Copland’s Symphony No. 2, “Short Symphony”
Notes by TŌN keyboardist Francis Chung-Yang Huang
Copland’s Second Symphony is called the “Short Symphony” because it’s only 15 minutes long. However, this piece is only short in its length; in ambition and in the oeuvre of Copland, it is certainly a grand item.
Copland, after studying with Nadia Boulanger in France and getting acquainted with then-brand-new methods like serialism and the twelve-tone technique, came back to the U.S. in 1924 to be a music freelancer in New York, and set out to create an American equivalent of modernist music. He debuted and was put on the map by the premiere of his First Symphony, “The Organ Symphony,” in New York in 1925.
After working on the Second Symphony for two years, conductors Leopold Stokowski and Serge Koussevitzky both declined to premiere it because it was simply too hard to play. The premiere took place in Mexico City in 1934 after a good amount of rehearsals, conducted by Copland’s friend, Carlos Chávez. Copland had actually just spent time in Mexico with Chávez in 1932 while working on the symphony, and the trip inspired him to incorporate traditional Mexican elements into the finale.
Ten years passed until the first American premiere in 1944. Four decades later, in a 1981 interview, Copland was asked which of his pieces he would have wanted to be played more. His answer was, “I have a piece called the Short Symphony. . . . It’s one of the very best pieces I ever wrote, and it has never caught on, for reasons not quite clear to me.”
The symphony comprises three short movements, played without pause. The form of the movements is simple and classical. The rhythm and harmonies, however, are complicated, often sounding like two forms at the same time. A Jazz element can also be found in the rhythm of the piece, namely in the usage of polyrhythm, which was a staple of jazz at the time. Copland said about the rhythms in the symphony, “I like to think of them as being in some way American. Their rhythmic life is definitely American, and influenced by jazz, although there are no literal quotations. I wouldn’t have thought of those rhythms, particularly in the Short Symphony, if I hadn’t had a jazz orientation.”