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Appalachian
Spring is a ballet score by Aaron Copland that premiered
on 1944 and achieved widespread popularity as an orchestral
suite. The ballet, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra,
was created at the request of choreographer and dancer Martha
Graham and commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge; it premiered
on October 30, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C., with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. The set was
designed by the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. While
writing the work over the course of a year, Copland wrote that
it was somewhat foolish to do as the ballet and its corresponding
scores were historically short-lived. Copland was awarded the
1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for this ballet.
The
story told is a spring celebration of the American pioneers
of the 1800s after building a new Pennsylvania farmhouse. Among
the central characters are a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a
revivalist preacher and his followers.
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