Appalachian Spring

Appalachian Spring began life in 1942 when Martha Graham, America’s pioneering modern dancer and choreographer, asked the composer for a new ballet for her dance company, to be performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Graham specified an American subject, but it seems that a detailed scenario was not discussed until later: Copland’s working title was “Ballet for Martha". As the first performance on 30 October 1944, approached, the setting of the piece had become a newly built farmhouse in 19th-century Pennsylvania (Graham’s home state), and the four main characters were a young couple about to be married, an older pioneer woman and a visiting preacher. The title Appalachian Spring, taken from Hart Crane’s poem “The Dance”, was Graham’s suggestion. The ballet is written mostly in Copland’s popular Americana idiom, combining lyrical appeal with brilliant rhythmic invention and energy, and incorporating the Shaker song “Simple Gifts” as the basis of a set of variations. Much of the music is of exceptional beauty, as in the closing scene, where the now-married couple are alone together, quietly happy in their new home. In 1945, Copland arranged an orchestral concert suite from the ballet score (which had been written for a chamber group of 13 players), reducing its 33-minute length by a fourth, mainly by removing a sizable central section from the sequence of Shaker variations. In this format Appalachian Spring swept the world, becoming Copland’s most famous major work.