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The Simple Gift of Aaron Copland

Even without Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland might still be considered the greatest American composer. WRTI’s Kile Smith thinks that the key to Aaron Copland is heard more clearly in Appalachian Spring than in any other of his works.
 

He wrote complicated music, deep music. He was erudite, urbane, smooth, and up-to-date. He wrote books, he advised, he conducted, he moved and shook the centers of power. He was in Paris, he was in New York. He was all these things—but so were dozens of other composers.

What made Aaron Copland the American composer of the 20th century?

Appalachian Spring defines Aaron Copland and American music unlike anything else.

Without Appalachian Spring, Copland would still be one of our greatest composers. With Billy the Kid, Rodeo, the Third Symphony, Fanfare for the Common Man, and others, he would still be the most well-known. But his 1944 ballet for Martha Graham, so identifiable as his, is a thing unto itself. Even though Graham came up with the title, even though Copland had no story in mind, Appalachian Spring defines him and defines American music unlike anything else.

And why? Well, the answer is simple. It's summed up in a little tune he took from a mostly forgotten religious sect, the Shakers. "Simple Gifts" is the answer.

Yes, of course, it's what Copland did with it, how he arranged and placed it, how he did all those complicated and deep and smooth things composers do. But the key to Aaron Copland's greatness is exactly what he discovered in Appalachian Spring. The answer is simplicity itself.