|| AARON COPLAND OBJECTS ||
Video: Aaron Copland works on Billy the Kid at the MacDowell Colony
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Aaron Copland was unknown as a composer when he first came to The MacDowell Colony in 1925. The artists he met there that summer changed his perception of art in America. Years later, Copland acknowledged his debt to the Colony, saying that if people found his music distinctly American, the Colony deserved some of the credit.
Billy the Kid.
Autograph full score, 1938.
Music Division, Library of Congress
©1978 The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., sole licensee (33)
Billy the Kid.
Colophon, 1938.
Music Division, Library of Congress
©1978 The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. (34) Digital ID #mc0034
Billy the Kid
Aaron Copland (1900–1990) was working on Billy the Kid at The MacDowell Colony in September of 1938, when the Great Hurricane of 1938 swept through New England. He recalled that the Colony’s grounds looked like a "desolate war-torn swamp" in the storm’s aftermath. It took two men with axes more than two hours to cut through the downed trees and rescue his manuscript from the Chapman Studio. The ballet was scheduled to premiere on October 6, 1938—Copland moved to a new studio and kept on working.
The Cast of Billy the Kid
Photograph. featuring Erick Hawkins, Eugene Loring, and Lew Christensen, center, 1938.
George Platt Lynes. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. © Estate of George Platt Lynes. (87)
The Cast of Billy the Kid
Aaron Copland was sympathetic with the efforts of dance impresario Lincoln Kirstein to break away from ballet’s long-standing Russian traditions and create a truly American classic ballet. In 1938, he agreed to write the music for a new ballet based on an American theme—the true story of William Bonney, the notorious cowboy known as Billy the Kid. It was Copland’s most successful work to date, prompting his mother finally to admit that the money spent on his piano lessons had not gone to waste.
Aaron Copland, ca. 1961.
Photographic print.
Margery Smith.
Prints and Photographs Division,
Library of Congress (86)
Courtesy of the MacDowell Colony
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland’s MacDowell Colony residency in 1925 brought him into contact with artists working in different disciplines for the first time, an experience he credited with changing the way he thought about art in America. Years later, Copland publicly acknowledged the Colony’s influence on his work: “If my music has been connected in people’s minds with America, if people find some reflection of the American spirit in my music, then certainly the Colony must have some of the credit.”
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