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Copland Connotations: Studies and Interviews.

Article Excerpt
Edited by Peter Dickinson. Foreword by H. Wiley Hitchcock. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2002. [xviii, 210 p. ISBN 0-85115-902-8. $60.] Music examples, index.

This compendium of studies comes from two conferences in 2000--Copland's centennial year--held in Toronto and London. The indefatigable Peter Dickinson is the engine behind the work. The articles fall into tour major categories, which seem to have been devised after the fact to accommodate the resulting mix, rather than guiding the initial submissions.

The first group is "Copland and Context," which speaks to influences on the composer's development, and the diverse range of styles and media within which he labored. Mark DeVoto launches the set with a historical summary of Copland's Par-s years at the "Boulangerie." A succinct overview of Copland's career, this paper also gives concrete analytic explanation of the distinctive characteristics of his ballet Grogh and the Organ Symphony, effectively setting them apart from the immediately succeeding works with which they are often grouped. David Schiff provides one of the most provocative articles in his examination of Copland's relationship to jazz. His approach is more confrontational, viewing Copland's attitudes as essentially condescending toward the medium, with his relationship being that of a modernist composer who used "tics" of jazz as metaphors in his music rather than embracing its essence. On the other hand, Schiff sees the Piano Sonata as the most successful blending of these genres because it more deeply and sincerely embraces the triste quality of jazz and blues, transforming it into a personal idiom.

Jessica Burr explores the relationship of the American...

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