The choir I sing in is performing Copland's In the beginning
in its next concert, and I have been doing a bit of background reading about the piece (which I confess to not particularly liking) and downloading a couple of recordings (the first such, by Bernstein, and the King's one) to listen to, to supplement the two I already have (Copland's own and the one by the Corydon Singers).
I then got to thinking about the commission that led to Stravinsky's Babel, part of the Genesis Suite:
There is nothing in what I have read in books I have on Copland (Copland/Perlis and Pollack) to suggest that Copland was part of this project, but I can't help wondering if he expected to be approached and wasn't, or in some way was influenced by it.
Pollack says that Copland was requested to write an a capella work, possibly in Hebrew, would have prefered a spot in the chamber-music concert, but eventually agreed to the conditions; the text he set uses parts of the first and second chapters of Genesis in the King James Bible translation.
So, idle speculation on my part (the Genesis Suite is also set in English) or not?
Any thoughts on the Copland or the composite work?
I have downloaded the Naxos version of the Genesis Suite from Deezer, and it's in the listenening queue.
in its next concert, and I have been doing a bit of background reading about the piece (which I confess to not particularly liking) and downloading a couple of recordings (the first such, by Bernstein, and the King's one) to listen to, to supplement the two I already have (Copland's own and the one by the Corydon Singers).
I then got to thinking about the commission that led to Stravinsky's Babel, part of the Genesis Suite:
There is nothing in what I have read in books I have on Copland (Copland/Perlis and Pollack) to suggest that Copland was part of this project, but I can't help wondering if he expected to be approached and wasn't, or in some way was influenced by it.
Pollack says that Copland was requested to write an a capella work, possibly in Hebrew, would have prefered a spot in the chamber-music concert, but eventually agreed to the conditions; the text he set uses parts of the first and second chapters of Genesis in the King James Bible translation.
So, idle speculation on my part (the Genesis Suite is also set in English) or not?
Any thoughts on the Copland or the composite work?
I have downloaded the Naxos version of the Genesis Suite from Deezer, and it's in the listenening queue.
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