S2.E19. Copland Appelation Spring, Holst Moorside Suite, Brahms Violin Concerto.

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Welcome back to Perfect Pitch with Nick Healy Hutchinson and his fresh approach to the world of classical music. Whether you're an expert or a beginner, old or young, Perfect Pitch has something for everyone.

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In his 1939 book, What to Listen for in Music, Aaron Copand wrote, The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, is there a meaning to music? My answer would be yes. And can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be no. I've always found that a rather refreshing reassurance because right from episode one of these podcasts, you have heard me say how often there is the temptation to spend too much time on analysing what lies beneath and risk enjoying it for what it is as a result. If, as Eric Copeland did, you spend most of your 90 years in the States from 1900 to 1990, you are going to encounter the widest range of music possible. Copeland's influence was food. And more than any other composer could be said to have forged an American identity music. Actually, he had to. Because there hadn't been any kind of American tradition in classical music in the same way there had been in Europe for the last couple of hundred years or more. In creating this identity, he called upon leading jazz medicines of the day in the state, as well as spending a few years in Paris, where he acquired a healthy knowledge of European disciplines. Despite experimenting as with required, with modern and different techniques, his ultimate preference always lay in the melody. This inevitably led to charges of dumbing down and writing for the matter. But the continuing and widening appreciation of his music, especially that of the 1940s, does, I think, give him the last laugh. So let's start today by listening to a brief extract from one of his most popular pieces, The Appalachian Spring. This passage titled Simple Gifts was inspired by a folk song and went on to become the tune of a well-known hymn. What a simple, sweet sound this is. And I love the way Copeland explores it with a whole orchestra. Simple Gifts from Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring is played here by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer himself. And on the other side of the water, Gustav Holst was also being influenced heavily by native folk song. Most of us have been familiar with Mars from its planet suite, which we listened to last week, and which propelled him into a rather reluctant fame, but maybe less so with his preferred style, with which he struggled for so long. It was viewed by many as being austere. But that made it simply down to the economist scale in his writing. His Mortside suite was originally composed for Brass Band in 1928, towards the end of his life. But he transcribed it for strings as well, although the score for that was not discovered until 1983. There are three sections a ghetto, a truly soothing, an atmosphere nocturne in the middle, and a boisterous march to the finish. It's absolutely British in feel. Straight out of the same mould as his lifelong friend Ray Form Williams. It's music to dwell in. And I hope you'll see what I mean as we listen to it being played by the London Symphonia conducted by David Lloyd Jones. But I don't think we should be too surprised about that, because none of them, except his friends Robert and Claude Schumann, ever were. But the audience at its premier in 1879 loved it, and audiences are usually the best arbiters of such matters, be it in music, theatre,

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That's it for this week. Nick will be back again soon. Please wait and comment on any of the previous episodes, and if you like you here.