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Copland Aaron
Aitken, Robert
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Andriessen, Jurriaan
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Arrieu, Claude
Auric, Georges
Babbit, Milton
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Vocalise for flute and piano
Vocalise for flute and piano
Aaron Copland: Vocalise for flute and piano was written in 1928. Originally for high voice (soprano) and piano. The piece was commissioned by Amédée-Louis Hettich, a professor at the Paris.
While composed in 1928, it was premiered on October 11, 1935, at the Salle Gaveau in Paris by soprano Ethel Codd Luening, with the composer himself at the piano. This concert was part of a broader effort to showcase American music in Europe. Luening was a central figure in the New York new-music scene. She was married to the pioneering electronic composer Otto Luening, and together they were influential members of the League of Composers.
The success of Luening’s performance proved that the melody possessed a standalone beauty independent of text. Decades later, when Doriot Anthony Dwyer, the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (the first woman to hold a principal chair in a major U.S. orchestra) approached Copland for a transcription, he recalled the work’s "instrumental" success with Luening and authorized the flute arrangement in 1972. The arrangement was first performed on April 6, 1973, by Doriot Anthony Dwyer on flute and Robert Levin on harpsichord (later published for piano).
The Vocalise is musically grounded in the Habanera, a slow, syncopated Cuban dance rhythm that was highly fashionable among composers trained in Paris during the early 20th century. The piano (or harpsichord) maintains a persistent ostinato—a repetitive, swaying pattern in 2/4 time—which provides a sultry, "indolent" backdrop to the soaring flute melody. This choice of rhythm reflects Copland's time in France. Many French composers he admired, such as Maurice Ravel (who wrote a famous Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera in 1907), used this form to evoke an exotic, Spanish atmosphere. In Vocalise, the rigid "ground" of the habanera rhythm allows the flute to float above with expressive, almost improvisational freedom, a hallmark of Copland's early lyrical style.
1928 was a pivotal "crossroads" year for Copland as he sought to define a distinctly American musical identity. He was heavily active in promoting new music in New York. Along with Roger Sessions, he organized the Copland-Sessions Concerts (1928–1931) to showcase young American talent.
Randall Hodgkinson (piano), 2000, KOCH Records / eOne Music International Classics
Vocalise
Copland Aaron
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was an American composer, often called "the Dean of American Composers". He successfully blended modernism with populist appeal, incorporating folk themes and jazz into his works.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, his upbringing was decidedly middle-class (his parents ran a department store). His initial musical exposure came from his sister, Laurine, who gave him his first piano lessons. By age 15, Copland decided to become a composer. He studied theory and composition with Rubin Goldmark, a conservative teacher who provided him with a solid classical foundation but famously disapproved of Copland's interest in "modern" sounds.
In 1921, Copland moved to Paris to study at the newly founded Fontainebleau School. There, he became the first student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Her mentorship shifted his focus toward rhythmic clarity and structural economy, which became hallmarks of his style.
Upon returning to New York, Copland sought to write music that was "distinctively American." This led to early jazz-influenced works like Music for the Theatre and the Piano Concerto. During the Great Depression, Copland intentionally simplified his style to reach a wider audience. This "vernacular" period produced his most beloved ballets: Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Appalachian Spring (1944). In his later years, he explored Twelve-tone (serial) techniques in works like Connotations, though he never lost his sense of clear, "open" orchestration.
Copland's style of music has been summed up as "modern consciousness of American ideals, character and sense of place", making his music interesting not only to musicians but historians as well.
Among his most important compositions: ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Rodeo, works for orchestra Fanfare for the Common Man and Third Symphony.