Delanceyplace.com 08/28/07-Aaron Copland

In today's excerpt--Aaron Copland, the Brooklyn-born composer whose works--including "Appalachian Spring," "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Lincoln Portrait"--have become so iconic and beloved that they are virtually theme music for American values. And yet, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Copland and his work were more associated with the Communist threat than with American virtue--in spite of the fact that Copland himself was, in the final analysis, benign in his politics:

"Countless films, television commercials, news broadcasts, and campaign ads have employed Coplandesque open-interval melodies to suggest the innate goodness of small-town rural life--elderly couple sitting on porches, newsboys on bicycles, farmers leaning on fences. A diluted version of the 'open prairie' manner was heard in Ronald Reagan's 'Morning in America' campaign ads. ... 'Appalachian Spring,' with its grand and gritty harmonization of the Shaker tune 'Simple Gifts,' has evolved into something like national them music--the leitmotif of feel-good news. At the height of the Cold War, however, political watchdogs did not fail to notice Copland's leftward leanings. ...

"[By 1952] he had already been labelled a 'fellow traveler' in the pages of Life. He had watched as old colleagues, such as Marc Blitzstein and Hanns Eisler, were subjected to interrogation or driven out of the country. As a gay man, he had extra reason to worry: the FBI was conducting separate purges of homosexuals on the theory that they made easy targets for Soviet blackmail.

"On January 20, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated as President. Copland's 'Lincoln Portrait' had been scheduled for a preliminary inaugural concert by the National Symphony, but, two weeks before the event, Fred Busbey, an Illinois congressman, denounced the work as Communist propaganda and demanded that it be removed from the program. ...

"Copland released a statement couched in the defensive jargon of the day: 'I say unequivocally that I am not now and never have been a communist or member of any organization that advocates or teaches in any way the overthrow of the United States.' nonetheless, 'Lincoln Portrait' was not played for President-elect Eisenhower at Constitution Hall.

"Finally, on May 22, 1953, came the dreaded telegram: YOU ARE HEREBY DIRECTED TO APPEAR BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE ON MONDAY MAY TWENTYFIFTH AT TWOTHIRTY P M ROOM 357 SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC-JOE MCCARTHY CHAIRMAN SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS. ...

"[After the hearing and] for a time, Copland was hassled when he tried to travel abroad; the passport agency declined to renew his passport, and repeatedly requested that he demonstrate affiliations with anti-Communist organizations. In 1953, he had several engagements rescinded on political grounds."

Alex Ross, "Appalachian Autumn," The New Yorker, August 27, 2007, pp. 34-39.