love, guilt, and consolation
by
Douglas Messerli
Martha Graham (choreographer), Aaron
Copland (composer), Isamu Noguchi (set design) Appalachian Spring / premiered October 30, 1944 at the Library of
Congress Coolidge Auditorium / the version I saw was the 1958 film version, directed
and filmed by Peter Glushanok.
In a sense, the work, which so brilliantly expresses the heartland and
seemingly captures the sense of Appalachia, was itself a kind of accident.
Commissioned by Graham and the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation to write a
work for dance for Graham's company, Copland drew on Shaker songs and the kind
of American idiom that he had already expressed so brilliantly in his ballet
"Rodeo" of 1942.
Yet Copland had no idea what to title his piece, and even upon its
delivery to Graham it was still titled, according the composer, "Ballet
for Martha." It was only as the piece was readied to be performed that
Graham christened it, after a few lines in The
Bridge by Hart Crane in which Crane describes the "spring" as
referring to water instead of a season. Yet, Copland reportedly laughed,
everyone applauds me for so aptly expressing the sensibility of Spring in
Appalachia.
Moreover, the original outline of script, described as a kind of gender
conflict between men's and women's work, featured not only a Pioneer mother,
but an Indian Girl, a Fugitive, and a Citizen. In the end the story was
winnowed down to the simple outline published in the preface to the Boosey
& Hawkes score:
A pioneer celebration in
spring around a newly-built farmhouse
in the Pennsylvania hills
in the early part of the last century. The
bride-to-be and the young
farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful
and apprehensive, their new
domestic partnership invites. An older
neighbor suggests sorrow
and then the rocky confidence of experience.
A revivalist and his
followers remind the new householders of the
strange and terrible
aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are
left quiet and strong in
their new house.
It seemed to me that instead of the
more European concept of "Love, Death, and Transfiguration," the
tenor of Graham and Copland's more innocent and emphatically American fable is
"Love, Guilt, and Consolation."
Here are my notes:
Into the yard of a newly built home,
wonderfully represented by Isamu Noguchi's open walls
A flute, oboe, and clarinet dominate this early passage, and when the
flute reaches its highest note, The Husband (Graham's favorite, Erik Hawkins in
the original and Stuart Hodes in the film version) enters, lovingly stroking
the side of his new house, as he moves forward in pony-like and proud struts
and leaps.
The couple walk to each and move backwards, seemingly to reveal the
history of their love, which is, through their various posturings, made
somewhat ambiguous at times, with moments of fear revealed among their steady
pleasure in one another.
The Pioneer Woman comes forward expressing her own sorrows and delights,
while the Husband quietly ponders his new life. The Wife turns to win the
attention of her Husband, simultaneously demonstrating her own new fears and
worries, and yet flirting joyfully with a kind of awkward hesitation.
At one point she takes up the baby of the Pioneer Woman, kneeling,
entreating her husband. Is it a desire for a family or her fear for the
responsibilities it will mean, the commitments and sacrifice? Clearly, it is
both.
Although the storyline does not describe it as such, there seems to be
also a tension between the two women, almost as if the Husband has previously
known the Pioneer Woman and they been somehow involved.
But now the Preacher comes forward into the center, as the couple join
him, turning to stare in opposite directions before they enter the church for
the plain but joyous ceremony, which ends in the couple stretching, spinning in
joy, leaping in the wonderment of it all. The shaker hymn, "'Tis a gift to
be simple, 'tis a gift to be free," dominates the spirit of the occasion.
Here the music changes, the Preacher suddenly becoming agitated,
spinning forward almost in a kind of dervish, tearing at the air, renting his
hair, damning, cursing, accusing, praying. What is their sin? What horror is he
describing to them? Is it an actual or imagined transgression.
The Pioneer Woman comes forward as if to plead for the Preacher to
cease, the Husband standing up, turned away in refusal of the sermon. So the
Preacher gradually shifts from his violent gesturing, moving forward in a
lighter tone and tune. The husband
embraces the world, returning to his wife, while his wife dances a more
agitated dance, focusing on her chair-rocker-milking stool as if she were
reevaluating her situation. Again. the Husband returns to her, as they repeat
some of their earlier dances of joy, reiterating and repeating their testaments
of love while Copland's score returns to "'Tis a gift to be simple,"
ending in a long bassoon chord.
The Wife turns from her former fears to a sense of relinquishment,
resolution, consolation, as the couple kiss away their fears and embrace. The
community moves off, the Preacher wishing them peace as he leaves. Husband and
Wife now stand alone in their new domain.
Los Angeles, March 3, 2002
Reprinted from USTheater, Opera, and Performance (March 2002).
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