Quiet City, Aaron Copland
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- In 1939 Aaron Copland wrote incidental music for the Irwin Shaw play Quiet City. Commissioned for the Group Theater by Harold Clurman and directed by Elia Kazan, the play closed after only two try-out performances. Copland later used some of the music for a one-movement composition, changing the original instrumentation from trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and piano to trumpet, English horn and string orchestra. The piece was premiered on January 28, 1941 by conductor David Saidenberg and his Saidenberg Little Symphony at Town Hall.
According to Copland, the piece was originally "an attempt to mirror the troubled main character of Shaw's play", and that "Quiet City seems to have become a musical entity, superseding the original reasons for its composition". Copland's biographer Vivian Perlis has said that it "reflects the introspective Copland, who liked to compose during the late night hours and enjoyed the idea of quiet streets before a city awakens for a new day".
I hope that the solitude found in so many of Edward Hopper's paintings, as well as in many of these vintage photographs of New York City, complements Copland's music for the viewer as well as it does for me.
![Aaron Copland: The Tender Land Suite (1949) [DDD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UkDuEQKED4Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Whoever is reading this, we don't know each other and probably never will, but I wish you all the best in life and all the happiness in the world ...
How lovely, and much appreciated. I wish you all that will make you happy and fulfilled in life.
Sure....but....WHY would you do THAT? Cheers from Acapulco!
Live long and prosper my fellow human being 🖖.
@@steveegallo3384 because praying for someone elses device is a needful thing
Thank You So much. Merci. Gracias. Dankeschön. Bedankt. Mille Grazie 🥰
I'm 59 and I've loved Aaron Goplan since childhood. I also cry when I read the comments here. You are all wonderful! This is my favorite Complad work ... from Fort Worth, Texas
I used to walk the lonely early morning city streets after I worked graveyard shifts in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. As a kid, I used to sit in big office suites while my uncle performed his nightly and early morning janitor chores.....just sitting and staring out over the sparkling crystal-ball of NYC from dusk to dawn. Thank you, Richard Lewis, for posting this evocation and solace for an old and grateful heart.
there's an urban poetry at being up at that hour--that is missing for folks working 1st shift.
that is a powerful reminiscence!
Thank you both for your comments.
You are right Alan. Although I grew up in a smaller town in Ohio. This music is perfectly evocative and reflective of the quiet hours and being there to experience them.
If you wrote a book about your experiences I would read it. Fantastic words, thank you.
Possibly my favourite Copland work. It never fails to impress because it is so evocative of time and place.
Weirdly enough, it reminds me more of space travel.
This definitely captures what its' title implies.
A lot of people don't know that Copland was a true cat lover, and that while he was writing this piece his cat walked across the piano and knocked the music off the stand. When Copland bent over to pick up the sheets the music was upside down and he immediately saw the opening notes to the Rodeo ballet, which he fully composed two years later. Indisputable evidence that cats are smarter than dogs.
I like it.
...I am a child of The City embraced and memorialized by Messrs. Copland and Hopper...As lovely a pairing as a Dragonfly and Water...Was born at Saint Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village...We lived in Brooklyn...In a Brownstone on 13th Street; within expectoration distance of Prospect Park...The City, at First Light, yawns, stretches and reaches its strong arm skyward...One can hear this, if one knows it is there...Have marved, over many decades, at the astonishing number of creative people who were of The City...I would venture to say that Brooklyn might well have been home to the most...This presentation (I would be remiss for forgetting a tip 'o the cap to Mr. Lewis for his marvelous work)...succinctly presents the beautiful, haunting and enticing heart of The City...There is simply no other musicial piece nor work of hand that would come close to the task...Goethe commented that Music is liqud architecture and Architecture is frozen Music..His words, of long ago, run through this presentation...Would but could The City have remained as one sees (and hears) it here...I have seen a good portion of the World...This includes being a 19 year old Army Infantry Lieutenant and commanding a Rifle Platoon in Vietnam...After being badly wound and spending 14 months in Walter Reed Army Hospital, I returned to The City of my Youth...There were, not suprisingly, many changes...The architecture I loved (late 19th & early 20th Century were waiting there...The sounds and smells on the breeze could only have been in New York...Only Copland, in astonishing fashion, has been able to give Music that fits and respects the entity of The City...Hoppeer, with the delicacy of ballet, has been able to present the color, pulse and people of Once Upon A Time in The City...To experience Lower Manhattan, at First Light, on a Sunday morning is joyful...Thomas Sterns Elliot wrote that "...Love is most nearly itself when the here and now cease to matter..."...I have always carried this Copeland/Hopper Light within me through my Life...I feel humbled and fortunate to have had it...I have a number of family members at peace in The City...If possible, take a walk through Woodlawn Cemetery and Calvary Cemetery...They reflect what one sees here...We live in an upside/down, inside/out Mad Hatter's World...In less than two years, many wonderous things have slipped into darkness...Not unlike the destruction of so many ancient sites in Syria...Mr. Lewis's presentation is much like cool water on parched lips and a gentle breeze on a hot brow...It is, in and of itself, art...Speaking only for myself, I need/require Art in my Life...Be thee all safe...Never stop pursuing Happiness...Beauty is always close...You must find it...It does not find you...Pax to all points of the Compass...James Patrick Casey, Esq.
"...Let us go then...You and I...When the evening is spread out against the sky..."(Thomas Sterns Elliot)...
Yes.
There is no “e” in Copland.
Me too James. I love the openness and cleanness of Copland and Hopper
Listening to Copeland turns the whole world around me into a Norman Rockwell painting and allows me to be part of the landscape if only for five minutes in my mind
Amen! ❤
I think more Edward Hopper for this particular piece. It also reminds me of the feeing I had sitting on bluff in the high desert of New Mexico: austere beauty, a sweet aloneness, a silence so loud it seemed shameful to breathe too loud.
@Christopher Gurin Indeed! Hopper appeals more to my senses irt Copeland. However, I'm drawn towards Hopper's hours of darkness when listening to this, rather than the waking world.
There is NO 'e' in Copland. Learn to spell!!!
@@astralplainer There is NO 'e' in Copland. Learn to spell!!!
Aaron Copland & Edward Hopper; a perfect pairing of two of my very favorite artists, working together in a stunning expression of Americana ...Beautifully done, my Friend!
The comparison with Norman Rockwell and his area of second generation Regionalism is a particularly good one. This cultural pathos cut across many areas of mid twentieth century culture. There was a back to the earth bloom in the culture every bit as much as there was an expressionist bloom around the same time. The difference between Copland, Virgil Thompson, Leonard Bernstein and our great mid-twentieth century composers and the bebop jazz movement and avant-garde jazz and rock and roll is mere formal differences … no variation in underlying intensity or ferment. The very brilliant work of Edward Hopper appears frequently in the course of this piece … of course it’s about as appropriate as it could be. But Copland is one of the mid-century giants. An enduring voice.
Copland would rise early in the morning in NYC to compose, before the great city came to life and the hustle and bustle of the daily grind began. The solitary peace and wanderings of those early morning hours pervade this piece, Copland's beckoning anthem to a city that needed tranquil solitude and the happy freedom of being alone, but not lonely. There is an exquisite affirmative quality from the strings as the trumpet heralds a new day, a new dawn, light slanting across the buildings and bridges, calling to men and women to rise to the city, its streets and sidewalks where the dance of life occurs for every soul. It says "come out, come now, come here," to the living metropolis, celebrate your own breathing among humankind, but seek the higher calling beyond this world, beyond steel and striving and becoming, toward God in heaven above. It really is a transcendent calling beyond the city and the world of cities. It says, "higher, higher."
Eloquent description of this piece.
@@bonnielarsen7022 Ty & many blessings Bonnie! I am currently working on a book about classical music called Classical 250, a reference guide to 250 classical pieces. I'm praying 🙏 it will be completed and published in 2023. Ty again.
@Carl Hale looking forward to reading it!
Is it not ironic that Copland, who as a Jew suffered the anti Semitism and prejudice of the day -judged an alien and unAmerican - wrote music that expresses the very essence of America, it's dignity and, well, it's greatness. Greatness.
My feelings about Copland too Bette - exactly.
Well said. Jews defined the music of the 20th century in America.
He is my great great uncle. I met him when I was 7 years old, I also worked in music for a good portion of my life and my wife is actually a composer for a living. I did not grow up wealthy or even middle class, I struggled mightily to just get into the business and work. I don't regret a thing. I am very proud of him. Thank you all.
@@SELKCOMMkeep your supremacist views to yourself
Agreed. But in Europe he would have gone up a chimney. There's prejudice everywhere against everyone. What my Romanian grandfather endured as a 'dirty European'.
I love to just lay back and listen to Aaron Copeland. All my troubles just melt away. Musical Poetry.
This tune reminds me of my old dad - Respect Peter. Brings tears to my eyes. Early morning off to work as a lorry driver before the city had risen. It seems so pertinent that Copland had real respect for the working class & their role in society.
When I hear this piece I imagine the closing scene of the movie " Dead End" and words of Thoreau that " most men lead lives of quiet desperation".
Wonderful film, and then of course, The Transcendentalists ❤😊
I generally hate any graphic accompaniment posted with RUclips music presentations. This instance is an exception. Your choice of photos and Hopper paintings is inspired and a wonderful complement to the music. Thank you so much.
There is a beautiful sense of curiosity embedded in Copland's music as if the notes are wondering the streets, facing the struggles of life, writing their own story. A story of curiosity, learning, despair, destruction, loss, rebuilding, hope and circling around the entire experience of the human condition enough times to both frighten and comfort you, lingering long enough to encapsulate the resilience of the human spirit.
Laura Hoke
Very well put!
Thank you Laura- an inspiring perspective to say the least!
I suspect that you meant "wandering the streets." But then, "wondering" carries a certain mood of recognition that also seems so pertinent. Wonderful comment you wrote.
Laura Hoke, you are a very smart girl. Just remember too keep something hidden behind the curtain.
So eloquently expressed.
This piece of music inspired me to pick the trumpet back up after almost 35 years away from it
Not a trivial piece for the trumpet. Are you working on learning it?
@@blogger1947 not now. I’ve played it in the past, and it is definitely a challenge. But it is lyrical, which makes it such a good piece to play
Chris Gekker I believe. He plays so marvelously.
Our Town too two masterpieces. Love them so.
Cor Anglais and trumpet taking the lead. An inspired combination calling to one another. Great to hear and thanks for posting it.
This piece, these scenes, they so accurately portray our modified world. We truly live on it, and sprang forth from it, but somehow none of us will ever be truly "In" this world. Every turned page shows it to be so much larger than our ability to grasp. Despite our efforts to always be the masters, we are dwarfed by creation, ours....or someone else's'.
Thank you so much, Mr. Lewis for this beautiful and evocative rendering of Copland's gem, "Quiet City". The photographs and paintings add so much visual life that is so complementary to this piece. My grandparents were Swedish emigres to NYC in 1920-1922. My grandfather described life in Brooklyn during those years of struggling to learn English and working to support my grandmother, uncle and mother during the early years of the Depression. My favorite memory was his job as a milk deliveryman for Borden Dairy...having to place canvas covers over the hooves of the horse that pulled the milk wagon through the streets long before sunrise. In those days, even the dairymen took great pains to prevent undue noise that would awaken their customers!
Edward Hopper and old B&Ws are perfect for this piece.
The music and images says it all!
Thank you Mr. Copland
Every city has its soundtrack. Its music. And geniuses that create an appropiate musical rendition for it. This is a marvelous piece.
Hopper. Thank
You for that. This piece emotes what we all experience, those who came to streets, paved with dreams of the last, this one and many more centuries. Maybe that's why Copeland never gets old. This also sounds like the city, or maybe the horns are calling.
A marvelous panoply of images.
Beautiful images and equally beautiful music..
WOW! How sensitive; how authentic ... ... Thank You RL.
The trumpet soloist was Chris Gekker and the English horn was played by Stephen Taylor.
I'll just assume that the people who voted "thumbs-down" on the brilliance that is Copland and this epitome of American music had their finger slip.
Brain slip
@@somejailnursedontask4658 heart slip too.
We as a culture have been blessed with him as one of our artists.
A wonderful compilation of music and image I only discovered on youtube this week. Love Aaron Copland and Edward Hopper, along with the also amazing photographs by the likes of Berenice Abbott.
Thanks for uploading, very inspirational. Copland had a great feeling for America and what being an American was all about.
The vignette of the three barefoot boys sleeping at the end of an alleyway is very touching if not heart rendering. Who were they? Did they have success in life? I live in a major North American city and in its downtown core I daily see the crushed the broken the poverty stricken . I sometimes wonder if what I give in the collection plate at church or handouts I give on the streets are just drops on a raging inferno of poverty.
They don't. make 'em like that anymore. Copeland's sense of cinematic moments is such a force within his style.
I love this sooo much. It's like going on vacation back in time. "Beautiful"
There’s a radio presenter on WXPR in North Woods Wisconsin that plays an Aaron Copland to start out the week each Monday. I love to listen and post this each Monday.
@@somejailnursedontask4658 Nice!! 👍 Be Safe 😷
So so beautiful, thank you BBC proms for doing this amazing unknown piece. 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
the perfect music for a film noir!
Thank you for your pairing of Copland and Hopper. I love the work of both, and often equate one with the other. Very gratifying that someone else does too. Such an evocative video.
You wrote ..."I hope that the solitude found in so many of Edward Hopper's paintings, as well as in many of these vintage photographs of New York City, complements Copland's music for the viewer as well as it does for me."
IT does ... many thanks
Estas increíbles imágenes componen una extraordinaria suite, llena de magia y belleza; complementan estupendamente la poética composición musical. MIl gracias!
That was absolutely beautiful from beginning to end,and I was just thinking of Ed Hopper this morning. Fantastic!
Beautiful photo montage. Thanks for posting. I do miss my home, New York. It's a universe unto itself.
Richard Lewis, you are a genius, your videos are balm for the soul.
Thank you so much Peter. Hope you try watching some of my others as well.
Copland and Hopper--two masters of sadness.
Not sad. stillness
@@kellydunn7113 The music at 5:26 is some of the saddest music I have ever heard and haunts me to this day
Yes, a streak of melancholy that runs in both their worlds, and is perfectly married here.
@@Tabby7 Great minds think alike. You stated it perfectly.
...Mr. Lewis...With respect, I would be quite remiss in failing to thank you...And extend my compliments for your work on Aaron Copland...He is one of the Giants of American Art..."Quiet City", from my perspective, is perfection...Rarely done by a Human...Its ability to speak to you...And give you calmness is extraordinary...It carries the emotions that were once spread all over this Country...Goodly, basic, inquiring, compassionate emotions...And We have, somehow, managed lose our embrace of them...And they are gone from us...The pairing of Mr. Copland and Mr. Hopper could not be more natural...I think that , in their respective disciplines, They were both seeking the same Horizon...To a large degree, they are joined at the hip...When I need reassurance, calmness, a check on myself; I listen to "Quiet City"...It would have been a wonderful time of learning for me to have had a conversation with Mr. Copeland...Pax.
So melancholic. A sweet sadness.
So much with so little. A perfect piece of music as every note is in it's proper place in relationship to every other note, from the first beat to the end, all working to create a sensation that is greater than the sum of it's parts. Copeland hits at the core of my being every time I listen to this piece. Our Town does the same thing. Everything else drops off and I am one with something I have a hard time describing when I listen to these two pieces. I love the ebb and flow, the statement and the response and the sense of breathing it all in.
Well done. You made my day. Thank you Richard Lewis.
sublime... in every respect
Exquisite. Thank you.
Wonderful photos and paintings. Together with the music, they evoke such a sense of nostalgia, for a simpler life, when there was less junk and stuff in the world.
+TiticatFollies Do you mean WW11?
What a ridiculous question.
I love trumpet, amazing this composition !!!!
This wonderfully performed piece is beautiful accented with the work of Edward Hopper-- not to be missed. Sadly, it is also interrupted by pointless commercials.
Amazing the mood this transports me into...I feel like I am a denizen of some film noir city...the solitude is transcendent...great job on the video and thank you
It's NYC baby, the greatest city in the world.
Most of the people that immigrated to the US came through Ellis Island, at least until the 1950s....my grandparents came through from Greece in 1930. My dad and auntie were born in Brooklyn....🦁🌍
C'est magnifique Morgane !
Je viens de partager avec mon amie à la belle maison.
Elle adore le chant .
Je t'embrasse
I have never been into NYC proper, but watching this video presentation and hearing the music, really takes me there in my soul, if you will. Thanks for putting it up here, Richard.
Thank you very much for your nice comment Brian. I'm very glad you enjoyed it.
This is a wonderful photo essay. It brings out the beauty of the Copland music.
Eloquent. Simply eloquent.
Thank you for this montage. The other day, I mentioned to my dear wife (who was a music major at a very prestigious school) there were two pieces I'd travel anywhere to see performed. One was Rimsky -Korsakov's "Scheherazade". The other is this (Did see it back in, I think 1999 at the NY Phil- soloist was Philip Myers - I consider myself a lucky man)
Thank you all for your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece.
Totally immersive experience with the music and the wonderful pictures and paintings in beautiful synchrony. Reminds me of my time in the city and that the city does have a "quiet" side. Thank you Richard Lewis
What an atmospheric piece from Mr Copland. A nice sequence of images to go with it.
This is, in my humble opinion, and no small accomplishment, Copland's truest masterpiece.
Your choice of recording and especially appropriate photos make this a joy to view and to hear, to experience. Certainly pieces such as this cause me to close my eyes, lay back my head and drift through a quiet cityscape only my mind knows, but your photos are evocative of Copland's intentions, I believe.
Thank you for posting this somber but joyous opus!
His masterpiece is the Piano Variations by a country mile
Very thoughtful and well done slide show of NYC of the past - I always had similar visual impressions of one of my favorite works by Copland.
I liked the array of images you gathered. It makes the piece much more contemplative - more so for those who live or lived in some part of NYC.
I love the music, how rare! Also, great choices in art and photography.
Haven't heard this in years, great to hear it again. A beautiful haunting video as well. Thanks.
Watched once more. Thank you again. You have an eye for beauty.
This is a great marriage of music/photos/artwork all joined together. So well done; with tremendous time and effort to create in of itself a beautiful piece of work. Reaches the heart and soul... can't thank you enough.
Thank you Richard. Your video with Copland's music creates a haunting experience.
The background of Hoppers's paintings complements this music like hand in glove. Gabe Meruelo.
My favorite by him. Beautiful piece. Beautiful video. Thank you.
this is so beautiful.the music and the photography,well done
Usually when i'm listening to music on RUclips, I'm writing or reading. Music calms my busy mind, When I put your upload of "Quiet City" I was immediately captivated by the photos, adding another dimension to the music. Thank you very much I will enjoy this piece even more now.
veridicus
Beautiful. What a happy discovery for me. Thank you!
Thank you for the history of the piece; absolutely seamless combination of music and image.
Lucky enough to be playing this for school marching band
Thanks for the upload. Great scenes of N.Y.C. when it was a great living, working city, unlike now when it seems to exist mainly for mass tourism and super rich condo owners who have nothing to do with the workings of a real city.
Beautiful with nice images
pretty pretty pretty good !
Wonderful piece. Very emotional
This is splendid! Music and pictures, Edward Hopper and all.
Masterful and profound. Perfect music and images compilation.
Great presentation and juxtaposition of two uniquely evocative American artists.
Richard, thanks so much for this contribution. I think what Copland had that now (years later shows) is a total sense of time and place where he was writing his music for. Now, 76 years later listeners can take that same stroll among the subdued sights and sounds of a "Quiet City." It is a privilege to have enjoyed experiences like this.
I just LOVE this work...it takes me back to my childhood...so, so beautiful.
A wonderful piece, and the photos and artwork accompany it beautifully.
It works for me, thanks. A wonderful compilation of images and just the right touch.
Love the way you blended Hopper's paintings and the photos of old New York.
Beautiful. Such haunting music...but with hope!
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Stunning!
excellent. one of my many favorite pieces of copland, who caught the american spirit so well and coupled with hopper's work, and then the careful photographs, outstanding! i wonder what orchestra, bernstein's was the best.
Thankyou. Beautiful.
Copland. Hopper. New York City. Classics.
Beautifully imaged. Thank you.
The paintings by Edward Hopper are a perfect background for this music.
lovely, evocative music and imagery; loved it. thank you
Your videos are wonderful. Please make more!
Beautifully done. thank you!
Stupenda