Copland Inscape opening eleven note chord

''Inscape'' is a 1967 musical composition for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

, approximately twelve to thirteen minutes in length, and commissioned by and dedicated to the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

for its 125th anniversary (see also ''

Capriccio burlesco ''Capriccio burlesco'' is an orchestral work by Sir William Walton, written between May and September 1968 at his home in Ischia, Italy.Liner notes to the premiere recording, mfp classics, CFP 4074 It was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic ...

''). Composed using the twelve-tone technique, the piece has been considered less accessible than much of Copland's earlier music. It is named for Gerard Manley Hopkins's term " inscape", invented: Hopkins's opposite of "inscape" was " instress" ("perception as opposed to intrinsic, essential quality"), and a commentator writes that Copland, "uses sounds as an 'instress' that communicates a deeper inner essence, an 'inscape.'"Steinberg, Michael (2000).
About the Piece: Inscape
, ''LAPhil.com''. "The outward appearance is the boundary

chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ...

that frame the composition. The inner reality is the first complete statement of Copland's original melodic

idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of be ...

at P-0, which occurs very close to the middle of ''Inscape''." Row 1: Eb G F# D F Bb A B C# G# E Row 2: F C Ab D G A B Eb C# E F# The composition begins and ends with eleven-note chords (it may end on a ten note chord), "perhaps a double tease", and, "if there is one over-arching feature to Inscape, it is the alternation of massive blocks of sound, sometimes quite harsh in their harmony, with quieter sonorities and more peaceable gestures." Copland said that the twelve-tone technique "freshened his harmonic palette" and that the composition uses two different tone rows. Discussing '' Connotations'' (1962), he said, "As a result

f using the twelve-tone technique F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...

I began to hear chords I wouldn't have heard otherwise; here was a new way of moving tones about that had a freshening effect on one's technique and approach." However, he stated that ''Inscape'' "used it

he technique He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

in a rather more tonal way than...''Connotations''." "Through the single, closely-knit movement of ''Inscape'' there is no perceptible contradiction between the serial and diatonic elements, rather they dissolve freely into each other to produce music of a stimulating independence of spirit."Henderson, Robert
Copland's 'Inscape'
, ''Tempo'', No. 87 (Winter, 1968-1969), pp. 29-30, ''JSTOR.org''. According to Henderson the first "twelve-note series" opens and closes the piece, while the second is the primary source of melodic material.

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

remarked after the premiere: "Aaron, it's amazing how, even when you compose in a completely 'foreign' idiom the music still comes out sounding like you."Copland, Aaron and Perlis, Vivian (1989). ''Copland: Since 1943'', p.353. St. Martin's. quoted in Dickinson, Peter (2002). ''Copland Connotations: Studies and Interviews'', p.180, n.6. Boydell. . "The writing," also, "bears the unmistakable imprint of Copland's mature personality, in its wide spacing, its spare, lucid textures, often in just two or three parts, and lithe, cumulative rhythms."

References

1967 compositions Music commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Compositions by Aaron Copland Music dedicated to ensembles or performers Twelve-tone compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra {{classical-composition-stub