559297 bk Copland US 13/3/08 11:30 Page 12 Nights we all will dance, Ching-a-ring-a ching ching ching, To the harp and fiddle, Ching-a-ring-a ching ching ching ching. AMERICAN CLASSICS Waltz and jig and prance, Etc. “Cast off down the middle.” Chaw! When the mornin’ come, All in grand and splendor, Aaron Stand out in the sun, And hear the holy thunder. Brothers hear me out, COPLAND The promised land’s a-comin’, Dance and sing and shout, I hear them harps a-strummin’. Piano Concerto Also available: The Tender Land (Suite) • Old American Songs Benjamin Pasternack, Piano St Charles Singers • Elgin Symphony Orchestra • Hanson 8.559199 8.559297 12 559297 bk Copland US 13/3/08 11:30 Page 2 Aaron “Captain, O captain, come take me on board, Yes we’ll gather by the river, O Captain, O Captain, come take me on board, The beautiful, beautiful river, COPLAND And do unto me as good as your word Gather with the saints by the river For I sank ’em in the lowland lonesome low, That flows by the throne of God, (1900-1990) I sank ’em in the lowland so low.” That flows by the throne of God. Orchestral Suite from 9 Simple Gifts (Shaker Song) 1:30 “Oh no, I won’t take you on board, % Ching-a-ring Chaw Oh no, I won’t take you on board, (Minstrel Song) The Tender Land 20:39 Transcribed for chorus by Irving Fine Nor do unto you as good as my word, 1 I. Introduction and Love Music (Act III) 10:11 0 I Bought Me a Cat (Children’s Song) 2:23 Tho’ you sank ’em in the lowland lonesome low, Ching-a-ring-a ring ching ching, Though you sank ’em in the land that lies so low.” Ho-a ding-ading kum lar-kee, 2 II. Party Scene (Act II) 4:56 Transcribed for chorus by Irving Fine Ching-a-ring-a ring ching ching, 3 III. Finale: The Promise of Living (Act I) 5:32 “If it wasn’t for the love that I have for your men, Ho-a ding kum lar-kee. I’d do unto you as I done unto them, Old American Songs, Volume Two 13:23 I’d sink you in the lowland lonesome low, Brothers gather round, Piano Concerto 16:54 ! The Little Horses (Lullaby) 2:53 I’d sink you in the lowland so low.” Listen to this story, ’Bout the promised land, 4 Choral arrangement by R. Wilding-White I. Andante sostenuto 7:11 He turned upon his head and down swum he, An’ the promised glory. 5 II. Molto moderato, Allegro assai 9:44 @ Zion’s Walls (Revivalist Song) 2:03 He turned upon his head and down swum he, Benjamin Pasternack, Piano Choral arrangement by Glenn Koponen He swum till he came to the bottom of the sea. Ching-a-ring-a ring, Sank himself in the lowland lonesome low, Ching-a-ring-a ring ching, # The Golden Willow Tree 3:40 Sank himself in the land that lies so low. Ching-a-ring-a ring, Nathaniel Stampley, Baritone Ching-a-ring-a ring ching, Old American Songs, Volume One 12:46 $ Jeffrey Hunt, Tenor At the River Ching-a-ring-a ring, 6 The Boatmen’s Dance (Minstrel Song – 1843) 3:25 (Hymn Tune) Ching-a-ring-a ring, $ Nathaniel Stampley, Baritone At the River (Hymn Tune) 3:04 To buy you milk and honey, Arranged for chorus by R. Wilding-White Shall we gather by the river, To buy you milk and honey. Transcribed for chorus by Irving Fine Where the bright angel’s feet have trod, % Ching-a-ring Chaw (Minstrel Song) 1:44 7 The Dodger (Campaign Song) 2:24 With its crystal tide forever There you’ll ride in style, Nathaniel Stampley, Baritone Arranged for chorus by Irving Fine Flowing by the throne of God. Coach with four white horses, There the evenin’ meal, Transcribed for chorus by Irving Fine Yes we’ll gather by the river, Has one, two, three, four courses. 8 Long Time Ago (Ballad) 3:03 The beautiful, beautiful river, Gather with the saints by the river Ching-a-ring-a ring ching, Transcribed for chorus by Irving Fine That flows by the throne of God. Ching-a-ring-a ring ching ching, Ho-a ding-a ding kum lar-kee. Soon we’ll reach the shining river, Ching-a-ring-a ring ching, Soon our pilgrimage will cease, Ho-a ding kum lar-kee. Soon our happy hearts will quiver With the melody of peace. 8.559297 2 11 8.559297 559297 bk Copland US 13/3/08 11:30 Page 10 My hen says “Shimmy shack, shimmy shack” @ Zion’s Walls Aaron Copland (1900-1990) My goose says “Quaw, quaw” (Revivalist Song) Piano Concerto • The Tender Land (Suite) • Old American Songs My duck says “Quaa, quaa” My cat says fiddle eye fee. Come fathers and mothers, Neither of Aaron Copland’s little-known operas, The any, and the mother is alarmed because she’s Come sisters and brothers, Second Hurricane and The Tender Land, is “operatic”. heard reports of two men molesting young girls Come join us in singing the praises of Zion. Both are intimate works of a specialized nature. The of the neighborhood. Nevertheless, they sleep Old American Songs, Vol. 2 Second Hurricane is an opera for children. The Tender in the shed for the night. O fathers don’t you feel determined to meet within Land began as a television opera. When NBC rejected The graduation party begins the second act. ! The Little Horses the walls of Zion. it, Copland recast the work for performance by the New The heroine has naturally fallen in love with (Lullaby) We’ll shout and go round the walls of Zion. York City Opera, where its 1954 première was not a one of the drifters. And they prove it by singing success. He later wrote: “The Tender Land was not a twelve-minute love duet. But there is Hush you bye, # The Golden Willow Tree meant to be a big dramatic opera. It was for young something of a complication. You see, she Don’t you cry, (Anglo-American Ballad) people to perform, and for that reason, it is rather simple associates him with freedom, and he associates Go to sleepy little baby. in musical style and story line… I was trying to give her with settling down. Martin asks Laurie to When you wake, There was a little ship in South Amerikee, young American singers material that they do not often run away with him but in the middle of the You shall have, Crying O land that lies so low, get in the opera house; that is, material that would be night he decides that this kind of roving life is All the pretty horses. There was a little ship in South Amerikee, natural for them to sing and perform… The result was not for Laurie, so he silently steals off with Top. She went by the name of the Golden Willow Tree, closer to musical comedy than grand opera.” When Laurie discovers she’s been jilted, she Blacks and bays, As she sailed in the lowland lonesome low, In truth, as Copland himself once confided, “For decides to leave home anyway, and at the Dapples and grays, As she sailed in the lowland so low. me, opera was really a very problematic form – la forme conclusion the mother sings a song of Coach and six-a little horses. fatale – as I called it after my experience with The acceptance that is the key to the whole opera. In Blacks and bays, dapples and grays, We hadn’t been a-sailin’ more than two weeks or three, Tender Land”. Today, The Tender Land maintains a it she looks to her younger daughter as the Coach and six-a little horses. Till we came in sight of the British Roverie, place on the fringes of the American operatic repertoire continuation of the family cycle that is the As she sailed in the lowland lonesome low, (itself a fringe phenomenon) as a piece best suited to whole reason for their existence. Hush you bye, As she sailed in the lowland so low. unpretentious means and small spaces. Don’t you cry, One catalyst for The Tender Land was Let Us Now But there is a missing ingredient to this synopsis. A Go to sleepy little baby. Up stepped a little carpenter boy Praise Famous Men, James Agee’s famous 1941 fellow traveler on the left during the thirties, Copland When you wake, Says “What will you give me for the ship portrait of the American South during the Depression, was a victim of the Red Scare. His interrogation by You’ll have sweet cake, and that I’ll destroy?” unforgettably illustrated by Walker Evans’s Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Special All the pretty little horses. “I’ll give you gold or I’ll give thee, photographs of hard rural lives. The opera, to a much- Investigations – a chilling vignette of real-life theater – I’ll give you gold or I’ll give thee, revised libretto by Erik Johns, records an episode among was a traumatic experience for America’s most famous A brown and a bay and a black and a bay and a The fairest of my daughters as she sails upon the sea such lives. Copland’s own synopsis revealingly and prominent classical composer, who found himself Coach and six-a little horses.