The Thematic Technique of Copland's Recent Works

Extract

Having been a prey for so long to American initiative in the sphere of popular music, the English listener to serious American music tends either to seek out recognisably ‘popular’ elements (with welcome or disdain), or to affect an indifference which savours more of chauvinism than of aesthetic judgment. Aaron Copland, though accorded a degree of recognition, has necessarily suffered from this astigmatic view since so much of hismusic has been written for films and for folk-derived ballet. Works like the dance episodes from Rodeo and the orchestral piece Quiet City represent an earnest striving towards easy comprehensibility, and an acquaintance with their style, whether we find this stimulating or unduly attenuated, is a far from adequate basis for an estimate ofthe composer. The calibre of the lesser-known works written before he sought wider communication, though pointed out by his apologists, was too easily underestimated while he was offering more easily digested music, and even his present creative phase, in which he has struck a new stylistic balance, has not as yet changed the basis of his reputation.