Aaron Copland
Symphony No. 3
In August, 1944, Aaron Copland began working on a commission from the Boston Symphony to write a piece in memory of conductor Serge Koussevitzky’s late wife, Natalie. Copland was spending that summer in Tepotzlan, Mexico, far from the sweeping vistas of American plains by then associated with his music–and from his real home turf, the bustle of New York. Mexico was also distant from the travails of World War II. But his friend, composer David Diamond, urged Copland to “make it a really KO [knock-out] sym phony,” and encouraged Copland’s idea of using the theme from his 1942 Fanfare for the Common Man, written originally as a war morale-booster. So despite his main intent, to write a piece for a conductor who, as Copland wrote, “liked music in the grand manner,” the work was still touched by war. It took some time, however, for Copland to finish, and by the time Koussevitsky con ducted the premiere, in October 1946, the war had ended and Copland could claim that the symphony reflected “the euphoric spirit of the country at the time.”
The work can also be noted for what Copland said did not influence it: folk music or popular idioms such as jazz. Although the composer had become known by this time for incorporating such motifs in his works, he wrote, “Regarding my Third Symphony, one aspect ought to be pointed out: it contains no folk or popular material.” Yet at its premiere, it was criticized by some for being too obviously ‘populist,’ as well as somewhat overblown. Copland himself wrote that it was “fat-grand” rather than “lean-grand,” and later made a few cuts in the finale. The symphony was described some years later by Leonard Bernstein as “an American monument, like the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial” (one isn’t quite certain whether to take this as a compliment). And despite Copland’s protestations, the work does bear a resemblance to his ballets of the 1930s. It also features the open fifths and fourths so characteristic of his work, and that (thanks to Copland) have become almost synonymous with music representing “America” in film scores and commercials.
Copland wrote that he constructed the opening, Molto moderato, in the form of a musical arch. Opening and closing in the key of E, the movement features three themes, stated by strings, then violas and oboes, then trombones and horns. The central portion of the “arch” is “more animated,” he writes, and definitely in the grand manner, with its resounding brass and timpani.
The scherzo, Allegro molto, starts boldly with a brass fanfare that develops into an energetic motif. In the trio section, solo wood winds begin a quiet, lyrical canon taken up by the strings, until a solo piano leads us back to the restatement of the opening motif. The canon of the trio appears a last time, but this time played fortissimo by the full orchestra.
The third movement, Andantino quasi allegretto, opens with soft, high harmonics in the strings. In fact, the movement features mainly strings, with a few woodwinds and almost no brass (a single horn and trumpet). Copland wrote that this movement is “built up sectionally,” and that “the various sections are intended to emerge one from the other in continuous flow, somewhat in the manner of a closely knit series of variations.” The central Allegretto con moto section is broader and more forceful, but the movement eventually “drifts off into the higher regions of the strings” again, ending with a solo violin and piccolo, accompanied by harps and celesta.
The third movement segues directly into the fourth, Molto deliberato. Copland teases us a little with his Fanfare for the Common Man, beginning at first as quietly as he left the previous movement, with the famous melody played pianissimo by clarinets and flutes. Then the brass and percussion state the fanfare more firmly, until a solo oboe seems almost to improvise, leading the woodwinds and then full orchestra into the athletic main body of the movement. A tutti chord, with flutter-tongued brass and piccolos, announces the end of the development. Then Copland weaves together this movement’s improvisatorial main theme (in high woodwinds) and the fanfare (in bassoons) with the opening theme of the first movement (strings and then trombone). The symphony ends on a grand, exultant restatement of the entire work’s opening phrase, thus bringing us full circle in celebration.