation \u2013 on the contrary, I have the impression that more and more we are working in a vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the close of our two-hour WWFM radio show, the three co-hosts had (as usual) different perspectives on the topic at hand. Quoting Roger Sessions\u2019 quip that \u201cAaron is a better composer than he thinks he is,\u201d I opined that the Piano Variations were Copland\u2019s highest achievement and that his populism was \u201csynthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

PCE Music Director Angel Gil-Ordonez expressed admiration for Copland\u2019s non-tonal valedictory, the Piano Fantasy (1957). Of the populist Copland, the best Angel could do was \u00a0“He really tried.”<\/p>\n

Bill McGlaughlin was aroused by our remarks to passionately defend the entirety of Copland\u2019s oeuvre. From his perspective, Angel and I fail to appreciate the social and political forces impinging on Aaron Copland’s aesthetic vicissitudes — “So you better get over it, Jack.”<\/p>\n

The broadcast draws on two PostClassical Ensemble programs: \u201cCopland and the Cold War\u201d (including \u201cInto the Streets,\u201d the McCarthy re-enactment, and Copland piano works in masterly performances by Benjamin Pasternack); and \u201cThe City,\u201d<\/a> presenting the 1939 film with live orchestra. The musical content of both these concerts are preserved on the Naxos recordings we sampled.<\/p>\n

Our previous \u201cPostClassical\u201d broadcasts \u2013 all archived<\/a> \u2013 are “Are Orchestras Really ‘Better than Ever?'”, a Lou Harrison Centenary celebration, and \u201cDvorak and Hiawatha.\u201d Coming up next, on 20: \u201cThe Most Under-Rated Twentieth Century American Composer\u201d \u2013 a tribute to Bernard Herrmann.<\/a><\/p>\n

COPLAND AND THE COLD WAR<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LISTENING GUIDE<\/p>\n

PART I \u2013 Copland the modernist turns populist<\/strong><\/p>\n

6:30 \u2013 Copland the wild man: Piano Variations (1930), performed by Benjamin Pasternack on Naxos<\/p>\n

22:00 \u2013 Copland speaks at a Communist picnic in Minnesota (1934)<\/p>\n

28:00 \u2013 \u00a0\u201cInto the Streets\u201d (1934), Copland\u2019s prize-winning workers\u2019 song for The New Masses<\/em><\/p>\n

32:00 \u2013 Copland becomes a film composer: The City<\/em> (1939), espousing government-funded \u201cnew towns\u201d with happy workers. From PCE\u2019s Naxos DVD.<\/p>\n

52:00 \u2013 The famous lunch counter scene from The City<\/em>, in which Copland prefigures Philip Glass<\/p>\n

59:00 \u00a0— \u201cSunday Traffic\u201d from The City<\/em><\/p>\n

PART II \u2013 Copland the populist returns to modernism<\/strong><\/p>\n

3:00 \u2013 Copland in Hollywood: The Red Pony <\/em><\/p>\n

11:30 \u2013 Copland is interrogated by Senator Joseph McCarthy (1953)<\/p>\n

18:00 \u2013 Giving up on the \u201cnew audience\u201d he once courted, Copland composes a non-tonal valedictory: The Piano Fantasy (1957), performed by Benjamin Pasternack on Naxos<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PostClassical Ensemble\u2019s most recent WWFM \u201cPostClassical\u201d radio show is \u201cCopland and the Cold War\u201d \u2013 aired last Friday and now archived. Our two-hour program includes Aaron Copland\u2019s prize-winning New Masses workers\u2019 song \u201cInto the Streets, May First\u201d as well as a re-enactment of Copland\u2019s 1953 grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy starring myself and Bill McGlaughlin. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-cK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}