The Dickinson Songs of Aaron Copland

There could be no more fitting subject for the opening volume of this new series than Copland’s Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. Long a favorite of performers and audiences alike, this inimitable cycle of art songs created at mid-century by a highly distinctive voice in American music pays tribute to one of America’s revered poets, herself a pioneer of “the modern” on her own terms. Professor Starr convincingly identifies the aesthetic affinities of the poet and the composer in spite of the social, artistic, and chronological gaps that separated them and explains the pivotal nature of the work in Copland’s output. He then describes the singular musical solutions devised for each poem, all the while emphasizing the composer’s respect for the idiosyncrasies of Dickinson’s verse. Commentary on the original version for soprano and piano is supplemented by information on Copland’s later orchestrations of selected songs, a discussion of performance and interpretation, and an annotated discography.