Description
The composition of his 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson (1949-1950) marks the beginning of a brief period during which Copland composed vocal music almost exclusively. It was his first major vocal piece, and some consider it one of the great song cycles of the twentieth century.
Copland hoped that the audience would perceive the work as a song cycle, although only the seventh and 12th songs in the set are thematically related. Features below the surface lend uniformity to Copland's settings. The interval of a third dominates the songs in both voice part and accompaniment, as do chord progressions that feature falling fourths. In general the songs are transparent, the piano part often consisting of only one line per hand.... read more
