Just imagine for a minute you are at the Lincoln Centre’s opening night back in 1962. You’re there with the great and the good. You’ve paid the $200 ticket price and you’re dressed up the the nines in your tuxedo or evening dress.
The music programme includes Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Mahler and the Dean of American Composers – Aaron Copland. The Copland piece is a new commission, Connotations for Orchestra. Always a bit of a risk but you’re thinking, he’s going to bring his A game to the table – an event like this is going to get the full on Americana treatment. You’d probably be expecting “Appalachian Spring 2″ or “Rodeo 2″.
In Connotations for Orchestra, Copland certainly delivered but something that no one was expecting!
I preferred to compose a work expressing something of the tensions, aspirations, and drama inherent in contemporary living.
Connotations Listening highlights
Connotations closes with a now familiar gargantuan climax of sheer weight and noise, noted before in other works…..In this instance Connotations transcends all these for violence and dissonance, created not only by the harmony, in which all twelve semitones are sounded simultaneously, but by flutter tonguing flutes, trumpets and horns reinforced by a formidable barrage of percussion that includes a metal plate and tam-tam played fff. This is the loudest orchestral noise I have ever encountered in the concert hall.”
Neil Butterworth, The Music of Aaron Copland (Toccata Press)
Accessibility rating
**
Commissioned by
New York Philarmonic Orchestra to commemorate the opening of Philarmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall)
Important dates
Composed – 1961-62
Premiere performance – 11 September 1962 Philharmonic Hall, New York, USA; Leonard Bernstein, New York Philarmonic Orchestra
Duration
~ 19.5 minutes
Instrumentation
3 Flutes; Piccolo; 2 oboes; Cor Anglais; 4 clarinets (inc E flat and Bass clarinet)
6 French horns; 4 trumpets; 4 trombones; 1 tuba
Timpani; Piano; Clesta; Glockenspiel; Vibraphone; Xylophone; Conga drum; Cymbals; Metal sheet; Tam Tam; Triangle; Temple Block; Wood block; Bass Drum; Side Drum
16 First Violins; 16 Second Violins; 12 Violas; 12 Cellos, 6 Double bases
Number of performances since 1980
15
Recordings:
Number of recordings: 3
| Orchestra | Conductor | Album | Duration | Label | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Philarmonic | Leonard Bernstein | Copland: Appalachian Spring; Rodeo; Billy The Kid; El Salòn México | 20 | Deutsche Grammophon | 1991 |  |
| Juilliard Orchestra | Sixten Ehrling | William Schuman: In Praise of Shahn / Aaron Copland: Connotations / Roger Sessions: Suite from The Black Maskers - The Juilliard Orchestra | 20 | New World Records | 1989 |  |
| BBC Philharmonic | John Wilson | Copland Orchestral Works 4 – Symphonies | 18.42 | Chandos | 2018 |  |
If you like this then why not try this:
Alan Hovanhess – Symphony No 49 Mount St Helens
This may seem a strange choice. Alan Hovanhess abhorred atonality so almost certainly wouldn’t have liked Connotations. However, the volcanic eruption of Mount St Helens means that there’s a great deal of noisy brass and percussion in this piece.
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