Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Copland spent his student years in the early 1920s in Paris, studying with the great French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. It was she who encouraged him to find individuality in his compositions. His response was a Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. At its premiere, conductor Walter Damrosch said: "If a man of 25 can write music like this, in five years he'll be ready to commit murder."
This well known concert opener was written in 1942 in response to an approach from Eugene Goosens to some 18 American composers for patriotic fanfares for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra�s 1942-3 season to honour all those involved in the action of World War II.
In late August 1942, Eugene Goossens, the conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony, wrote to Copland requesting a patriotic fanfare to help with the war effort. Goossens suggested the instrumentation of brass and percussion and length of about two minutes. A large group of American composers were given similar requests, and Goossens hoped to perform Copland's fanfare in October at his first concert of the season. Since Copland did not deliver the Fanfare until November, Goossens suggested another date: March 12, 1943, as it would then be income tax time, an ideal opportunity for honoring the common man. Copland subsequently included it in his Third Symphony.
It was later recorded by Emerson , Lake and Palmer.