Vectors of musical Americanism in the Concertо for clarinet and string orchestra by Aaron Copland

Abstract

Relevance of the study. The study examines Aaron Copland, an outstanding representative of the American school of composition, whose music is perceived in his homeland as the embodiment of the national spirit and character. However, the composer is not well known in Ukraine, which highlights the need for a thorough study of his work, both in terms of its overall evolution and in analytical terms.

The main objective of the study is to characterize the vectors of musical Americanism in Aaron Copland's work and to identify the forms of their interaction in the Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra. The methodological basis of the study consists of cultural studies (to characterize the historical processes in which Copland lived and worked), biographical (to highlight the stages of the composer's creative evolution), stylistic and structural-functional (for a comprehensive analysis of the Clarinet Concerto), as well as the method of theoretical generalization (to summarize the results).

Main results and conclusions. Copland's search for American idioms is traced, which ran through imitation and experimentation, fascination with European modernism and American jazz, and a turn to “proletarian” music and rural folklore of the Midwestern United States. It is emphasized that, despite the evolutionary nature of these explorations, Copland's two leading vectors of Americanism — Anglo-folk and Jazz — directly intersected in the Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (1948). The article emphasizes that this combination was conditioned by the personality of the customer — the famous American clarinetist Benny Goodman, who combined his career as a jazz musician with an interest in academic music. The form, thematic content, and stylistic coloring of the Concerto are analyzed, and the separation of contrasting figurative and stylistic spheres in the two parts of the concert cycle is pointed out. The intonational-thematic and timbral connections between the first part of the Concerto and Copland's works of the late 1930s and 1940s, which reflect rural American life, in particular the music for the films Our Town and The Story of Cummington, are highlighted. The role of the solo cadence as a transitional bridge between parts is characterized, and its improvisational features are emphasized. The integration of jazz elements into the second part of the Concerto is considered, and their predominance, primarily in metrorhythmic structures, is demonstrated. The influence of Brazilian folk music on the theme of the work was discussed. It has been proven that the organic combination of contrasting parts in terms of imagery and style is achieved by a writing technique, the essence of which lies in the gradual expansion of sound material through accumulation. The functioning of this technique in horizontal and vertical dimensions has been analyzed. It is concluded that the use of this method contributes to the unity of form and at the same time provides contrast. It is noted that the use of compositional models of different origins (in this case, his own) and the presentation of familiar musical material in a new context reflect Copland's connection with the neoclassical origins of his work