The Compositional History of Aaron Copland's Symphonic Ode

Abstract

In 1928 Aaron Copland read an announcement in New York Times of competition sponsored by RCA Victor. A board of judges, including conductors Leopold Stokowski and Serge Koussevitzky, was to award $25,000 to the best work of symphonic type, in any form which composer may employ or develop, within playing scope of full symphony orchestra.1 Composers had until May 27, 1929, to enter. Thinking would have been shame not to submit anything to competition, Copland submitted excerpts from an early, unperformed ballet as Dance Symphony.2 The judges did not award first prize; rather, monies were divided among Copland and three other composers.3 Copland had hoped to submit Symphonic Ode for Victor prize but did not complete it in time. The Ode represented more than competition piece, however, and he continued to work on it even after missing deadline. He was attempting something different, trying to write a piece of music with an unbroken logic so thoroughly unified that very last note bears relation to first.4 This sense of formal unity is integral to his general conception of symphonic form, as is grandiose and dramatic tone, and Symphonic Ode fulfills these generic criteria.5 Copland intended it as an important statement of his artistic majority, his first purely symphonic work of weightier tone than youthful Symphony for Organ and Orchestra or Music for Theater. The Ode was, he wrote to Serge Koussevitzky in 1929, the best thing that I have done up to now.6