Frontier Figures

by Beth E. Levy

  6. Sally Bick, “Copland, Hollywood, and American Musical Modernism,” American Music 23 (2005): 426, 438. See also Bick, “Composers on the Cultural Front: Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler in Hollywood” (PhD diss., Yale University, 2001).

  7. HP, 347, quoting David Raksin, Los Angeles Philharmonic intermission tribute, broadcast 11 February 1986, courtesy of Philip Ramey.

  8. Cochran, “Style, Structure,” 354-58, 443-46.

  9. Copland to [Irving and Verna Fine], 4 March 1948, in Crist and Shirley, Selected Correspondence, 187. I treat the nostalgia and family dynamics of the film at somewhat greater length in “The Great Crossing: Nostalgia and Manifest Destiny in Aaron Copland's The Red Pony,” Journal of Film Music 2, nos. 2-4 (2009): 201-23.

  10. Aaron Copland, The Red Pony: Film Suite for Orchestra (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1951).

  11. Two of the short stories were published in 1933, giving Steinbeck his first national success. Another was written in 1937. All four appeared in the 1938 collection The Long Valley, but only the first three were grouped under the title The Red Pony. “The Leader of the People,” which shares the characters and setting of the other three stories, was included in The Red Pony for the first time in the “first illustrated” edition of 1945.

  12. Steinbeck insisted that he have veto power over any performances of the suite using another narrator's voice and any alterations to his own tape-recording. Steinbeck to Copland, as transcribed in a letter from Lucile Sullivan at Annie Laurie Williams, Inc., to Copland, 15 September 1964, CCLC, 415/7. See also Aaron Copland and Vivian Perlis, Copland since 1943 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1989), 90-91.

  13. Joseph Millichap, Steinbeck and Film (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1983), 109.

  14. See Copland, What to Listen For in Music, 259-60. On Milestone's openness to new sonic possibilities, see Bick, “Copland, Hollywood,” 430-31.

  15. Copland, “Notes on the Children's Suite from The Red Pony,” CCLC, 415/7. The suite was dedicated to Copland's lover Erik Johns and was created for Efrem Kurtz, who wanted a world premiere at his opening concert with the Houston Symphony. It was completed in August 1948 and was eventually published without the “for children” designation.

  16. CCLC, 415/4.

  17. Cited in Millichap, Steinbeck and Film, 113.

  18. Alfred W. Cochran, “The Red Pony,” Cue Sheet 11, no. 2 (April 1995), 26.

  19. Steinbeck, “The Leader of the People,” in The Red Pony (New York: Bantam Books, 1976), 90-91.

  20. R. S. Hughes, Beyond the Red Pony: A Reader's Companion to Steinbeck's Complete Short Stories (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1987), 101.

  21. Steinbeck, “Leader of the People,” 86.

  22. Thomson, “Music: Philharmonic Normal,” New York Herald Tribune, 14 October 1949. Thomson also reviewed the film itself at great length: “Copland's Score for ‘The Red Pony’ Hollywood's Best, but Still Hollywood,” 10 April 1949; reprinted as “Hollywood's Best” in Music Right and Left (New York: Henry Holt, 1951), 120-23.

  23. Copland, “Jazz Structure and Influence.”

  24. Copland, “Composer from Brooklyn,” in Our New Music, 228-29.

  25. Arthur Berger, “The Music of Aaron Copland,” Musical Quarterly 31 (1945): 420.

  CONCLUSION

  1. The complexities of the relationship between man and nature in the suite are intriguingly explored by Brooks Toliver in “Eco-ing in the Canyon: Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite and the Transformation of Wilderness,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 57 (2004): 325-67.

  2. Ferde Grofé, “Story of the Grand Canyon Suite,” 1938; reprinted in Arizona Highways 71, no. 4 (1995): 5.

  3. Toliver, “Eco-ing in the Canyon,” esp. 344-46.

  4. For discussion of this passage and of Grofé's geographical suites more generally, see von Glahn, Sounds of Place, 198-215.

  5. Grofé contended that when he wrote the suite he considered himself “almost a native Arizonan”—yet another instance of mingled biography and myth. In the published score he states: “I lived in Arizona, roaming the desert and mountain country as an itinerant pianist.” In the 1938 “Story of the Grand Canyon Suite,” he expands on this theme, identifying himself with a variety of western pursuits, including both mining and cattle ranching.

  6. Walt Whitman, “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” in Leaves of Grass: “Death-bed” Edition (New York: Barnes and Noble, 2004), 383, 386.

  7. Limerick, Legacy of Conquest, 291.

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

  Arthur Farwell Collection, Sibley Library, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY.

  Charles Wakefield Cadman Collection, Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Special Collections Library, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

  Copland Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  Ernst Bacon Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  Ernst Bacon Papers, Music Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  Lillian White Spencer Papers, Denver Public Library.

  Nicolas Slonimsky, “Roy Harris: Cimarron Composer,” unpublished manuscript (1951), Music Library, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.

  Roy Harris Collection, California State University, Los Angeles.

  “Roy Harris, Composer of American Music,” Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles, interviewed by Donald Schippers (1962) and Adelaide G. Tusler (1966, 1968, and 1969). Regents of the University of California, 1983. Transcript in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  Steinbeck Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  Virgil Thomson Papers, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University.

  PUBLISHED SCORES AND FILMS

  Bacon, Ernst. From These States (Gathered Along Unpaved Roads). New York: Associated Music Publishers, 1951.

  Cadman, Charles Wakefield. Bells of Capistrano. Chicago: H. T. FitzSimons Co., 1928.

  ———. Four American Indian Songs: Founded upon Tribal Melodies. Boston: White-Smith, 1909.

  ———. “God Smiled Upon the Desert (A California Poppy Song).” Boston: White-Smith, 1917.

  ———. The Golden Trail: Adventures of the Pioneers of′49. Cincinnati: Willis Music, 1929.

  ———. Hollywood Extra. C. C. Birchard & Co., 1938.

  ———. Indian Love Charm: An Amerindian Choral Work. Cincinnati: Willis Music Co., 1932.

  ———. Lelawala: The Maid of Niagara. Cincinnati: Willis Music Co., 1926.

  ———. Meet Arizona. Boston: C. C. Birchard & Co., 1947.

  ———. “The New Trail.” Boston: White-Smith, 1928.

  ———. Prairie Sketches. Cincinnati: Willis Music Co., 1906.

  ———. The Robin Woman (Shanewis): An American Opera. Boston: White-Smith, 1918.

  ———. South in Sonora. Boston: Oliver Ditson Company, 1932.

  ———. The Sunset Trail. Boston: White-Smith, 1925.

  ———. Three Songs from the West. Boston: White-Smith, 1916.

  ———. Thunderbird, piano suite. Boston: White-Smith, 1917.

  Copland, Aaron. Appalachian Spring: Ballet for Martha, for thirteen instruments. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1972.

  ———. Billy the Kid. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1941.

  ———. Billy the Kid, arranged for two pianos. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1946.

  ———. Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1946.

  ———. Prairie Journal [Music for Radio: Saga of the Prairie]. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1967.

  ———. The Red Pony: Film Suite for Orchestra. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1951.

  ———. Rodeo, arranged for piano solo. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1962.

  ———. El Salón México. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1939.

  ———. The Second Hurricane. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1938.

  ———. The Tender Land. New
York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1956.

  Farwell, Arthur. The Hako. Edited by Ron Erickson. San Francisco: Erickson Editions, 1997.

  ———. Navajo War Dance, No. 2. Edited by John Kirkpatrick. New York: Music Press, Inc., 1947.

  ———. Piano Quintet. Edited by Ron Erickson. San Francisco: Erickson Editions, 1997.

  Farwell, Arthur, and Charles Fletcher Lummis. Spanish Songs of Old California. Los Angeles: Lummis, 1923.

  Foss, Lukas. The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. New York: Carl Fischer, 1951.

  ———. The Prairie. New York: G. Schirmer, 1944.

  Gershwin, George. Girl Crazy. New York: New World Music Corp., 1954.

  Grofé, Ferde. Grand Canyon Suite. New York: Robbins Music Corp., 1932.

  Harris, Roy. American Ballads. New York: Carl Fischer, 1947.

  ———. Cimarron. New York: Belwin Mills, 1941.

  ———. Farewell to Pioneers. New York: G. Schirmer, 1935.

  ———. Folksong Symphony. New York: G. Schirmer, 1940.

  ———. Symphony No. 3. New York: G. Schirmer, 1940.

  ———. When Johnny Comes Marching Home. New York: G. Schirmer, 1935.

  Herbert, Victor. Natoma. G. Schirmer, 1911.

  Of Mice and Men. Directed by Lewis Milestone. Rereleased on DVD: Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 2001.

  Moore, Douglas. The Ballad of Baby Doe. Winona, MN: Hal Leonard Publishing Co., 1958.

  Nevin, Arthur. Poia. Berlin: A. Fürstner, 1909.

  The Plow That Broke the Plains. Directed by Angel Gil-Ordóñez. 1936. Naxos DVD 2.110521.

  Puccini, Giacomo. Fanciulla del West. Milan and New York: G. Ricordi, 1910.

  The Red Pony. Directed by Lewis Milestone. Los Angeles, CA: Republic Pictures, 1949. Rereleased on DVD: Santa Monica, CA: Artisan Entertainment, 2003.

  Sowerby, Leo. From the Northland, piano suite. Boston: The Boston Music Company, 1926.

  ———. From the Northland, orchestra. New York: G. Schirmer, 1927.

  ———. Prairie. Boston: C. C. Birchard & Co., 1931.

  Thomson, Virgil. Four Saints in Three Acts. New York: Music Press, Inc., 1948.

  ———. “Persistently Pastoral: Aaron Copland.” In Thirteen Portraits, for piano. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1981.

  ———. The Plow That Broke the Plains: Suite for Orchestra. New York: Mercury Music Corporation, 1942.

  ———. Suite from The Plough That Broke the Plains: Four Pieces for Piano. New York: G. Schirmer, 1942, 1980.

  ———. Wheat Field at Noon. New York: G. Schirmer, 1949.

  The Wa-Wan Press, 1901-11, edited by Vera Brodsky Lawrence. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1970.

  BOOKS AND ARTICLES

  Alexander, Charles C. Here the Country Lies: Nationalism and the Arts in Twentieth-Century America. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1980.

  Alexander, William. Film on the Left: American Documentary Film from 1931 to 1942. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

  Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. 2nd ed. London: Verso, 1991.

  Ashley, Patricia. “Roy Harris.” Stereo Review 21, no.6 (December 1968): 63-73.

  Athearn, Robert G. The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.

  Atlas, Allan W. “Belasco and Puccini: ‘Old Dog Tray' and the Zuni Indians.” Musical Quarterly 75 (1991): 362-98.

  Bacon, Ernst. “Comments and Problems.” The Argonaut, 9 November 1934.

  ———. “Has the Native Opera a Future?” Musical Courier, 22 February 1944.

  ———. “Native Soil.” Sonneck Society Bulletin 14, no. 1 (spring 1988): 9-10.

  Barg, Lisa. “Black Voices/White Sounds: Race and Representation in Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts.” American Music 18 (2000): 121-61.

  Barlow, Samuel L. M. “Virgil Thomson.” Modern Music 18 (May-June 1941): 248.

  Bazelon, Irwin. Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975.

  Beckerman, Michael, ed. Dvoák and His World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.

  ———. “Dvoák's ‘New World' Largo and The Song of Hiawatha.” 19th-Century Music 16 (1992): 35-48.

  ———. “Henry Krehbiel, Antonin Dvoák, and the Symphony ‘From the New World.'” Notes 49 (1992): 447-74.

  Berger, Arthur. Aaron Copland. New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.

  ———. “The Music of Aaron Copland.” Musical Quarterly 31 (1945): 420-47.

  ———. Reflections of an American Composer. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002.

  Berkhofer, Robert F. The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.

  Beveridge, David, ed. Rethinking Dvoák: Views from Five Countries. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1996.

  Bialosky, Marshall. “Roy Harris: In Memoriam (But Keep Your Hats On).” College Music Symposium 22, no. 2 (1982): 7-19.

  Bick, Sally. “Composers on the Cultural Front: Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler in Hollywood.” PhD diss., Yale University, 2001.

  ———. “Copland, Hollywood, and American Musical Modernism.” American Music 23 (2005): 426-72.

  Bindas, Kenneth J. “All of This Music Belongs to the Nation”: The Federal Music Project of the WPA and American Cultural Nationalism. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.

  Blitzstein, Marc. “Composers as Lecturers and in Concerts.” Modern Music 13 (November-December 1935): 47-51.

  Block, Adrienne Fried. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867-1944. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

  ———. “Amy Beach's Music on Native American Themes.” American Music 8 (1990): 141-66.

  ———. “Boston Talks Back to Dvoák.” I. S. A. M. Newsletter 18, no. 2 (May 1989): 10, 11, 15.

  Brancaleone, Francis. “Edward MacDowell and Indian Motives.” American Music 7 (1989): 359-81.

  Briggs, Harold. “Indians! A Whole Movement of Native Opera Romanticized the American Savage.” Opera News 40, no. 23 (June 1976): 22-24, 51.

  Browner, Tara. “‘Breathing the Indian Spirit': Thoughts on Musical Borrowing and the 'Indianist' Movement in American Music.” American Music 15 (1997): 265-84.

  Burns, Walter Noble. The Saga of Billy the Kid. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing, 1925.

  Cadman, Charles Wakefield. “The American Indians' Music Idealized.” Etude Magazine, October 1920, 659.

  ———. “The ‘Idealization' of Indian Music.” Musical Quarterly 1 (1915): 387-96.

  ———. Foreword to The Robin Woman (Shanewis): An American Opera. Boston: White-Smith, 1918.

  ———. Foreword to Thunderbird. Boston: White-Smith, 1917.

  Carter, Tim. Oklahoma! The Making of an American Musical. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2007.

  “Champagne and Cornbread.” Time, 29 January 1945.

  Chanler, Theodore. “New York, 1934.” Modern Music 11 (March-April 1934): 142-47.

  Chase, Gilbert. America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

  ———, ed. The American Composer Speaks. [Baton Rouge]: Louisiana State University Press, 1966.

  Cochran, Alfred W. “The Red Pony.” Cue Sheet: Journal of the Society for the Preservation of Film Music 11, no. 2 (April 1995): 25-35.

  ———. “Style, Structure, and Tonal Organization in the Early Film Scores of Aaron Copland.” PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 1986.

  Cole, Hugo. “Popular Elements in Copland's Music.” Tempo 95 (1970-71): 4-10.

  Cone, Edward T. “Conversation with Aaron Copland.” Perspectives of New Music 6, no. 2 (1968): 57-72.

  Copland, Aaron. “The American Composer Gets a Break.” American Mercury 34 (April 1935): 488-92.

  ———. “America's Young Men of Promise.” Modern Music 3 (March-April
1926): 13-20.

  ———. Copland on Music. New York: Da Capo, 1976.

  ———. “From the 20s to the 40s and Beyond.” Modern Music 20 (January-February 1943): 78-82.

  ———. “Jazz as Folk-Music.” Musical America, 19 December 1925, 18.

  ———. “Jazz Structure and Influence.” Modern Music 4 (January-February 1927): 9-14.

  ———. Music and Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952.

  ———. Our New Music. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1940. Reprinted as The New Music, 1900-1960. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968.

  ———. “Second Thoughts on Hollywood.” Modern Music 17 (March-April 1940): 141-47.

  ———. “What Is Jewish Music?” New York Herald Tribune, 2 October 1949, sec. 7, 14.

  Copland, Aaron, and Vivian Perlis. Copland: 1900 through 1942. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.

  ———. Copland since 1943. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.

  “Copland Decides He Likes Own Name Best.” Boston Evening Transcript, 21 August 1937, IV: 4.

  Cowell, Henry, ed. American Composers on American Music. [Stanford, CA]: Stanford University Press, 1933.

  ———. “Bericht aus Amerika: Amerikanische Musik?” Translated by Hanns Gutman. Melos 9, nos. 8-9 (August-September 1930): 362-65.

  ———. “Die beiden wirklichen Amerikaner: Ives und Ruggles.” Translated by Hanns Gutman. Melos 9, no. 10 (October 1930): 417-20.

  ———. “Die kleineren Komponisten.” Translated by Hanns Gutman. Melos 9, no. 12 (December 1930): 526-29.

  ———. “Three Native Composers.” New Freeman 1 (3 May 1930): 184-86.

  Cox, Sidney Thurber. “The Autogenetic Principle in the Melody Writing of Roy Harris.” MA thesis, Cornell University, 1948.

  Crawford, Richard. The American Musical Landscape. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993.

  ———. America's Musical Life: A History. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.

  ———. “Edward MacDowell: Musical Nationalism and an American Tone Poet.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 49 (1996): 528-60.

  Crawford, Richard, R. Allen Lott, and Carol Oja, eds. A Celebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990.