Aaron Copland (1900-1991)
Buckaroo Holiday from Rodeo

Copland's Rodeo was written for choreographer Agnes de Mille. She wrote to Copland in early 1942 asking him to write the score for a "cowboy ballet" she was planning for the Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo. Copland, thinking of his earlier success with the 1938 ballet Billy the Kid, didn't originally want to do it, writing "Oh no! I've already done one of those!" De Mille eventually won him over, promising: "This is going to be different." Neither as serious nor as deep as Copland's earlier "American" ballets Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring, Rodeo is a light and humorous love story. The ballet, subtitled "the Courting at Burnt Ranch," tells the story of a young cowgirl who desperately tries to get herself a man. When her efforts to impress the head cowhand by her ridin' and ropin' skills fail, she finally wins him over when she shows up at the Saturday night hoe-down in a lovely red dress. De Mille referred to her story as "The Taming of the Shrew...cowboy style."

The premiere performance of the ballet, in New York on October 16, 1942, was a stunning success, and Copland promptly produced a four-movement suite from the ballet, which was premiered by the Boston Pops Orchestra in May 1943. Dance Episodes from Rodeo has remained one of Copland's most popular works ever since. The suite is just a slight modification of the ballet score, and closely follows the action of de Mille's story. The opening movement, "Buckaroo Holiday," is a picture of the rodeo itself, beginning with two original themes by Copland: first a descending scale played as cowboys are bounced around and tossed by bucking broncos, and then a more lyrical tune. When the tempo picks up again, a solo trombone introduces an old cowboy tune (the first of several quotations in Rodeo), "If He'd be a Buckaroo by his Trade." The combination of all of these ideas in the end gives a perfect picture of the chaos and exuberance of a traditional rodeo.

Copland - Rodeo

Copland is regarded as a pioneering figure in American music. While studying in Paris in 1920s was influenced by teaching of Nadia Boulanger, Stravinskian neo-classicism, popular music, and developing European nationalist composing traditions. Upon return to USA, his modernism and use of jazz gave him a reputation as an enfant terrible. In the 1930s and 40s he established a characteristically American vernacular style, employing simple harmonies, folk melodies, and lucid orchestration ^Õ Public appeal through such pieces as Fanfare for the Common Man and Old American Songs. Radical late works from 1960s such as Connotations and Inscape adopt an individualised 12-tone idiom. As conductor and educator worked tirelessly to promote other composers, at Harvard, Tanglewood, on radio and television ^Õ Copland centenary falls in 2000.

Rodeo tells the story of a young cowgirl who has always been a tomboy. With her sudden awareness of the opposite sex, she attempts to attract the attention of the Head Wrangler and the Champion Roper. Her prowess as a rider does not impress the m, and when they ride off after ignoring her exhibition she is left behind in tears. A group of girls from the city in pretty dresses arrives at the invitation of the Rancher's daughter. They are an instant success with the men, much to the angry dismay of the cowgirl, still dressed in dungarees and riding boots. She rushes from the scene, to return in the middle of the Saturday Night Dance in a party dress. Her transformation brings all the men to her side and she triumphantly accepts the Roper as her partner.(Butterworth, 91-92)

The introduction to the first Episode, 'Buckaroo Holiday', uses syncopation and brittle orchestration more reminiscent of El Salon Mexico than Billy the Kid. But like Billy the Kid, Rodeo incorporates folk-songs not quoted literally but presented with Copland's personal treatment. The first, 'Sis Joe', is preceded by 23 bars of 'vamping'. The second folk-song, 'If he'd be a buckaroo by his trade', like 'Sis Joe', was taken from th e collection of tunes, Our Singing Country, compiled by John A. and Alan Lomax. This, too, has a simple rag-time accopaniment, humorously punctuated by empty bars. The treatment of the material also recalls the 'Jingo' movement of Statement s with a brusque, almost satirical, character that serves to poke masculine fun at the pathetic figure of the cowgirl.

The contrasting sadness of 'Corral Nocturne' serves to emphasise the isolation of the heroine in her rejection by the cowboys and her alienation from the city girls in their pretty dresses. Although the music conta ins no folk-song quotations, it evokes the mood of Copland's earlier pastoral episodes in Music for Radio, Billy the Kid, and Our Town.

'Saturday Night Waltz' begins with the string instruments testing their open strings in the way a fiddler tunes up. The Waltz itself is in slow tempo, with hints of the song 'Goodbye Old Paint', almost an echo from Billy the Kid.

The final episode, 'Hoe Down', is based on 'Bonyparte', a tune Copland found in Traditional Music by Ira Ford, although, despite its American pedigree, it must have an origin in the Old World. A brief quote of 'McLeod's Reel' the jazzy treatment makes the whole movement distinctly American.(92-93)


Aaron Copland: Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Aaron Copland had international success with three ballets – Billy the Kid, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring. After the popularity of Billy, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo asked for another “cowboy” work.

Copland composed Rodeo in 1942 while teaching at the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood). Agnes de Mille choreographed and danced the lead at the work’s Metropolitan Opera House premiere Oct. 16, 1942.

The story revolves around a tomboyish girl who hopes to make a handsome cowboy her sweetheart. Copland turned both to American folk music and his own fertile imagination for inspiration. He pulled cowboy tunes from folklorist Alan Lomax’s “Our Singing Country” and Ira Ford’s “Traditional Music in America,” quoting “Sis Joe” and “If he’d be a buckaroo by his trade” (humorously scored for trombone) in the Buckaroo Holiday movement. The Corral Nocturne movement’s melody is strictly Copland’s invention, and it is his inspiration again that lends the Saturday Night Waltz its thoroughly American character. The lively final movement, “Hoe-Down,” derives its melodic line from the American square dance tune Bonyparte, incisively scored for the orchestra by Copland.

The TSO last performed Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo in 1994 under Robert Bernhardt.

- Daniel Buckley, © 2005