Aaron Copland "Lincoln Portrait" Carl Sandburg

Aaron Copland began work on "Lincoln Portrait" in January 1942, following a commission from conductor, Andre Kostelanetz, who conducted the premiere with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on 14 May 1942. The narrator on that occasion was William Adams.

On 15 March, 1958, American-born poet and author, Carl Sandburg, whose monumental biography on Abe Lincoln was published in 1940, recorded the work with Kostelanetz and the New York Philharmonic.

Sandburg's lopsided metre, spoken in a quasi-middle American accent with Irish inflections, will not appeal to many listeners. It is diametrically opposite to the grave intonations of such actors as Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Melvyn Douglass [the latter of whom was the first to record the work].

Copland's work comprises a slow-fast-slow ABA structure. The second A section features the narration, which Copland based, in part, on Lord Charnwood's 1917 biography of Lincoln. Each of the A sections are comprised of two thematic motifs: the first, a dirgelike dotted -rhythm in the minor key and the folksong "Springfield Mountain" in the major key [Copland's colleague Bernard Herrmann had already incorporated it, albeit in the minor key, in his Oscar-winning score for the 1941 film, "All That Money Can Buy"].

The B section, includes a brief reference to Stephen Foster's "Camptown Races," which was composed in 1850.

This video is © 2013 Fifth Continent. The artist of the coloured portrait of Abraham Lincoln could not be identified. All other images are in the public domain. The sound recording is in the public domain in all countries aside from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore.

Видео Aaron Copland "Lincoln Portrait" Carl Sandburg канала Fifth Continent