Similarities Between Copland And Stravinsky

Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky have been regarded as having being two of the greatest composers in the field of orchestra. In so many ways the two composers were similar and different in their compositions. Igor Stravinsky’s success as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century and the most influential musical innovators of all-time has been regarded as inspirational for countless musicians, key among them Aaron Copland. However, in equally many ways they were also different, beginning with their nationalities and certain aspects of their musical style. While Copland’s style has generally been likened to that of Igor Stravinsky many authors have agreed that Copland’s style owes a lot of its foundation to Stravinsky, even though the

The piece disregarded 200 years of precepts in symphony and dance tradition, the piece although almost 100 years old, it remained an infamous radical piece of music. The pagan story, featuring polytonal music, the composition shocked the audience during its premier resulting to riots. It led Stravinsky to pursue rational, “neoclassical music.” The Rite Of Spring strives to blur the lines of rhythmic pulse, which is obvious in the section, “The Augurs Of Spring”, where the intonations are so displaced that it is difficult to decrypt in what meter the composition is written.

Appalachian Spring is Copland’s third ballet from his American period, the others being Billy the Kid and Rodeo. The musicalpiece is based on a story about the joys and anxieties of pioneer life. It echoes his characteristic American style, and its most prominent section, is the variations on the Shaker folk tune “Simple

The music resonates not only with folkloric echoes but also, inevitably, with manifold reverberations of earlier Russian music for the stage. It manifests a bewildering originality and technical certainty. It has a minimum of false starts and detours: the most radical ideas are present from the start, if in cruder form, and the work seems to have proceeded with great assurance. This is contrasting and similar to Copland’s’ Appalachian Spring in two ways. Similar in that both have a folkal intonation in their performance, and contrasting, in the sense that while The Rite Of Passage borrows heavily from Russian cultural background, the Appalachian Spring bears Copland’s characteristic trademark American style.

Copland’s Appalachian Spring is a great study in orchestra. It is deceptively complex yet still approachable for a novice. The Appalachian Spring, retro at the time of its composition, is radical only in the sense that it is so tonal, simple and guileless, and flawless in the middle of anage when that style of writing was not the prevalent fashion or trend.The compositioniscandid, honest and harmonious. Instrumental lines are every so often doubled all through. This is in contrast with The Rite of Spring whichchallenges the audience with its chaotic percussive