Exploring Fanfare for the Common Man: Aaron Copland & Emerson, Lake, & Palmer | The Daily Doug

it's the daily duck hey y'all welcome back to the Daily dug thanks for being with me today you have arrived on a Friday and I am very excited to bring one of my favorite classical pieces to you on this masterpiece Friday we're looking at Fanfare for the Common Man and we're gonna take a look at two versions first the original from Aaron Copeland one of the giant short compositions of the 20th century and then we're going to take a look at the version done by Emerson Lake and Palmer and uh a lot of people have been asking me to to take a look at uh specifically the ELP version of this but I thought you know if we're gonna spend some time taking a look at Fanfare for the Common Man and what EOP did with it which I have not heard yet um I want to start with the original so that we know what the source material is so I'm going to talk for a few minutes about the original and then we're gonna listen to it it's only about three and a half or four minutes y'all and then we'll take a look at elp's version of it and spend a little bit of time together on a Friday and it's going to be just marvelous so thanks for being with me for this episode so Fanfare for the common man is by Aaron Copeland it was written in 142 and it was written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra it is scored for four horns four French horns three trumpets three trombones a tuba and then three uh percussion players one playing timpani one playing bass drum and one playing The Tam Tam otherwise known as a Gong and uh the the back story of why it was written is quite fascinating friends the Cincinnati Symphony conductor at the time his name was Eugene goosens and he was an older gentleman by this time and he was an English conductor and a composer and he had been active in England for some time uh being an associate at the Royal College of Music he was a wonderful violinist he was a great composer in his own right and conductor and he decided that he was going to do conducting as his primary Outlet artistically and while in Britain as a younger director he conducted the British premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with Stravinsky in attendance and by the time we get to the 20s into the 30s he comes to America to conduct for many years most notably at the Eastman School of Music and at the Cincinnati Symphony where he succeeded Fritz Reiner okay so uh big shoes to feel uh Phil and for the the 1942-43 season okay think about the timing of this he commissioned 10 different fanfares from American composers to honor the war effort as each of their orchestral concerts began so for each of the orchestra concerts during that year they would start with a little Fanfare from an American composer in this honored America's entry into the war goosens had done the same thing back in Britain during World War One and he had quite a bit of success with it not only putting some dollars in the hands of composers but having a way in his orchestra concerts to pay homage to what's going on outside for a little bit of time and then you go on with your evening and um after all of this all these years later Copeland's composition as one of ten is the only one that remains popular in the standard repertoire and it was written like I said in response to Us's entry into World War II and Aaron Copeland took inspiration from the current vice president Henry Wallace who in a famous speech had proclaimed the dawning of the century of the Common Man so with this inspiration in mind goose and the uh the orchestra director decided to program the premiere for March 12th of 1943 and he chose that time of year because Americans are active actively paying their taxes during this time our tax deadline is in April so he wanted to honor the common man at tax time pretty cool right so here's something that I want to show you first I know I'm talking a lot but we'll get to the music y'all I need to show you this because this is a scan from the Library of Congress and this is Copeland's original manuscript in pencil and it's just four pages here here's page one and then we get page two page three and Page four and then and then uh no one more page five sorry it's five pages long and then we end right so that's his own uh stuff and uh the uh the copyright is from 1944 and it's registered to the Aaron Copeland fund for music and this is used by permission uh from busian Hawks who is the publisher and licensee so I want to take just a minute to show you a couple of things that are included here in the um in the score so you'll notice that he's not writing for everything at the beginning uh just the ones that are playing so he's got just the percussion the timpani the bass drum and the Tam Tam and this pattern where it's got a boom and then a boom boom right we remember that we've all heard that but by the time it starts again this first time is shorter and then it becomes a little bit longer and then a little bit longer still so it's got this little uh sound to me of immediacy and then it sort of just Echoes and and backs off a little bit and then this main theme punches right in and it's every trumpet players um you know privilege and Nightmare at the same time to play this it's so exposed uh all three of them have to play this in unison and uh you you try not to be the one that cracks it's a really beautiful open uh Melody that Copeland a type of Melody that Copeland is known for and uh just just arpeggios here coming up uh this by the way it's part of the thing of of of reading music uh the trumpets are written you see here B-flat it says these are written as a transposing instruments so although this looks like gcg it's sounding a a whole step down it's sounding an F to B flat to F this piece is in B flat and uh because of that since the trumpets and the B-flat trumpet sound down a whole step uh since the pieces in B flat the trumpets are written in C so that they sound the right thing right we could talk about transposing instruments at a different time but if you look at just the shape of it it's it's an arpeggio it's falado going up and then Domi Soul going up it's it's open chords and really nice open spacing that he's got he brings in the horns the horns are in a different key the horns are in F they transpose down a fifth so this F for from uh that's written here sounds of B-flat so this is B flat to F to another B flat they're just playing along with the trumpets not like it's parallel motion but the notes are moving arpeggiating within a certain chord that's happening at that particular time and that's why you get a combination of parallel force and parallel fifths sometimes parallel six uh as he writes the secondary line with just the horns and the trumpets the horns come back in here we get the low brass that comes in down here uh what else is going on in here uh here's one spot where the timpani is playing this arpeggiation from an F to a B flat up to an F that mimics that very first uh outline of the ascending Melody we got some fun stuff divided brass trumpets three of them uh divided here uh horns divided up as well we move into a full brass choir uh he's got triple F here pesante I believe is what that says and uh that's an Italian term as I recall that means it's heavy it's profound it's ponderous uh that's Passante right and so we get these nice uh to Noodle marks he's like yum pom pom each of these has to have their own sort of flair to it each of these quarter notes has their own Bloom and their own reason for being in that Melody we get some fun uh chromaticism here I'm just looking and seeing what he's doing here ah yes yes so like this a flat chord results up to B flat major and then an A flat to is that a d flat yeah d flat two that's an F chord uh in an inversion it looks like so uh yeah that's cool um and I'm just remembering this it's been a while since I heard it and then all of a sudden into sharps um a and then it ends on a big D major chord spoiler alert y'all it ends on D A major third away from where it started it ends more bright and Brilliant and that's the reason why it sounds that way we're going most of the time just kind of around in B flat and then a little bit dark and then it gets back to where we came from and then brighter and then brighter still yet and then we're gonna land on that D major chord it's beautiful I thought about listening along to it while playing the score but I found this really beautiful version of it by uh the gavant house Orchestra and this is one of the world's leading orchestral ensembles they're based in Leipzig Germany and this is beautiful we just need to see and listen to this one this one was published to YouTube in July of 2021 I think I'm finally ready to listen to some music y'all are y'all ready okay let's do it Fanfare for the Common Man the Aaron Copeland original version played by the gavant house Orchestra from Leipzig off we go big low percussion [Music] [Music] oh [Music] it's not parallel motion y'all they're just playing in the chords as they go still lands on B flat foreign full advantage of the spaciousness and the and there are these instruments there was that timpani going up [Music] Lance on B flat [Music] four chord thank you foreign [Music] d flat to B flat gets brighter d flat again brighter yet f [Music] even brighter a f to D it's an amazing amazing piece I am well acquainted with it because I'm a an Alum of Westminster choir college and I taught there for several years and this piece with uh the the brass uh eight part brass and and percussion um More Than A Part press uh uh was always performed at our graduation ceremonies in the big Cathedral on the Princeton University campus and you knew it was time to matriculate when the Fanfare for the Common Man started playing and it was always so so special I miss hearing that I miss those ceremonies uh but let's move on and see what Emerson Lake and Palmer have done with this so this is from Works volume one their fifth album released in 1977. I've got my vinyl of that out there and as we recall with this album each member of ELP got a side to play with right Keith recorded his piano concerto Greg recorded uh I think five songs uh that he co-wrote with Peter senfield Carl recorded I think five or six pieces including a few Arrangements of some classical tunes and then on side four the group presented two sort of full band tracks including Fanfare for the Common Man and Pirates and as I was getting ready today I thought you know it's fitting that this cover by ELP is the one that we're up to today because the last time that we featured EOP on the channel we heard Pirates so we're finishing out this side front from works that's pretty cool today uh they are no stranger to adapting classical Works uh they're they're great fans of classical pieces uh one example is uh the hoedown from Aaron Copeland same composer from their 1972 album Trilogy and so uh as the story goes from what I can find out they were recording in Montreal in 1976 and Keith had been toying around with uh this piece the Fanfare by Copeland and while Keith was playing it uh Greg improvised this little Shuffle uh bass pattern and then Carl jumped in and it was sort of this magical version that manifested itself right there in the studio and as they played it and worked it out the recording equipment was rolling and at least according to Greg Lake from what I could find that's the version that's on the recording on the album right the first time that they really played through it and there you go it's kind of lightning in a bottle uh and so we fast forward several months by the time that they were on their North American tour in 1977 in Montreal uh they arranged for their equipment to be set up in Olympics uh Stadium uh while it was empty in fact I think it was snowy from from what it looks like here on the the thumbnail and they arranged for a videographer to come with them and so they ended up doing four takes uh with the videographer filming each musician individually for the for the duration of that take and then once with the like just getting the whole band and then they spliced together the footage and the end result is what we're gonna see right now I believe that the audio is from the actual studio recording so Keith Emerson is on his Yamaha gx1 polyphonic synthesizer Greg Lake is on his eight string bass and Carl Palmer is playing drums and percussion I cannot wait to watch this and see this uh this is really what uh we've been leading up to so here is ELP doing their version of fanfare for the common man off we go foreign step higher pretty decent trumpet sound though big Stadium three little guys at one end of it snow on the ground [Music] close [Music] so he's using real tempany sticks okay okay we're getting groovy with it [Music] wow it must whole look at their breath it's got the voicing right [Music] now so funny but it oddly works it's Rhythm a size but pretty [Music] close it's rhythmicizing it [Music] thank you [Music] five seven the five goes brighter and then it ends instead of on a d that's on an e so they're gonna riff [Music] in e for a while [Music] coat [Music] [Music] kind of an open section solving over an e [Music] [Laughter] [Music] incredible they'd set all of this up [Music] to do this [Music] loving it it's it's not Copeland's music anymore it's [Music] it's taken from it some of those voicings but it's more like just an open Groove [Music] and I know that Heath is a big fan of these open voicings and Copeland was using in a piece like this remember tarkus a whole bunch of open fourths those Sports interesting it feels like the synthesizer's eating something [Music] gradually louder I think they're getting close to the end of the section [Music] [Music] sound [Music] [Music] so the melodic Contours are derived from Oakland's piece they're definitely making it their own quality [Music] back in the sea [Music] people like oh yeah remember this is a song that we're doing [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] does that end it oh shocks that can't oh man I kind of faded out right there at the end I need to figure out if that clipped a little bit I've got the source recording so I can go back to it but how fun how fun uh ABA structure Never Never Fails y'all ABA you start with something you go to something different you bring back the original thing it makes it easier to grasp as a listener uh in one sitting Hmm this has been fun uh this version of fanfare for the common man was quite commercially successful it made it all the way to number two on the UK charts and it became one of the band's biggest uh hits in the later part of their career there in the 70s and this isn't lost on me Copeland was still alive when they did this Copeland didn't die until 1990. uh so the band needed to get his permission to publish their recording and uh according to their manager he called him up and he seemed like a nice cordial guy he's like send it to me I'll listen to it and he sent the recording to Copeland and come to find out Copeland loved it how about that so uh I have a radio interview uh or a portion of it where Aaron was talking about this particular thing so he remarked about elp's version of fanfare for the common man like this this is interesting he says well of course it's very flat flattering to have one's music adopted by so popular group and so good a group as Emerson Lake and Palmer a lot depends on what they do with what they take and naturally since I have a copyright on such material they're not able to take it without my permission so that in each case where I have given my permission there was something that attracted me about the version that they perform which made me think I'd like to allow them to release it and then he goes on to say of course I always prefer my own version best but what they do is really around the piece what you might say rather than a literal transposition in that particular case I allowed it to go by because when they first play it they play it fairly straight and when they end the piece they play it uh fairly straight but what they do in the middle I'm not exactly sure how they connect that with my music but they do it some way I suppose but the fact that at the beginning and the end is really the Fanfare for the common man gave me the feeling that I ought to allow them to do it as they please so there you hear it from Aaron Copeland himself it's a beautiful thing to me friends when you understand a little bit more about the history of a piece the people behind it the um the the agendas of the people behind it uh the the the time period the the current events it's it's kind of a a love story to the power of music This Is Lifting is seeking to lift up the common person as the Industrial Revolution and kind of globalization and travel and the whole thing has elevated the more common person me included you know uh to be able to more fully participate in democracy and life and and the whole in that whole thing and it's amid the uh the war and uh the the folks in Cincinnati were like we we want to do something and Eric Copeland's like yes I'll be happy to I'll take inspiration from what the vice president said and I'll write this little uh you know three and a half four minute Fanfare for for brass and percussion uh no keyboard instruments no strings no no Woodwinds or anything it's just a Fanfare and it is just brilliant it caught on and uh 30 something years later in the 70s ELP doing their thing and leave it to the mind of Keith Emerson and they uh and and his Brilliance really to pull that out of Copeland's Arrangement and put it in a different key and rhythmicize it like that not only did they rhythmicize it they put it more in more of kind of a common metrical structure as well to so that it can appeal in a prog rock setting but uh like Aaron Copeland said at the beginning at the end that's pretty much the Fanfare for the common man and then it's a whole bunch of ELP around it and that makes for a fun Friday doesn't it makes for a fun anytime but definitely a fun Masterpiece Friday and what a masterpiece Friday this has been it's been a real privilege to talk with y'all about Fanfare for the Common Man an absolute classic uh of the 20th century repertoire that is still beloved today and I like the ELP version too so I'll get my my Works album out and play that side side Force sounds like a fun side with pirates and with Fanfare for the common man maybe I'll listen to that later on tonight but I believe that is all for now I thank you very much for being with me it's been a wonderful week we will see you next time on another edition of The Daily Doug it's the daily [Music] job [Music]

Channel: Doug Helvering

Views: 85,628

Keywords: The Daily Doug, Daily Doug, R. Douglas Helvering, Doug Helvering, reaction, reaction vid, reaction video, music analysis, lyrical analysis, analysis, commentary, composer, composer reacts, classical composer reacts, Fanfare for the Common Man, Fanfare for the Common Man ELP, ELP, ELP reactino, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Fanfare for the Common Man Aaron Copland, Aaron Copland, Copland Fanfare, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake

Id: dKsRndnAqoc

Length: 33min 36sec (2016 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 06 2023