Within a life and works study, musical borrowings from American folk music are considered. A number of works after 1934 borrow from folk sources, including El salón México,Billy the Kid,Rodeo, and Lincoln Portrait. Copland transformed and developed his borrowings through melodic and rhythmic displacement, character changes, and motivic fragmentation. As a result of folk influence, Copland composed more melodic music that relies upon diatonic harmonies. The use of folksong assisted Copland in his search for a simpler style accessible to a wider audience. Copland's borrowings were also the result of his Americanism and his desire to bring the American popular-music heritage into the concert hall.

Works: Copland: Vitebsk (52), Lincoln Portrait (60-61), Rodeo (63-64), El Salón México (63-65), Billy the Kid (65n, 91), Appalachian Spring (65n), Third Symphony (72-80), The Heiress (film score) (89), Las Agachadas (91); Rimsky-Korsakoff: Russian Easter Overture (73); Stravinsky: Petrouchka (73, 91), Pulcinella (91).

Sources: Springfield Mountain (60-61); El Mosca (63); If He'd Be a Buckaroo (63-64); Sis Joe (64); El Palo Verde (65); The Gift to Be Simple (Simple Gifts) (65n); Goodbye Old Paint (65n, 91); Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man (75); Giovanni Martini: Plaisirs d'amour (89).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Bergman