Program

Program Notes

Lincoln Portrait — by Aaron Copland

Rapid City is often referred to as the “City of Presidents” due to the life-size bronze statues of U.S. presidents that line its streets. This public art project, along with attractions like Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, has made the city a popular tourist destination. Local businessman Don Perdue noticed people interacting with a temporarily placed statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the Hotel Alex Johnson. Perdue was struck by how naturally people engaged with it. That observation sparked his bold idea of creating life-sized statues of former U.S. presidents—now grown to 44 statues, stretching from 4th Street to 9th Street on Main and Saint Joseph Streets.

Lincoln Portrait is one of Copland’s most beloved and widely performed works. It serves as the composer’s tribute to America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. On the occasion of the United States’ 250th birthday, it is worth revisiting.

In 1942, conductor Andre Kostelanetz commissioned Copland to write something appropriate for Americans shortly after the beginning of the country’s involvement in World War II. The composer called this an almost impossible task, but he eventually settled on the idea of a “portrait” of a great American in which the subject spoke in his own words.

“The letters and speeches of Lincoln supplied the text,” Copland said in 1943. “It was comparatively a simple matter to choose a few excerpts that seemed particularly apposite to our own situation today. I avoided the temptation to use only well-known passages, permitting myself the luxury of quoting only once from a world-famous speech.”

Some of the lines Copland chose from Lincoln’s speeches resonate today: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

When Copland wrote the music for Lincoln Portrait, he quoted from a couple of popular songs from Lincoln’s day. He worked with musical materials of his own, with the exception of two songs of the period: the famous “Camptown Races,” which, when used by Lincoln supporters during his presidential campaign of 1860, was sung to the words, “We’re bound to work all night, bound to work all day, / I’ll bet my money on the Lincoln hoss…" and a ballad that was first published in 1840 under the title “The Pesky Sarpent,” but is better known today as “Springfield Mountain.”