Communism and American Music: a.k.a. I Love a Good Conspiracy Theory

This week we are performing works by two of the most quintessential American composers of all time: Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. And BTW, that is pronounced “Cope-land,” and is NOT a movie starring Sly Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Robert DeNiro, and Ray Liotta. We’re talking serious, historical, classical music here kids, not a serious, fictional, police corruption/Mafia flick. Though Italians DO figure heavily in both Classical music and Mafia films….hmmm…I’ll leave that one to the true conspiracy theorists.

Speaking of conspiracy theories, here’s some more dish: Because of the "Red Scare" and Congressional and FBI investigations, Copland was blacklisted in the 50’s for being sympathetic to the American Communist Party. Now check this out: the Third Symphony (1946), performed this week, contains in its entirety his brass piece, “Fanfare for the Common Man.” The fanfare was composed in 1942 as a contribution to a series of wartime fanfares commissioned by Eugene Goossens (then conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra). It would later be used to open many Democratic National Conventions, as well as be played at top military funerals and State events. Copland himself said he felt free to recycle it because he never expected the original fanfare to attain such remarkable popularity as it had done. So, the Third Symphony, with its perceived symbolism-- of that of the end of World War II, a successful struggle that had been pursued with idealism and national unity, and which left the country entering a period of new prosperity and new thoughts about itself; that patriotic and heroic piece, was composed by a man who less than a decade later was blacklisted for being a communist and anti-American!! Well, maybe it was the parallels drawn by musicologists between the Third Symphony and Shostakovich’s Symphonies….. and it has been further noted that Copland shared a bit of the Russian composer's fascination with Mahler…..And really, that title: “Fanfare for the Common Man” How Marxist is that?

Now watch if you can, comrades, my deft slight-of-hand, as I weave Samuel Barber into my wacky web: Barber composed one of my favorite violin concertos that we are playing with the amazing virtuostic violinist superstar Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (eerie music here….she comes from Italian-Russian descent!!!!). His most famous piece is probably the “Adagio for Strings;” like the “Fanfare for the Common Man,” it is also played at many funerals and somber State events! What’s more, here is an excerpt from a letter that he sent his mother at the tender age of nine:

“Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure. I’ll ask you one more thing .—Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes I’ve been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very).”

NOT PLAY FOOTBALL?!?!?!?! How un-American is that? I bet he even hated apple pie. And here’s one last thing (hey, was that a sigh of relief I heard from the peanut gallery?): Because of his being blacklisted, Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” was withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower. Obviously in support of his Commie comrade, Barber often carried around Lincoln Portraits –cleverly disguised as five dollar bills- in his wallet!!!!!

See ya next time- I’ve got to go put on my aluminum foil helmet against the space aliens. They’re watching, you know.