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Collection Aaron Copland Collection

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From "Of Mice and Men" to "Our Town: Three Piano Excerpts" (8 works)

Of Mice and Men
Form: Film score
Date: 1939
First performance: 16 February 1940. New York
Publisher: Unpublished
Notes: Two sections of the score appear in Music for the Movies as "Barley Wagons" and "Threshing Machines."
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Old American Songs. Set I
Form: Voice and piano (arr. Voice and orchestra)
Date: 1950
First performance: [voice and piano]17 June, 1950. Aldeburgh. Peter Pears, tenor; Benjamin Britten, piano. [voice and orchestra] 7 January 1955. Los Angeles. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Alfred Wallenstein. Willliam Warfield, baritone
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes.
Date of publication: 1950
Timing: 12'
Contents: I. The Boatmen's Dance (Minstrel song – 1843) II. The Dodger (Campaign song) III. Long Time Ago (Ballad) IV. Simple Gifts (Shaker song) V. I Bought Me a Cat (Children's song)
Notes: Copland arranged these songs for voice and small orchestra in 1954. The songs were also published individually "transcribed for chorus" (in various voicings) by Irving Fine in 1952. The song Simple Gifts appears also in Appalachian Spring (and its spinoff Variations on a Shaker Tune); the arrangement in "Old American Songs" is, however, independent. "I Bought Me a Cat" was originally intended for This Tragic Ground
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Old American Songs. Set II
Form: Voice and piano. (Arranged for voice and orchestra)
Date: 1952
First performance: [voice and piano] Ipswich, Massachusetts. William Warfield, baritone; Aaron Copland, piano. [voice and orchestra] 25 May, 1958. Ojai, California. Ojai Festival Orchestra, cond. Aaron Copland. Grace Bumbry, mezzo
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Date of publication: 1954
Timing: 13'
Contents: I. The Little Horses (lullaby) II. Zion's Walls (revivalist song) III. The Golden Willow Tree (Anglo-American ballad) IV. At the River (Hymn tune) V. Ching-A-Ring Chaw (Minstrel song)
Notes: Copland arranged these songs for voice and small orchestra in 1958. "Zion's Walls" is the basis for the music of The Promise of Living in The Tender Land. No. V was published in choral arrangements (various voicings) by Irving Fine in 1955; nos. I and IV in choral arrangements by Ray Wilding-White in 1965 and 1964 respectively; no. II in choral arrangements by Glenn Koponen in 1982
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Old Poem
Form: Voice and piano
Date: 1920
Text: Arthur Waley, from the Chinese
First performance: 10 January 1922. Paris. Charles Hubbard, singer; Aaron Copland, piano
Publisher: Editions Maurice Senart
Date of publication: 1923
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Orchestral Variations
Date: 1957
First performance: 5 March 1958. Louisville Orchestra, cond. Robert Whitney
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Date of publication: 1960
Timing: 14'
Notes: an orchestration of the Piano Variations
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Our Town
Form: Film
Date: 1940
First performance: 13 June 1940. New York
Publisher: Unpublished as film score
Notes: There are suites for orchestra and for piano link to work0081] drawn from the music to this film. The suites are not identical. The opening of the film, titled "Grovers Corners," is the fourth movement of Music for the Movies
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Our Town
Form: Orchestral suite
Date: 1940
First performance: 9 June 1940. Columbia Symphony Orchestra, cond. Howard Barlow
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Date of publication: 1945
Timing: 11'
Dedication: Leonard Bernstein
Notes: Drawn from the film score. The orchestra suite and the piano suite are not identical: the orchestra suite is in one continuous movement without titles. The opening of the film, titled "Grovers Corners," is the fourth movement of Music for the Movies
Our Town: Three Piano Excerpts
Date: 1944
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Date of publication: 1945
Timing: 7'
Contents: I. Story of Our Town II. Conversation at the Soda Fountain III. The Resting-Place on the Hill
Notes: The orchestra suite and the piano suite are not identical. The opening of the film, retitled "Grovers Corners," is the fourth movement of Music for the Movies