Copland the American Sound Many Young Musicians

¶ … Copland

The American Sound

Many young musicians often hear the phrase American sound and wonder what the concept actually means. Historically, the idea of American sound is music that identifies with America in one way or another during a period in history. American sound may vary slightly from different time periods, but has been centered on important historical topics and ideas that have importance to the specific writer's interest. It is believed by many musical historians that the famous American composers William Grant Still and Aaron Copland created American sound in their works. Still's Afro-American Symphony and Copland's Appalachian Spring embody the conceptual idea of American sound, and the reasons why both author's works are considered American sound will be explained in detail.

Afro-American Symphony

In 1930, William Grant Still wrote his first symphony, and he entitled it the Afro-American symphony. Still's work combined the traditional elements of a full symphony orchestra (celeste, harp, and tenor banjo) with blues progressions and rhythms. The Afro-American piece of music was written over a three-month period during which he had no steady work.

When writing the music, Still believed that black culture (blues music) could be intertwined with the historic elements of classical music (Smith, 2000). Still stated in his journal that "I seek in the 'Afro-American Symphony' not the higher type of colored American, but the sons of the soil, who still retain so many of the traits peculiar to their African forbearers; who have not responded completely to the transforming effect of progress" that is a definite interlude to the time period in American history when slavery existed (Smith, 2000). History, whether it is right or wrong, is still important to remember so that it may not be repeated. Still creates a popular American sound with his work known as the Afro-American symphony.

Appalachian Spring

In 1944, a modern score composed by Aaron Copland premiered and was widely popular as an orchestral suite. When Copland first wrote the piece Appalachian Spring, he identified it as Ballet for Martha, but before it premiered changed the name to Appalachian Spring - a phrase from a Hart Crane poem (Kamien, 1997). Copland's musical piece was entitled Appalachian Spring, which was a rousing success landing Copland the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in Music (Kamien, 1997).