Thanks for these—the Blue & Gold piece is great. I had to revisit some Copland to check whether I could agree your dig on his counterpoint was justified, and I get your point, he doesn't really do a lot of dense contrapuntal textures, certainly nowhere near as much as say, Hindemith or Shostakovich, but the fact that he was such a gifted texture-painter says to me that the fact he didn't use that texture more was a stylistic choice rather than any deficiency—It's kind of like dinging Bach's kids for not writing as many fugues as he did, when they were really just doing a different style. Also: the finale to the third symphony has some ripping counterpoint, so he could certainly do it when he wanted to!
(Trivia note: my dad interviewed Copland in 1966, with mic operated by his friend the young Steve Martin!)
right on. Well I have seriously investigated Copland and I stand by my comment. I'd rate Copland better than Hindemith overall (although there are good things by Hindemith of course) and IMHO Shostakovich used WAY more counterpoint than he should have at times. So there! LOL
Thanks for these—the Blue & Gold piece is great. I had to revisit some Copland to check whether I could agree your dig on his counterpoint was justified, and I get your point, he doesn't really do a lot of dense contrapuntal textures, certainly nowhere near as much as say, Hindemith or Shostakovich, but the fact that he was such a gifted texture-painter says to me that the fact he didn't use that texture more was a stylistic choice rather than any deficiency—It's kind of like dinging Bach's kids for not writing as many fugues as he did, when they were really just doing a different style. Also: the finale to the third symphony has some ripping counterpoint, so he could certainly do it when he wanted to!
(Trivia note: my dad interviewed Copland in 1966, with mic operated by his friend the young Steve Martin!)
right on. Well I have seriously investigated Copland and I stand by my comment. I'd rate Copland better than Hindemith overall (although there are good things by Hindemith of course) and IMHO Shostakovich used WAY more counterpoint than he should have at times. So there! LOL