Lincoln Hoedown

During the bulk of his career, Aaron Copland had an orchestral composition style that bore many similarities to those of his contemporaries and immediate successors. Copland orchestras are reasonably-sized – not chamber orchestras, but nothing close to the scale of Rite of Spring either. Lincoln Portrait employs and orchestra similar in size and structure to those used by Stravinsky in his later career after he began renouncing his earlier cultural radicalism, as well as to late-19^th-century composers such as Tchaikovsky. Like Stravinsky and Debussy, Copland most frequently features brass and winds rather than strings, which more often play mood- and atmosphere-setting pedals that give the piece character instead of the hefty melodic material you would find in a Mozart or Beethoven symphony. However, Copland’s use of orchestra is also much more harmonically simplistic and identifiably tonal than many of his contemporaries. Whereas a work like Wozzeck struggles to find itself in a recognizable diatonic triad, there is hardly ever doubt where Copland’s music sits.

            Like Stravinsky and the Realist composers of the early 20^th century, Copland is known for his use of folk music in his orchestral works. Unlike Stravinsky, however, who notably uses Russian folk music throughout Rite of Spring but works to establish a “folk aura” rather than calling attention to specific direct quotes, Copland displays his quotation prominently and even uses his folk music as a reference to specific place or time and to create deeper meaning. The ballet Rodeo features the folk tunes If He’d be a Buckaroo and (famously) Bonaparte’s Retreat as near-complete direct quotations. In Lincoln Portrait, the tune of Springfield Mountain is similarly prominently featured and may be a reference to Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Even when Copland does not quote folk tunes directly, Lincoln Portrait and Rodeo are structured to create an American version of the same type of “folk aura” that Stravinsky creates for Russian music in Rite of Spring.

            An uncommon feature of Lincoln Portrait is its inclusion of spoken text where another composer may have written for solo voice or choir. This choice reflects Copland’s desire to write accessible music – spoken text is more manageable for a wider American audience than solo operatic voice since there is so much more opportunity for the performer to experiment with inflections and enunciations that are more linguistically accessible to human ears and therefore easier to understand. Using spoken text also lifts the restriction of voice part for the performer and fits thematically with the subject of Abraham Lincoln, who is remembered as one of the greatest orators in Western history. In the absence of the structured meter of sung text, the timing for the speech is specifically marked within each relevant measure. There is also a long, drawn-out introduction before the speech begins. Both these qualities help sustain a stately, moderated atmosphere for the piece that further strengthens the presidential theme.

            Lincoln Portrait is a patriotic work, but not one that directly celebrates the war-weary America of the 1940s. Rather, it is nostalgic for a peaceful America with higher value for the freedom of the individual. Ironically, that America was still deeply divided by the Civil War and was therefore less united than the modern America of the time. In this sense, its patriotism is inauthentic. The prevailing message of the piece is that America was perhaps better off then, even if it was more divided.