Andre Jones Flute Literature 11/14/2016

Aaron Copland

Duo for Flute and Piano

Arron Copland was born on November 14th, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Sarah
Mittenthal and Harris Copland who were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Copland was the
youngest of five children who all had the privilege of taking music lessons thanks to their mother
during their early years. Copland was fortunate to have been introduced to the piano by his older
sister Luarine who also taught him about the world of rag time and opera. Due to his progress,
Copland was able to study piano with Leopold Wolfsohn who influenced his decision to become
a composer at the end of his high school career.

Copland began studying counterpoint and Harmony with the famous American composer and
past teacher of George Gershwin, Rubin Goldmark in 1917 which lasted for three years. The
summer after his lessons ended, Copland was awarded a scholarship to enroll in the American
Conservatory at Fountainbleau where he met and studied with Paul Vidal and Nadia Boulanger
who saw him recognized his talent and made provisions for him to study at the Paris
conservatory through scholarships made available by the French government. During his time at
the conservatory, Copland described his relationship with Nadia Boulanger as the most important
musical experience of his career as she ensured that he had the privilege of traveling to England,
Belgium, Italy, Germany and Austria to meet new composers, listen new music and study their
scores for musical exposure. Before leaving Paris, Boulanger introduced Copland to Russian
born conductor, Serge Koussevitzky who had just accepted the position of musical director at the
Boston Symphony Orchestra for the 1924-25 season.

Koussevitzky became a very influential part of Coplands life as he commissioned many of his
works and premiered them via the Boston Symphony orchestra and named him assistant director
of the Berkshire music summer program that he, Koussevitzky founded in 1940. Copland was
determined to be an independent composer who would not have to rely on a full-time university
position but this led to a poor life for the composer who only made a few thousand dollars during
world war two because he would often only compose one piece per year quite often.

In 1967, shortly after the death of William Kincaid, the legendary flute instructor at the Curtis
institute and performer from the Philadelphia orchestra, four of his students approached Samuel
Andre Jones Flute Literature 11/14/2016

Barber, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein to commission a piece that would honor the late
flutist and instructor. Of course, Copland grabbed on to the two thousand and five-hundred-
dollar opportunity before the others could do so and finally brought forward the three movement
Duo for flute and piano in 1971, three years after accepting the job.

The first movement in A-B-C-B-A (arch form), beginning in the key of B flat major opens with a
flute solo for sixteen measures. The gently and moving melody is very much like the melody
from Coplands composition Appalachian Spring that ended on the third beat of measure
sixteen and picked up with the piano on the fourth beat. The B section moves flowingly between
the keys of D flat major and C flat major goes unexpectedly to a faster moving sixteenth and
thirty second notes before recapping to the B then the A sections in the key of C minor.

The second movement is poetic and mournful and features changing meters of 7\8. 5\8, 3\8 and
4\8. This movement also has no key signature but instead passes through a series of keys that
surround C in the circle of fifths.

The third movement has a ternary form and was inspired by Beethovens Eroica with the striking
D major tonic chords in the beginning and lively and energetic tempo. Copland again uses some
of the melodies from his previous movie score, Appalachian Spring in this movement and some
from the Hoe-Down from his the movie, Rodeo. This movement modulates to E mixolydian, E
major, D flat major and B flat major in which the piece ends.