Happy Thanksgiving! Aaron Copland and Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring”
Aaron Copland (1962) and Martha Graham (c. 1940), Wikimedia Commons
Of all the holidays associated with America, Thanksgiving is by far the most uniquely American one. So, if you are looking for a ballet or a classical music piece to get you into the mood for turkey, stuffing and pie, check out Aaron Copland and Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring.
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) once wrote in a biographical sketch: “I was born on a street in Brooklyn that can only be described as drab.” His parents were Russian-born Jewish immigrants who ran a local department store. The family of five kids lived above and to the side of the store, and everyone worked in the family business. Little Aaron was working hard: “The routine was demanding, with Saturdays and sale days particularly exhausting, and Christmas the busiest time of all. I worked after school. Later on, it occurred to me that I was selling toys to kids my own age.”
When Aaron insisted on studying the piano, his parents agreed without much enthusiasm. Aaron’s stubbornness paid off: in 1921, he went on to study composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. From the 1930s, he focused on writing music that had meaning for a wider public, creating a uniquely American repertoire that expressed American dreams and ideals in sound. His most famous scores include three ballets based on American folk material: Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944).
Martha Graham
Martha Graham (1894-1991) is one of the central figures in the history of modern dance. Her father was a physician fascinated by the bodily expression of human behaviour. Martha Graham was born in Pennsylvania, but spent her formative teenage years in California, where she discovered her love for the sea, Asian art and dance. She trained and danced with Denishawn, a school and company founded in Los Angeles by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Denishawn was unique because it explored many types of dance: folk, classical, experimental, Asian, Native American, and so forth.
In 1926, Martha Graham founded her company and school in New York. She is one of the most formidable figures in twentieth century dance: she developed her own dance technique based on contraction and release to explore the full depth of human emotions. Her intense works and unique style changed the way people looked at dance. Her ballets are on a wide range of themes, but she was particularly drawn to Greek mythology and strong female figures. Women were at the centre of her stories, and for the first ten years of its existence, her company consisted only of women.
A Meeting of Giants
Appalachian Spring is a ballet about the American frontier, the time in American history when American settlers of European origin were moving westward, increasing the land settled by Europeans. The ballet premiered towards the end of World War II, on 30 October 1944 and continues to be a cornerstone in the repertoire of the Martha Graham company until today. It tells the story of a young frontier couple on their wedding day, but rather than telling a specific story, it is a ballet about life, war, peace and hope, creating an atmosphere that allows us to enter the ideals of mid-century Americans.
Copland and Graham were united in creating a distinctly American vision for their art forms. Ballet historian Lynn Garafola has compared their collaboration on Appalachian Spring to the collaboration between Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev: Stravinsky composed Russian-themed music for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, while Copland composed Americana style music for Graham. Both Copland and Stravinsky’s music shape our imagination of the sound of American and Russian culture until today.
Simple Gifts
The ballet also contains a moving scene that brings us back to the spirit of Thanksgiving in the universal sense of being grateful for what we have. Copland incorporated the musical motif of the Shaker tune “Simple Gifts” throughout the score. Enjoy the love duet of the Bride and the Husbandman, celebrating their love to the tune of “Simple Gifts.”
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free. . .