Aaron Copland - Billy the Kid - Concert Suite (1/3)

Aaron Copland ~ 1900-1990

This is the complete Orchestral Suite, not the Ballet Suite.

Copland's "Billy the Kid" was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein for his ballet company, Ballet Caravan, in 1938. The hope was to create an "American" ballet, to counteract the Russian tradition so popular in ballet for centuries.

The result, and I'll quote as I know the music but don't know ballet, was, "the first full-fledged American ballet in style and form as well as content," according to the choreographer of the ballet, Eugene Loring.

As I said, I don't know ballet, but I know classical music and this is a wonderful piece of music regardless of the reason for its composition.

Presented here is the first of three sections (I seperated them to make them fit YouTube's 10:00 minute reequirement; hope that doesn't ruin the flow) that make up the entire Suite for Orchestra which came directly from the ballet with very little change from the ballet score. The Suite was split in to 7 pieces by Copland and, though I don't know, and I apologize, where each begins or ends, I'm sure my educated guess as to the end of each piece and the beginning of the next is accurate, but I haven't noted my guesses in the video.

The sections of Copland's Suite are:
I Introduction: The Open Prairie
II Street in a Frontier Town
III Prairie Night
IV Gun Battle
V Celebration (after Billy's Capture)
VI Billy's Death
VII The Open Prairie Again

Performing is the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra led by Erich Kunzel.

Enjoy!

• Category

  Music

[I Stab]

spike lee knows what he is doing

[Sure OK]

God Bless...if you're a thief, then steal Copland!

[Chandos Plantagenet]

Bill Frisell brought me here!

[Chris Hyndman]

this is the first time i have listened to the score and i can tell you that i can see the "Wild West" in my minds eye right now... I'm from Australia

[hiimrawkit]

from the movie "He Got Game" I had a dream i was playing basketball I dreamt this song in my head while I was dreaming I was just crying while I was playing this song truly is a masterpiece. Thank you Aaron Copland

[Rowen Frazer]

The crescendo is enough to make a grown man cry.

[derek24hudson]

Love it! Copland, among other achievements, created an American 'sound' here, which found its way into a thousand Western movies thereafter!

[emilynicole161]

doing a project on this piece. yay

[jazzytds]

There;s a little heaven for the kids who found music to escape for whatever was happening at home that gave them reasons to delve into a wonderland of audible beauty, God will give me a pass, he knows the demons I've dealt with,

[jazzytds]

It's big country music...vast, wide, green...I can see it.

[jazzytds]

I heard this when I was ten. I stole the album out of the public library, I was in heaven and always wishing I could play the strings. When I saw them perform this at Symphony Hall in Chicago on a field trip as a child, I was sold that I wanted to be Liz Taylor in the movie Giant and live on Reatta Ranch and raise livestock. The mind is a vessel. This is the most beautiful score in the world.