By John Ardoin

Jonathan Sheffer conducts the Eos Orchestra.

This absorbing tribute to Copland's America is a music-documentary rich in archival footage that includes Copland in interviews and as a conductor of his own music. Along with these glimpses of the composer himself, some of his finest works are performed by the Eos Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Sheffer. The selections range from the landmark dance work "Appalachian Spring" to the popular orchestra piece "El Salón México." Along with these, Sheffer has included two rarely known or heard Copland scores dating from 1939 -- "From Sorcery to Science - The Chinese Herbalist" and the score of the film THE CITY.

Sheffer terms these two scores "works for hire," noting that Copland was a composer "who was at once ambitious and eminently practical." He was also "determined to reach a wide public, both for himself and for the salutary effect of promulgating a distinctly American music. At the same time, he had a disinterested curiosity in all kinds of music, from the esoteric to the commercial, and he was eager to try his hand at every opportunity that came his way."

Eos Orchestra.

The opportunity to compose these two unusual pieces was presented by the 1939 World's Fair held in New York City. To promote the message of progress, which was the Fair's theme, films and live shows were commissioned; the music for them came not only from Copland, but George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, George Antheil, Oscar Levant, and Robert Russell Bennett, among others.

To Copland went the soundtrack for THE CITY, a short film that Sheffer describes as extolling "social engineering in utopian cities as the cure for the ills of the industrial society. ... This was Copland's first experience putting music to image, a task he completed with remarkable originality." THE CITY turned out to be his entrée to Hollywood, where he eventually composed music for several notable feature films -- OF MICE AND MEN (1939), OUR TOWN (1940), THE NORTH STAR (1943), and THE HEIRESS (1949), which won him an Oscar.

The Hall of Pharmacy at the 1939 World's Fair.

Copland's other World's Fair project was music for a puppet show at the Hall of Pharmacy. "From Sorcery to Science" was, according to Sheffer, "a grand 'infomercial' for drug companies ... the show told the history of medicines -- from ancient China to the wonders of the modern pharmacy ... [and Copland's] score contains some 'lost' examples of his unique style: the pentatonic Oriental evocations ... dramatic atmospheres and diatonic parallel harmonies." In 1939, the text that the music supported was read by a famous reporter of the times, Lowell Thomas. For PBS's recreation of the show, puppeteer Basil Twist is joined by actor Richard Muenz.

Jonathan Sheffer.

Sheffer feels that "What emerges in both 'From Sorcery to Science' and film scores like 'The City' is a composer who eagerly worked on music for every sort of mass consumption, but one who never lost sight of a high purpose in his art. ... Copland's America is the jazz of the city and the simplicity of the open prairie; the atonal avant-garde and the farmland all rolled into one. In Copland, astringent modernism and lump-in-the-throat patriotism go hand in hand. ... Copland listened to our hymns and cowboy songs and wrote his own, better ones, and took his music to the people for their delight and consumption."


Photos, from top to bottom: Jonathan Sheffer conducts the Eos Orchestra: BBC. The Eos Orchestra: BBC. The Hall of Pharmacy: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection [reproduction number: LC-G605-CT-00440-1/2 DLC]. Jonathan Sheffer: BBC.