El Salón México

In 1932, on a visit to Mexico City, Copland visited a dance hall called El Salón Mexico. Inspired by the various kinds of music and dancing on display there, he composed his orchestral work using the hall’s name as its title. Completed in 1936, the piece premiered a year later in Mexico City, conducted by his friend and fellow composer Carlos Chávez. El Salón Mexico set the benchmark for Copland’s mastery of a popular Americana musical style; designed to appeal to a wide audience, it also deployed exceptional technical skill, brilliant orchestration and complex rhythmic invention. During his visit, Copland had bought some sheet music versions of Mexican folk songs, and he drew on four of these for the thematic ideas in his own 11-minute work. The music’s pace, verve and Latin atmosphere opened up new possibilities for American composers, colourfully influencing Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story (1957) and Elmer Bernstein’s film score for The Magnificent Seven (1960).