Copland – Threnodies

^{Aaron Copland (1900-90)}

^{Two Threnodies (1971 and ’73)}

^{Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1900 and died about forty miles away in Sleepy Hollow, New York in 1990. By the 1960s, he was esteemed as the Dean of American composers, with a stylistically varied body of works that included the youthful, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto and Music for the Theater; the populist ballets Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring; and major orchestral scores including the Symphony no. 3 and the craggy, New York Philharmonic-commissioned Connotations.}

^{After completing Connotations in 1962, Copland’s composing dropped off significantly: the ruminative orchestral piece Inscape of 1967 was his last major score, though short pieces flowed from his pen until the early 1980s.}

^{The two Threnodies on the present program date from the early 1970s. Threnody I was written in response to a commission from the publisher Boosey & Hawkes for a piece in memory of Igor Stravinsky, who died in April 1971. Scored for flute, violin, viola, and cello, it is a short work that features a flute melody over a canonic ground bass in the strings. Threnody II was composed two years later for the same instrumentation as a memorial for Copland’s friend, Beatrice Cunningham. Because of their brevity (combined, they only last about seven minutes), both pieces are often performed together.}

^{© Jonathan Blumhofer}

^{Reproduction Rights: This program note may be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with a credit to the author.}