Copland Clarinet Concerto

06-04 Hear & Now:NYP
5/27/09
3:27 PM
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Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra, with Harp

and Piano
AARON COPLAND
Born
November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn,
New York
Died
December 2, 1990, in Peekskill,
New York
Work composed
September 1947October 1948
World premiere
November 6, 1950, in a broadcast
from the NBC Studios in New York
City, Fritz Reiner conducting the NBC
Symphony Orchestra, Benny Goodman,
soloist
New York Philharmonic premiere
June 19, 1969, the composer conducting, Benny Goodman, soloist, in
Holmdel, New Jersey
Most recent New York Philharmonic
performance
November 27, 1999, Kurt Masur,
conductor, Stanley Drucker, soloist
Estimated duration
ca. 14 minutes
rom the 1920s through the 1940s many

figures strove to effect a rapprochement
between classical music and jazz. The
most famous early effort in this direction was
the Experiment in Modern Music organized by
Paul Whiteman in 1924, an event that introduced music from both sides of the aisle,
including the newly composed Rhapsody in
Blue by George Gershwin. In ensuing years
a few other bandleaders would also tender

commissions to classical composers.
Woody Herman, for example, persuaded
Stravinsky to compose his Ebony Concerto
(for clarinet and jazz band) for his ensemble, Hermans Herd, in 1945. Benny
Goodman, The King of Swing, reached
even more deeply into the classical aesthetic, requesting pieces for non-jazz
groups that he could play as a classical clarinetist. Thus were born Bartks Contrasts
(for clarinet, violin, and piano) in 1938 and
Hindemiths Clarinet Concerto in 1947.
Both Herman and Goodman approached
composer Aaron Copland at about the same
time, the former in the summer of 1946 and
the latter in early 1947. Goodman became
the successful suitor, offering a very substantial fee of $2,000, and Copland set to
work on the commission shortly thereafter
while on a tour in South America. The concertos progress is documented through
letters Copland addressed to Leonard
Bernstein. On September 24, 1947, Copland
wrote from Rio de Janeiro: Ive just about
begun work on the B. Goodman piece. A little more than a year later, on October 18,
1948, he wrote:
Nothing much has been happening. I
stayed home a lot and finished my
Clarinet Concerto endlich [finally]!
Tried it over for Benny [Goodman] the
other day. He had Dave O [the clarinetist David Oppenheim] around for
moral support. (O what an angelicums
that O is!) Seems I wrote the last page
too high for all normal purposes. So
itll have to come down a step.
The concerto had a considerable gestation period for a piece that lasts roughly 14
minutes. The poignantly beautiful first
movement seems to have come to Copland
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easily; in fact, its central section was already

mostly written, being a recasting of music
composed in 1945 for the film The
Cummington Story. What would happen
beyond the first movement stymied
Copland for a while, and he set the project
aside to germinate while he fulfilled a
remunerative contract from Republic
Pictures for The Red Pony in the winter of
1948. In addition, he had commitments he
had to attend to for the summer season at
the Berkshire Music Festival (Tanglewood).
Copland finally managed to invent a
fast second movement to counterbalance
the languorous first, drawing on South
American popular music as well as North
American jazz. Some of this finales material is introduced by the solo clarinet in a
substantial cadenza that connects the two
movements, a section that, as Copland
pointed out, is not ad lib as in cadenzas
of many traditional concertos; I always
felt there was enough room in interpretation even when everything is written out.
The concerto waited two years to receive
its first performance. (Copland had little
Page 10
control over the situation since Goodman

retained exclusive performance rights.) Two
separate attempts fell through to schedule a
premiere, first with Eugene Ormandy conducting (presumably The Philadelphia
Orchestra), and then despite Bernsteins pleading with Serge Koussevitzsky leading the Boston Symphony
Orchestra at Tanglewood. On May 21, 1950,
Bernstein wrote to Copland to break the
news about Koussevitzkys recalcitrance: I
fought with Kouss valiantly over the Clarinet
Concerto, to no avail. Benny & Tanglewood
dont mix in his mind. So it was that the
Concerto was first heard in a broadcast by
the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
conducting, in November 1950. The
response was reportedly lukewarm, but
Copland and Goodman recorded the work
together twice, in 1950 and again in 1963;
the second of these recordings proved
something of a hit, doing much to establish
the piece in the essential clarinet repertoire.
Instrumentation: harp, piano, and strings,
in addition to the solo clarinet.
In the Composers Words

Aaron Copland wrote this brief analytical description of his Concerto for Clarinet and
String Orchestra, with Harp and Piano:
The first movement is simple in structure, based upon the usual A-B-A song form.
The general character of this movement is lyric and expressive. The cadenza that
follows provides the soloist with considerable opportunity to demonstrate his
prowess, at the same time introducing fragments of the melodic material heard in
the second movement. Some of this
material represents an unconscious
fusion of elements obviously related to
North and South American popular
music. (For example, a phrase from a
currently popular Brazilian tune, heard
by me in Rio, became imbedded in the
secondary material in F major.) The
overall form of the final movement is
that of a free rondo, with several side
issues developed at some length. It
ends with a fairly elaborate coda in
C major.
Copland (right) and Benny Goodman
32
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06-04 Hear & Now:NYP

Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra, with Harp

rom the 1920s through the 1940s many

a few other bandleaders would also tender

06-04 Hear & Now:NYP

easily; in fact, its central section was already

control over the situation since Goodman

In the Composers Words

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