Aaron Copland's In the Beginning: context and creative process

Sketches and drafts for In the Beginning (1947), Aaron Copland’s only extended choral work, illuminate relationships between the composer’s creative process and his Jewish heritage and humanist philosophy. Commissioned for Harvard University’s Symposium on Music Criticism, this setting of Genesis 1–2:7 was Copland’s reluctant response to Harvard’s request for an a cappella choral work on a text drawn from Hebrew literature. Although Copland’s upbringing was steeped in Jewish traditions and synagogue life, scholars have minimized the impact of his Judaism on his compositions, which avoided overt references to Jewish themes after the 1930s. This study offers a more nuanced appraisal, showing that In the Beginning encapsulates Copland’s expression of both Jewish and humanist ideals. Comparing Copland’s initial inspirations with his later revisions reveals his close reading and exegesis of the biblical text. This comparison also clarifies how Copland's free-flowing narrative style, melodic figuration, harmonic juxtapositions, and textural crescendo bring the work to a climax elevating the human soul. My genetic criticism draws on close examination of holographs in the Library of Congress’s Aaron Copland Collection, including sketches and drafts, marked conducting scores, lecture notes, and correspondence. An understanding of In the Beginning’s historical context is enriched by archival discoveries at Harvard and Yale Universities, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Kane Street Synagogue; and by interviews with individuals close to Copland in 1947 and in his later decades, including Lorna Cooke deVaron, Alice Parker, Marilyn Jaye, and Vivian Perlis. The intent of this dissertation is to shed light on Copland’s compositional techniques and philosophical perspectives, and to facilitate more compelling performances of In the Beginning.

Name thesis:degree_name

A.Mus.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Fromm, Allison Wallis

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kinderman, William
• Solya, Andrea
• Lund, Erik
• Siena, Jerold

• Aaron Copland
• In the Beginning
• Book of Genesis
• twentieth-century choral music
• a cappella choral music
• American choral music
• sketches and drafts
• compositional technique
• creative process
• genetic criticism
• Jewish composers

Statement dc:rights

• © Copyright 2015 by Allison W. Fromm. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89122

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/89122