Sound Bites: Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland
William Blake, in 1809, wrote the following in response to 'Ruth – A Drawing':
The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is this: That the more distinct, sharp, and wirey the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art; and the less keen and sharp, the greater is the evidence of weak imitation, plagiarism, and bungling…. What is it that builds a house and plants a garden, but the definite and determinate? What is it that distinguishes honesty from knavery, but the hard and wirey line of rectitude and certainty in the actions and intentions. Leave out this line and you leave out life itself; all is chaos again. . .
This idea of 'the bounding line' is one that featured in Copland's oeuvre, but only temporarily. Carlos Chávez, fellow composer and lifelong friend, suggested it as the title of a work which Copland temporarily adopted, but later named Short Symphony. This idea of the bounding line is something that captured my attention when I heard about it, as I liked the fact it could also be transferred to the idea of the poetic line, and the many meanings of bounding. Not only does it suggest a sense of energy, progress and movement, but also a sense of unity in the idea of words being bound together, i.e. one word is bound to the next, and therefore one line is bound to the next, and so one poem is bound to the poet, the reader, the world. There is at once an expansiveness and conciseness to the phrase which caught me. It was only slightly later that I discovered the phrase had its origin in the work of Blake and the abovementioned quotation. For Blake, the idea of the bounding line was one of formal necessity; for him, there had to be a line, whether that meant a line in terms of formal restriction, or a line in terms of what he did or did not believe in. I admire this certainty of Blake.
And all of this leads me to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. A piece of music which works as a kind of contradiction in terms, fanfares being the preserves of royalty not commoners. Copland is said to have been inspired by Henry A. Wallace's 1942 speech about 'The Century of the Common Man' as opposed to the Henry Luce's famous call for the American Century. At any rate, historical context aside, the piece takes the idea of a musical genre reserved for royalty and uses it to praise the travails and efforts of the common man. It's a simple yet meaningful contrast which serves to elevate the struggles of the everyday person. Its timing, in the middle of the second world war also highlights his compassion for those serving in the war effort against the Nazis. That Copland was a strong socialist (he was even a subject of McCarthyian surveillance and trials) feeds into all of this, however, I think the piece is more than socialist propaganda (if we can even call it that); it's a composition of great compassion, and humanity which still resonates today for many reasons.
Firstly, it possesses an immediacy; it's a piece of music you just seem to know. Its shortness makes it more accessible to many audiences through the ages. Next, it's dramatic; at just over three minutes, it really packs a punch from the opening timpani through to the crystal clear french horns and trumpets. There's something about the trumpets which is solemn and uplifting at once. It's a piece of music which walks Blake's bounding line beautifully. If, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti said, 'a sonnet is a moment's monument', then Copland's Fanfare to the Common Man is a monument not only to Copland's great humanity as a composer, but a monument for those who not only died heroic tragic deaths in the second world war (and subsequent wars), but those who live lives of constant struggle, everywhere, everyday, in every era.
