portray the “elusive figure of the common man” (Dickstein, 2005, p.94).
Dickstein posits that this figure was an attempt at portraying an optimistic
way forward for Americans in response to the Depression, but this again
misses the effect of Copland’s identity on the end result of this pursuit.
When a man whose identity has so much potential for marginalisation
– a gay, second generation Russian immigrant Jew with niche political
affiliations – then goes on to define the musical identity of the common
American, inherent in his music is the sense that the definition of the
common American has expanded, and he goes some way to legitimising
the Americanness of others like himself.
Kassandra Hartford contends that Copland’s use of Anglo-American
folk melodies, in keeping with Popular Front ideology, was in pursuit of
a particular anti-racist, left-wing agenda. She references the example
of John Powell, a composer and organiser of the racially exclusionary
White Top Folk Festival, as a motivator for the appropriation, by left-wing
composers like Copland, of Anglo-American folk melodies “in service
of a reactionary political and cultural agenda” (Hartford, 2016, p.317).
While this agenda is one that endeavours to combat broad spectrum
ethnic exclusion from American culture and identity, Copland’s reaction
to this festival in particular and its racist philosophy may have stemmed
from offence caused by Jewish exclusion. Mentioned in the previous
chapter is the critic, Paul Rosenfeld – a man who was “Copland’s most
vocal supporter during the first fifteen years of his career” (Levy, 2005,
p.312) – who said of the festival: ““East Side boys . . . can never sing” at
White Top, because there, “American expressions to be ‘American’ must
base themselves in Anglo-American tradition.”” (Hartford, 2016, p.317)
The reference to New York City’s East Side, particularly in the 1930s
when this was written, is a reference to the historic Jewish immigrant
community there, in which Copland was raised. Copland’s use of folk
music may have been specifically railing against the exclusion of Jews
from American identity.
Copland’s frequent use of folk melodies in popular works like Appalachian
Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo, and his association with Popular Front
ideology put him under the scrutiny of McCarthyism after the war. Through
accusations that he was a communist, his very Americanness was being
questioned, and by extension his understanding and depictions of the
common man. With compositions in the 1950s like his song cycle, Twelve
Poems of Emily Dickinson, Copland moved, noticeably, away from the
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