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''Appalachian Spring'' is a composition by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite. The ballet, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon commission of choreographer and dancer Martha Graham with funds from the Coolidge Foundation. It premiered on Monday, 30 October 1944 at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. The set was designed by the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his achievement.〔(Pulitzer winners for Music category )〕 ==Composition process== In 1942, Martha Graham and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commissioned Copland to write a ballet with "an American theme". Copland did the bulk of the work in 1943/44, and the work was premiered at the Library of Congress on Oct. 30, 1944, with Graham dancing the lead role. In 1945, Copland was commissioned by conductor Artur Rodzinski to rearrange the ballet as an orchestral suite, preserving most of the music. Copland cut about 10 minutes from the original 13-instrument score to make the suite. From the preface in the original Boosey & Hawkes publication of the suite:
The Orchestral Suite from 1945 was first recorded by Serge Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.〔http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/Coplandtribute.htm〕 In 1954, Eugene Ormandy asked Copland to expand the orchestration for the full score of the ballet. In 1972, Boosey & Hawkes published a version of the suite fusing the structure of it with the scoring of the original ballet: double string quartet, bass, flute, clarinet, bassoon, and piano. Thus we see that there are four versions of Appalachian Spring, dating from 1944 (13-player complete), 1945 (orchestral suite), 1954 (orchestral complete) and 1972 (13-player suite). The 1944 version was recorded in 1991 by Hugh Wolff with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for Teldec.〔http://www.allmusic.com/album/copland-appalachian-spring-mw0001814338〕 The 1954 version was recorded by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for RCA Victor in May 1999. The original ballet and the orchestral suite were well received. The latter was credited as more important in popularizing the composer. Originally, Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as "Ballet for Martha"—a title as simple and direct as the Shaker tune '''Tis the Gift to be Simple'' quoted in the music.〔Matthew Naughtin, ''Ballet Music,'' 2014, p. 147〕 Shortly before the premiere, Graham suggested ''Appalachian Spring'', a phrase from a Hart Crane poem, "The Dance" from a collection of poems in his book "The Bridge."
Because he composed the music without the benefit of knowing what the title was going to be, Copland was often amused when people told him he captured the beauty of the Appalachians in his music, a fact he alluded to in an interview with NPR's Fred Calland.〔(Milestones of the Millennium: Appalachian Spring )〕 Little known is that the word "spring" denotes a source of water in the Crane poem; however the poem is a journey to meet springtime. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Appalachian Spring」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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