Guest lecturer Annegret Fauser of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will present “Americana, War & Globalization: Seventy Years of Aaron Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’” on Thursday, Oct. 2 from Noon to 1 p.m. in the Music Hall Room 103. Fauser, a renowned musicologist, is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor and Adjunct Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC. This event is free and open to the public.
Seventy years ago, on 30 October 1944, Aaron Copland’s and Martha Graham’s ballet Appalachian Spring had its première in the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. For Copland, the score was infused with the same American quality that he attributed to Graham’s dance. Seventy years on, the work still stands as one of the most beloved examples of musical Americana in history. It came to new prominence when—minutes before Barack Obama took his oath as the 44th President of the United States in January 2009—John Williams’ Air and Simple Gifts presented a modernist twist to his teacher Copland’s original.
“But Copland’s sound has gone global, too,” notes Fauser. “This summer, for example, I heard the famous shaker hymn from ‘Appalachian Spring’ as the ring tone on our bus driver’s mobile phone in Guilin, a city in southern China.”
Following the ballet from its genesis through its seventy-year history reveals a fascinating story about how national art intersects with global life in times of both war and peace.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Department of Music. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4390.