The Well-Tempered Ear

1 Comment »

  1. It’s so nice to see the youth orchestras forcefully active.

    Meanwhile, I’m listening to the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Eugene Ormandy playing America’s greatest composer, in my opinion: Aaron Copeland.

    The piece is his wonderful “Fanfare for the Common Man”. He was such a democrat (small d) Other great compositions (I can only touch on his highlights):

    El Salón México (an inspiration for his close friend, Leonard Bernstein);

    he ballet score, Billy the Kid;

    the film score for Of Mice and Men;

    “Piano Fantasy”;

    Quiet City (1940);

    Our Town (1940);

    Prairie Journal;

    Four Piano Blues;

    Lincoln Portrait;

    Rodeo (ballet);

    Appalachian Spring;

    Clarinet Concerto (commissioned by Benny Goodman);

    The Tender Land (opera);

    Third Symphony;

    And I’m missing lots more. Note the VARIETY.

    No wonder that Ormandy, Serge Koussevitzky (our best all around conductor ever), Benny Goodman, FDR, Nadia Boulanger, all adored him.

    And such a democrat: “The composer who is frightened of losing his artistic integrity through contact with a mass audience is no longer aware of the meaning of the word art.”

    He was our best.

    Like

    Comment by fflambeau — August 5, 2019 @ 8:29 pm


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