Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season BSO_Overture_NOV_DEC | Page 21

COPLAND SYMPHONY NO. 3
he was a true product of the American
melting pot. His parents, Russian Jews,
had emigrated from Eastern Europe.
His mother, Sarah Mittenthal, who had
grown up in Peoria, IL and Dallas, TX,
probably first inspired his fascination
with the great American open spaces.
In his early 20s, Copland traveled to
France to receive a European grounding
in composition from the renowned
pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. Upon
returning to America, he was initially
lured by the modernist international style
inspired by Stravinsky.
The coming of the Depression,
however, ignited Copland’s sense of
musical mission. He became part of the
group of “New Deal” artists clustered
around the photographer Alfred Stieglitz
(including Georgia O’Keefe, Ansel
Adams and Hart Crane) who, taking
the motto “Affirm America” as their
credo, sought to express the American
democratic ideal in their art. Copland
decided to address his music not to the
elite few but to the general music-lover
and “to see if I couldn’t say what I had to
say in the simplest possible terms.”
Early in 1944, his devoted supporter
Serge Koussevitzky, music director
of the Boston Symphony, extended a
commission for a major orchestral work.
Always a slow and painstaking craftsman,
Copland barely finished the Symphony
No. 3 in time for its premiere by that
other BSO on October 18, 1946. Born
during World War II, it arrived in time to
celebrate the Allied victory, and its heroic,
affirmative tone ensured its success.
Adding to the Symphony’s grandeur was
his incorporation of his Fanfare for the
Common Man in the finale.
But the first movement — built in
the form of an arch — opens with
the utmost simplicity and gentleness.
Singing in unison, flute, clarinets and
violins etch a spare melody of wide-
open-spaces intervals. The brass provides
tender commentary as the instruments
gradually pile in for a first affirmation.
Violas and woodwinds then quietly
introduce a second theme, close cousin
to the first but more flowing and
rhythmically active. This, too, builds
to a climax until the trombones present
the movement’s third theme. In a rising
shape and more assertive in spirit, this
melody is a harbinger of the Fanfare for
the Common Man. The whole orchestra
salutes it with dance-like music of great
rhythmic energy. A marvelous passage
of glittering percussion music leads to a
stentorian climax of brass and drums —
the peak of the arch — before a return to
the opening’s spare simplicity.
The crash of drums awakens us with
a jolt as the second-movement Scherzo
begins. The horns leap upward with
a call-to-action idea that also looks
ahead to the Fanfare. The other brass
instruments imitate their cry in a blazing
military display. Then, horns and violas
extend this idea into a true theme,
accompanied by chugging strings and a
chortling piccolo. Repeated three times,
this theme evokes ever more exuberant
bursts of orchestral merriment. The
slower trio section offers a total
contrast in mood, with a solo oboe
singing a melancholy, romantic melody
reminiscent of one of Copland’s
Western ballets.
Movement three opens with yet another
extraordinary transformation. As we
listen to the violins’ high, ethereal line,
we can hardly believe it is the trombones’
assertive third theme from the first
movement in airy new guise. Intensified
by counterpoint from other instruments,
it rises to a passionate climax. The solo

flute sings a new theme, rocking gently
in Copland’s signature Americana style;
this beautifully scored music recalls
the pioneers of Copland’s Appalachian
Spring. Its luminous close leads directly
into the finale.
After a soft preview of Fanfare for
the Common Man, it is blazed forth
by brass and percussion, serving as
dynamic preparation for the work’s
longest and most dramatic movement.
A quick, swirling theme grows out
of it and generates a dancing fugato.
Eventually, the Fanfare joins in the
dance. This music grows in frenzy
until stopped dead in its tracks by loud,
harshly dissonant chords. Tentatively,
the woodwinds resume the dance,
which gradually builds to a powerful
restatement of the Fanfare. And near the
end, we hear again, high in the strings,
the simple theme with which the
symphony began. Shedding his usual
love of understatement, Copland closes
his victory symphony with a grandeur
that must have delighted Koussevitzky,
just as it still delights audiences today.
Instrumentation: Four flutes including two
piccolos, three oboes including English horn,
two clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, two
bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four
trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two
harps, piano, celesta and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, © 201 8
N OV– D EC 2018 / OV E R T U R E
19