Aaron Copland - Long Time Ago

Old American Songs, for voice & piano

Piano: Aaron Copland
Baritone: William Warfield

Photo: "Nan de Gallant, Eastport, Maine" by Lewis W. Hine, 1911
Library of Congress (Public Domain)

The text included in the video was written by Hine himself quite probably.
Beginning in 1907, Hine worked as a photographer for the "National Child Labor Committee", a committee lobbying against child labour.
He was also a freelance photographer for "The Survey", a leading social reform magazine.
For several decades he contributed, as a photographer, to denounce the perilous working conditions of men, women and children in modern industry.


This photo has been haunting me since I first saw it. The description made by Hine of Nan and her family's life is something very troubling.
Yet it is Hine's final statement ("Nan is already a spoiled child") what I consider the most troubling.
Whatever he meant with that horrendous euphemism ("spoiled") the word sounds like an irrevocable sentence...Spoiled, something that can not be mended, that has no cure, ruined for ever...
I hope this child was able to beat the odds

This video is a small homage to Nan de Gallant


Long time ago (ballad)

"On the lake where droop'd the willow
Long time ago,
Where the rock threw back the billow
Brighter than snow.
Dwelt a maid beloved and cherish'd
By high and low,
But with autumn leaf she perished
Long time ago.
Rock and tree and flowing water
Long time ago,
Bird and bee and blossom taught her
Love's spell to know.
While to my fond words she listen'd
Murmuring low,
Tenderly her blue eyes glisten'd
Long time ago".

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Aaron
• Copland
• Long
• Time
• Ago
• old
• american
• songs
• piano
• Baritone
• William
• Warfield
• people
• child
• labor

[omarbunni]

This is a vocally challenging piece.

Mr. Warfield emotes passion and sadness in his interpretation. BRAVO !!!

[tubapol]

Try reading the additional info provided by the video's creater.

[fieryblueband]

Song (titled Near the Lake Where Drooped the Willow) was written in 1839 (Music by: Charles. E. Horn, Words by: Geo. P. Morris, Esq.)

Copeland hardly wrote this. I think it's a shame the original composers get almost no attribution for it.

[ferociousgumby]

Melancholy beauty. Bittersweet. Where does this song come from? Many people think it's Stephen Foster, but it's usually listed as "trad" or "anon". Someone must have written it however! I like the simplicity of the piano accompaniment, and Warfield has never sounded more translucent, but I do miss those little frissons in the woodwind section. Warfield's diction was incredible, never seeming artificial but just crystalline.

[bbdupon]

@chkjns Damn straight!

[shf84]

@ZwinkyBuzzTV

It was a why they had of enhancing their complexion back in those days, it was called Malaria.

[MuseDuCafe]

I guess now we are sure of the definitive tempo! Many recordings, including the orchestral version of American Songs (set 1) are much too fast. This tempo 'juste' gives the song the feeling the composer wished to convey, and it becomes less than easy for the singer - simple song, difficult singing. Thanks for this post!

[TheRoypim]

so bitter-sweet

[polkadotpolka123]

i'm singing this in my singing exam :D

[guetary]

Sheer perfection in the marriage of voice, song and composer/pianist. Mr Copland was exceptionally well served by Mr Warfield (heard here in his all too short prime). Quite wonderful.

[chkjns]

OK youngsters, listen UP! U can run from uglier parts of America's past but you can't hide! Copland's a GIANT among American musicians.

Yes the picture's sad, capitalism stole her childhood, turned her into a bot! This pianist is the gay son of Lithuanian Jews who had to leave their home so's NOT to be murdered. The singer's black, this recording's 1955. He's not allowed to openly TOUCH a white person!

Today, Phoenix bans folk from 1 free church meal 1 day a week, for the crime of being POOR!

[chkjns]

@lazerthepackmule - Aaron Copland was one of the greatest masters of American music. If this voice suited Copland, it's perfect for me, too!

Remember that Warfield was a man treated like dirt by white America when this was recorded in 1955-1958. The song is a sad one about a girl who died too young, it needs to be slow for the emotional effect. The lyrics are up in the info box.