What a genius Copland was to put a break in this piece at the 16 min mark so that a commercial could run. Most composers leave a little space at the start so we can see ads.
@@Renee2004lr You may already know that there is a bust of Copland in a glade at Tangelwood. In front of the bust are two plaques that say "Aaron Copland 1900-1990" and " His Memory is Preserved in this Bower by Family and Friends".
Agreed that the human spirit is in the music, but also I am convinced the Holy Spirit. Since the Paraclete resides or can reside in each one of us, perhaps there is really not too much difference between the two concepts?
I couldn't even have expressed those thoughts as you just did, any better. Mr Copland raises the "Human Spirit" in such a way. His music "Speaks" to All "Common Men", especially during these "Uncommon Times".
I feel the serenity and majesty of the American landscape of long ago in this Aaron Copland musical masterpiece. So many heart touched emotions of the promise and spirit of our lives. The painting of the road and car reminds me of visiting Iowa and my grandmother in the early 1950s.
The Promise of living is so quintessential American in every way. Despite all the turmoil and fears for the future, we have this. I speak as an Englishman.
@ Robert CROSS - OR ANY GOOD ENGLISHMAN OUT THERE, HOW IS IT THAT SO MANY OF THE ENGLISH HAVE SUCH AN INTEREST IN CLASSICAL MUSIC, WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE ENGLISH CULTURE THAT IS SO ENRICHING THAT YOU GUYS ALL SEEM TO KNOW AND LOVE SO MUCH CLASSICAL MUSIC ? I'VE JUST NOTICED A LOT MORE ENGLISH ENJOYING THIS CATEGORY ON HERE THAN AMERICANS...
Feel free to emigrate to these hallowed shores; check-out the view from Ellis Island, and tune-in to our Public Radio Stations. The Promise is alive in America!
Typical Copland......all one can do is listen, imagine and appreciate what you're hearing and wondering what this gifted man had in his head as he was composing this (and all his others) beautiful piece of music. This music just makes one want to drift through beautiful white clouds and a beautiful blue sky....so touching on this late October 27, 2021 day.
After reading All of your beautiful comments, regarding this "Piece", by Aaron Copland, and on his "Other Works". YES, his Music does speak To, and Of, the Human Spirit. At times, I can hear it while reading, "The Human Comedy". Or watching the Movie, "Best Years of Our Lives". There were even times, that I could hear "Copland" in my ear during my trials, as a combat medic, in Vietnam. Especially, this piece being played right now. God Blesses you, Aaron Copland, you Get it.
Reading that, in combination with "The Promise of Living" playing in the background drew yet a further tear from my eye, Stephen. And the way you end your post is a triumph. So right... The Holy Spirit showed me how to see, when He came to me (when I begged) on 28-2-21. Now I Get it a little bit ... Copland likewise (atheist though he probably tried to be). And so do you, my friend! These are such awful times we live in, but you will already have done some awful times in your life, I see. May we both (and all) come through on to the other side of 2022! In whatever way that happens.
Hugo Friedhofer, who composed the Oscar-winning score for "The Best Years of Our Lives" stated that Copland's lean diatonic 'Americana' style was the perfect model for his composition.
Wunderschöne Aufführung dieses typisch US-amerikanischen Meisterwerks mit gut harmonisierten und perfekt balancierten Töne aller Instrumente. Der geniale Maestro dirigiert das perfekt trainierte Orchester im angemessenen Tempo mit angenehmer Dynamik. Echt hörenswert!
We played the Promise of Living in marching band in high school. Such a magical piece of music. I played tenor sax and the part at 17:50 was our little "solo" and was so great to play.
Beautiful. Copland has always impressed me with his talent for capturing the 'wide open spaces' not only of the American continent, but of the human spirit. I find myself breathing heavily during these sequences as he conjures up the great freedoms of our world.
If ever there was an all-encompassing American classical composer whose music has truly come to embody the American spirit, it would be Copland. Certainly not the first American composer to experiment with sounds divorced from the European canon, but the first of renown to create a cohesive, specifically American sound.
I Love that Copland included Zions Walls in the The Promise of Living, and is the amazing to hear orchestrated instead being sung . Since I introduced to Copland's Music. I still find this piece is breath taking from start to finish, and truly is one of the best of the songs that Copland ever wrote!
@wScott caywood. Know how you feel/felt. After half bottle of wine, I nervously approached Copland coming out the stage door at Tanglewood, telling him I loved his music and was a great fan (booze talkin'). He seemed genuinely taken aback and thanked me. Next time was his (80th?) birthday concert at Carnegie Hall. When he came on stage to a standing ovation, I welled up such that both my contacts popped. I also subsequently had the honor as acoustician for the Concert Hall at the Copland School of Music at Queens College, NY. Great man, great music.
I'm very envious of your time in Copland's company, no matter how brief. Just for the heck of mentioning it, I donated the Marcos Blahove portrait of Copland that hangs in the Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music. Copland was indeed a great composer and man, and one of our better angels.
Right, Copland hits you right where it counts. Bravo the repudiation of cynicism. We need, have always needed, more of this spirit. Tolstoy said art has a moral obligation. Again, bravo Copland.
Just found out it was composed in 1949. I had an LP with this on one side and APPALACHIAN SPRING on the other conducted by Copland. I had few records. But I enjoyed them. Now I have waaaay too many records and a record player that sounds bad. So I am so glad for RU-vid! Now I can cope. ahahaha No groove noise. Digital when recorded right can be wonderful. Watch out for overmodulation.
I've driven that road. North of Cowtown. // Odd how Copland captured the West so wonderfully though he was from New York. // And certainly, beautiful work as usual.
While a lover of Americans and the American landscape (not so much of policies and leaders!), and while never forgetting and appreciating the security we all get under the American "umbrella", I can tell you that this music speaks of America, even as it also speaks to those of us who live beyond your shores. The section "The Promise of Living" is divinely-inspired and can reach every human being on this planet in wonderful ways. Typically for things that carry truth from the Holy Spirit, this section is exciting and inspiring and motivating, even as it also seems irrevocably nostalgic and sad. For God those aspects of love are all one, and that is why we gasp with astonishment at the wonder of it, even as the tears flow. I can never decide if I like the non-sung version or the sung (opera) version more! But the syncopation and crescendo achieved in that part are like nothing I've ever heard in music before and since. It's genius, it's Copland's genius, but it comes from above, and so our thoughts as we hear it are carried above in a transcending way too...
One important thing to keep in mind is that this is based on an American folk song, as are many of Copland's most famous works, like The Promise of Living in Appalachian Spring. He was trying to bring American folk music into Classical works, as composers like Dvorak, Kodaly, and Vaughan Williams did in Europe. This has little or nothing to do with politics.
This is not QUITE so, William. Copland and his male lover doing the lyrics for the opera WANTED "The Tender Land" (including its incredible and literally DIVINE sequence "The Promise of Living") to be controversial/"edgy", and to make some kinds of statements. But the Holy Spirit had other plans, and he ensured that the pair created something timeless and transcending with it, saying a lot to everyone about the cosmic link with the land that farming folk (and probably all of us on the planet) are able to feel. Such is the wonderful gentle-yet-all-powerful Paraclete - he/it knows us, loves us, helps us, inspires us, cleanses us; but our true surrender to him/it means we get taken in directions we may or may not have expected. Why do you think I am writing this here and now? Before February 2021 I would not have spent my time on such an effort, but now here I am - serving the Lord in my tiny way, as is my obligation but also my ecstatic joy and pleasure. May His love and mercy be with you too, William, my friend!
If you want a real trip into the past, buy or read "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee w/ photos by Walker Evans. It was the impetus for writing this opera.
How odd. As soon as I loaded the video, I recognized exactly where the painting is set. That's looking north on US 287 from a point north of Fort Worth, Texas, near Avondale & Haslet. Here: 32.94632, -97.38545.
We don’t hear enough good American “serious” music here in Europe, I only knew Appalachian Spring , Rodeo, Dance by Copeland and Samuel Barber Adagio and Violin Concerto, and Ashokan Farewell. I do like this Tender Land piece, unmistakable Copeland. I’m going to dig around for more. Did you know Johan Pachelbel’s son was American? We wish you luck recovering from your dreadful mistake of a President, a truly despicable person 👍
Michael, hi. Thank you for your kind note and lovely wishes. Oh, how we need them. Regarding Copland, I love so much of his rich and varied work and consider him the one genuinely great American composer to date. His ballet, "Billy the Kid" is extraordinary, as are his film scores for "The Red Pony" and "Our Town." I'm also very taken with his composition for piano.
This music reminds of Missouri where I lived for 17 years 15 of them in Kansas City and two in Jefferson City. Missouri is a beautiful state and this piece reminds of the Show Me State.
Rhome and Decatur are in Texas. Robert Hanson was the conductor of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra for 24 years. Followed Margaret Hillis as the ESO Music Director/Conductor.
The painting in the video is probably set near where the Texas Motor Speedway is today. Ironic considering Alexandre Hogue made this piece as a direct commentary on the encroachment of modern infrastructure on the natural beauty of the land.
Great Music! I couldn't help but notice on the painting, but the location is exactly at the SE/corner of Texas Motor Speedway at the Hwy 114 and I-35 junction and heading West. It's exactly 9 miles to Rhome and 24 miles to Decatur. The artist couldn't of imagined what was going on to date!
That's a great observation, but I think it's a little bit west. I would put it past 156 near the high school stadium where there is still a road cut. Also, the road a little farther on bends to the left just like in the painting. (Thanks to Google Earth.) Of course the artist may have been using artistic license!
that is great to know. I have only been by the motor speedway once, but the painting looks like the cover of a Steinbeck novel, too, don't ya think?? Priceless stuff
I Thank you for that LANTIE I was also drawn by the painting and want to know his/her name Do you know who was the painter? ,Difficult to date the imagery is of the late 1930s/early 1940s Copland did indeed put American made classical music on the map of the world Reminds me a little of our own George Butterworth = killed on the Somme 1916 and - Gustave Holst.
Dear Past_Notes3: I really appreciate your sharing this, thanks, Pal! I'm 70 years old and I must say, "Now THIS IS Music!" Mr. Copland: U R A GENIUS! God Bless! (Is he even alive)?
God IS alive, as is His Holy Spirit, which clearly inspired and resides in this amazing music. For years I could see its immense power and beauty, but it made me sad, because I kept thinking of the passing of the seasons, and of people with them. Now, thanks to my having been visited by the Spirit back in February, I "see" better the deep joy in this apparent melancholy. So yes, Copland was indeed a genius (even in some ways an unlikely one) - but he had a little extra help from a Paraclete always delighting in enhancing our talents so that we can reach to a higher level. Of course, God cared not that Copland was gay, and that he created The Tender Land with his male lover! God's endless and boundless love, mercy and forgiveness is spread in this way, including thanks to the music - and including between you and I, ogredad, though I guess we will never meet. I'm a bit younger than you, but sadly not in perfect health. But God as Three in One has indeed been incredibly kind to me, and I adore him for that. May He be with you too, my friend!
Copland did set poems of Emily Dickinson in his only song cycle. He originally wrote it for voice and piano, and later he produced voice with orchestra versions of some of the songs.
What's strange is in that image there I think that spot that is portrayed there is a place called Five Points right up North from where I live in Saginaw Texas
Reminds me of the road to Garretson, South Dakota. The first road you turn nort off after crossing into South Dakota. We have made several movies there. No permits.
TBH, that's also the Holy Spirit, reaching out to the atheist composer ... whether he even realised it or not! I got the same treatment, DID realise it (probably because I had been broken and reduced to begging for mercy and cleansing), and was changed. I look back on my comments regarding this piece, whose beauty I could alwayse see - but then I noticed the poignance and melancholy because all things pass and change, including out on the American farmlands. But now I come back to the piece and (also) see the ecstatic joy of it, in it and through it.
What a beautiful comment, David - more loaded with content than maybe you even know. As you will see, most people see this music as redolent with nostalgia and the past, and hence beautiful and melancholy ... and lost to us. As an admirer of Copland's work for decades, I was among such people - I could never see joy or optimism in this music, even though I loved it dearly and it moved me deeply every time. Then the Holy Spirit paid me a visit, when I begged for help at a time of desperation that turned to amazing inspiration. My blindness gave way and I could "see" the joy in this music. So - in more ways than one - I am with you, my brother. Let us see the future in this music, as well as the past, and - of course with God's help and in line with His plan - build something higher, deeper and kinder than we have at the moment. Paradoxically, COVID has shown us that so many things have to change - not least the chemicals and overuse of water that are a slight and an insult inflicted on that "Tender Land". WE CAN do this, I know we can.
Thanks for this key information, Paul! I do believe this music is divinely inspired and has the Holy Spirit in it, but I did not know there was a direct godly reference.
I am happy to see so many comments praising Mr Copland's spirit, especially considering that he was a Communist, a homosexual and a Jew. Perhaps bigotry in America is not as virulent as the past five years had led me to believe.
The Holy Spirit takes a certain even eccentric delight in proving his points, just as he did with St. Paul! For his part, Copland was hoping to achieve more bite and criticism and controversy (and maybe even a touch of insightful mockery) with this opera ... but it did not work out that way, in the event. With the help of the Spirit, the composer created something of such genius and beauty that it soars beyond the shallow, the cynical, the sarcastic, the satirical, the political. This music can never divide, only unite ... as it leaves breathless. The beloved Holy Spirit - with that unique mix of effortless power, gentleness and wisdom - knows what It/He is doing, so we can forever trust Him/It to deliver us a commanding level of insight, love and truth that reach and melt the most hardened of hearts.
"Nonetheless, the opera contains a subtle social critic against McCarthyism, from which Copland became a victim for his leftist associations two decades before this political occurrence." That's a lie. Copland was a communist, but never joined the Party, and was never blacklisted. (Thus, the small "c.") Communists love to weave tales of their victimization, and that of other Reds. However, to my knowledge, Copland never made up such stories. However, communists love to blacklist their opponents, though they prefer to imprison, torture, and murder them by the tens of millions.
@@brianjungen4059 It depends on what definition of "communism" we are talking about: With a small "c" it is "a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. With an upper case "C" it is "a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party" which IS Fascism.
My dear friend, as I listened to this stunning wonderful music of divinity, I came across your comment, and it opened up a new vista for me, for which I thank you so much! I have come to this RU-vid multiple times and thus seen "Road to Rhome" (1938) by Alexandre Hogue. And, indeed, the painting with the sign actually does seem to be a kind of ... SIGN. As you may know, Copland and his male lover wanted this Opera to be full of certain tensions, but that just never worked out, because the beauty and truth here is just too great and people want treat the music "straight", as a celebration of rural America - that tender land coaxed by love and hard work into offering the promise of living... But the painting actually offers further tension, as it is intended to illustrate the beginnings of the erosion that led to the Dust Bowl! It was one of a series actually given the name "Erosion". The title is a pun from the start as we know that all roads lead to R(h)ome, which is in Texas, as is Decatur, though both are close to the NM border. The road is apparently State Highway 114. Rhome honours Col. Byron Crandall Rhome, who brought Hereford cattle into that region. Decatur (TX) is one of a number across the USA named after the hero of the Revolution. Mr Hogue, who died aged 96 in 1994 was raised by his own mother to believe in "Mother Earth" - he took it so literally that he always tried to tread softly on the soil, making as little noise and disturbance as possible. This is kind of amazing as I do this too (at least when I am in a certain kind of mood which the Holy Spirit can inspire). In contrast, his dad was a Presbyterian Pastor who may have espoused the belief that human beings has the right to rule nature. On that basis it is quite interesting to note the CONTRASTING New Testament emphasis in which Jesus tells us that the Earth provides us with food (without us needing to worry about it) thanks be to God. While Jesus surely refers a lot to cultivation and farming and gardening, as well as fishing, the dominance over an exploitable Earth noticeable in the Old Testament is not writ large at all. When Hogue saw what was happening to the land, he wanted to condemn his fellow Texans, not praise them in any way. So the picture actually DOES match Copland's desire for tension, better than it matches any iddylic visions of ours. In the series he also includes a stark work called "The CRUCIFIED Land", which is again a great paradox as the music here is "The Tender Land"!! Another in the series is "Mother Earth laid bare", and we actually see her lying there exposed by erosion! Hogue believed workers should be on and in the land, finding jobs in that way (as in the "Promise of Living" song which is the core element of this work of Copland's). Hogue had no time for tractors (meaning machines that pull), and in fact learned from the culture of the Pueblo people that no metal should ever be brought to the land for fear of harming Mother Earth! Hogue's fears about exhausting the Earth put me in mind of the marvellous movie "Interstellar" in which Matthew M's character says something about the Earth becoming tired of humankind - that scene made my cry, in a movie that has the same effect. It was filmed in Alberta - a place that ought to still support the native grasslands that Hogue loved so much. Hogue believed his paintings HAD to continue in this primal way, and so he made great efforts to avoid having his style more sophisticated or more influenced by other art or artists! He presumably believed he had something pure to convey that could not be transformed in any way. Apparently, Alexandre Hogue did care (as we can read in somebody's academic thesis atcore.ac.uk/download/pdf/17213882.pdf) . And so do I. I hope you do too!
![Aaron Copland: The Tender Land Suite (1949) [DDD]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
