Happy Birthday to the Father of American Music

Today is the birthday of two special composers. The first is Johann Nepomuk Hummel, born in 1778. When I was in my teens, I accompanied my brother on piano as he played Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto, a very fine piece which is a regular part of the trumpet repertoire (click here for the source of the excerpt). Now that I look at his wikipedia entry, I feel gypped because I realize he wrote so much piano music I never knew existed. Sigh… as Rachmaninoff said, “Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”

The second is Aaron Copland, born in 1900. He grew up in a time when classical composers were alienating themselves from the mainstream concert-going public with their heavy modernist styles that only the “elite” music lovers would go for. In his early life, Copland conformed to the strict modernism of the time, but he eventually became disgusted with the breach between the mainstream public and the elitist crowds. He abandoned his approach and wrote simply so that all people would understand and be able to enjoy the classical music of the day. However, his previous hard work and training wasn't at all wasted - his more accessible music is teeming with very complex rhythms and well-placed dissonances, aspects which he learned and mastered during his early compositional experimentation.

Copland’s music really resonates with me. Some of his most memorable compositions are based on a “rural America” theme:

- Fanfare for the Common Man
- Hoedown from Rodeo
- Appalachian Spring, excerpt 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
(Click here and here for the sources of these excerpts)

The Appalachian Spring suite is one of my favorite pieces of all time and a MUST-listen. It consists of several american folk-themes strung together in a suite about 25 minutes long. Probably the most famous melody, based on the Shaker hymn "The Gift to be Simple", comes near the end, and Copland’s treatment of it and the other themes is breathtakingly beautiful and nostalgic. I'm moved to tears every time I hear certain parts of this suite, and I’m even getting a little misty-eyed as I write this just thinking about it.

To hear Copland’s influence on other composers, listen to the theme from the movie “Apollo 13” (composer James Horner), also very beautifully nostalgic and truly American in its sound (excerpt taken from here).