Hoe-down from rodeo by Aaron Copland.
Has anyone tried the Hoe-down from rodeo by Aaron Copland for violin and piano? And if so does it sound like? And what is the level of playability out of 10.
Thanks,
Richard
~*~Violins Make the World go Round~*~
Replies (22)
And.. it's especially well received. Folks like that kind of upbeat sound. Or... you could learn to play the Orange Blossom Special. :)
Enjoy your music!
K.
Oooh, I just love playing this piece! Of course, I just love Copland!
Imagine the actual orchestral version, but on a more intimate level with just the violin and the piano - it's essentially from the actual first violin part of the orchestral version. So, it might feel a bit "watered down" comparitively, but all the same Copland "magic" that makes it a great show-stopping tune is still there. And the fiddle part is loads of fun to play, maybe a 5 or 6 on playing difficulty - not too challenging, but there are some parts that you need to shift up to and be able to still make it fly! :)
And, of course, the audience remembers the "Beef: it's what's for dinner" part at the end. :D
I can't help but add a touch of swing when I play this piece.
I also use open string drones to make it sound more "fiddly". Also, I'll use slides in certain places to mimic what the traditional fiddlers do. I emphasize beats 2 and 4, not so much 1 and 3.
Cool... I love that song and want to play it as a solo.... I played the first violin part in orchestra so it shouldnt be too hard... does anyone know where to get it? I saw a few places for like $15 but i think that is too much..
Sheetmusicplus.com has it for $11.95 plus shipping (flat rate, so you can order other stuff - I've used them, good service). You probably won't get away with paying much less.
Note that in Copland's arrangement for violin and piano there is a slight cut from the orchestral version, a short descending passage that didn't transfer well to a duo.
The two main themes in Hoedown appear to be from Keltic reels, Devil's in the Kitchen, and Mrs. MacLeod of Raasay. Keltic reel-time is cut-time or 4/8, with one emphasized beat, the first, per bar: TUM-tum-tum-tum. Copeland altered the rhythm to 2/4, and syncopated Mrs. MacLeod, which I think destroys the effect entirely. The frenetic dissonance of the beginning is reminiscent of a middling to poor piper tuning his pipes.
Impressive, Mark Melton.
How interesting that one of Copland's most celebrated melodies was likely not penned by him.
Certainly you are familiar with the fact that Copeland stole folk tunes on more than one occassion, right? Hm, some familiar tune in Appalachian Spring, maybe?
I personally like how Copeland took folk tunes and incorporated them into his works. It's Americana. And I especially like the contemporary twist he gave them. It works.
Here is where Copland's Hoedown comes from - Alan Lomax's recording of W.H. Stepp, a.k.a. "Fiddler Bill" in Salyersville, Kentucky in 1937. Copland's Hoedown is Stepp's unusual version of "Bonaparte's Retreat" used verbatim. Rodeo is from 1942.
Here is Alan's recording of Bill: amazing link
Much of the two ballets use material collected by Lomax. Much of the style is reminiscent of string band music from the 1880s. Listen to a CD called "Fresh Old Time String Band Music" for examples.
It's strange how the sound of these Ballets has become so associated with the Old West through these Western Ballets, and probably just as much by Elmer Bernstein, who could sound indistinguishable from Copland (Magnificent Seven, and probably a dozen Western TV shows). If you're a conductor and want to do something highly authentic, copy the lilt in the second measure of 2/4 in the recording.
I can't believe no one is freaked by this but me. Some more of the story is it was a field recording made in October, '37, using the most advanced portable equipment. Lomax recounted that everywhere in the area he was forced to eat a meal and everyone offered him a place to sleep. One guy stopped him in the road with a knife and "threatened to cut his guts out." Stepp's performance was transcribed by a relative of Pete Seeger and included in a book by Lomax. Copland encountered the recording at the Library of Congress while searching for folk tunes, and orchestrated Seeger's transcription. Stepp lived from 1875 to 1947.
I believe the name of the transcription is called, "Bonyparte." I remember looking at the transcription in the music history class and I actually took the effort to learn it. What's interesting is that it calls for the drop tuning.
The G string drops down to a D and the high E string drops down to a D. So from low to high, the strings are DDAD.
Yes. When you google "bonyparte" you come up with more pertinent stuff. Here's another sample of Stepp, and this one's apparently in EAEA tuning.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve/B00004TDOL001017/0/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_017/102-4784510-2516960
If you listen to the drones carefully you hear some subtle effects. This is an example of what I was saying in the rock music thread about quality music including things that really didn't "need" to be done.
Here's the closest version to Stepp's version of BR that I can find. You hear some similarities.
http://db.bbc.co.uk/music/folkcountry/reviews/rams/gswarb_swarb2.ram
I think in this kind of music the title is identified by a few salient things and the rest is just personal, like jazz, only more so possibly. Therefore's it's fair to say that the music Copland used is actually Stepp's "composition," and not a folk song, strictly speaking. It's blowing me away to realize where probably the MOST well-known theme in American music came from. Even when he speaks in the recording, I know that accent well. I'm going to have to take a trip out there. It looks like about a hundred miles of two lane road after you get off the interstate. I'm pretty sure that area didn't even have electricity until at least a decade after the recording was made. Field gear uses batteries of course.
Like Mark was saying, the first part of the B theme seems to use "MacLeod," identifiable by a few salient things, followed by a short modal part that might be "Devil in the Kitchen." Can find only a midi version of that.
Here's good link to a complete orchestral version, by the way.
http://www.cbdna.org/files_music/AaronCopeland-Rodeo-Hoedown.mp3
P.S. While I'm thinking about it, on Aug 22nd there's going to be a 1 hr. special on PBS about Lomax.
Just wondering if anyone is familiar with Aaron Copland's music for string quartet? There are Two Pieces for String Quartet and a Movement. I was able to hear just short fragments on one website, so hard to get an idea overall. Would it be good music to play to an audience not necessarily a "classical" orientated one?
I love this piece in the violin & piano arrangement! I'm surprised it doesn't get played often even as an encore.
Hoe-Down is a great piece! Though I've only played the orchestra version, im sure it cant be much different than the violin/piano version. It's a fairly difficult piece, hard to get under your fingers at first, but once you finger it, you can pretty much get it down in less than a month. That is, if you're a fairly seasoned violinist. If so, than playability is probly about a 6 out of 10, if I'm understanding your scale (1 being easiest and 10 being hardest?).
Great piece of repertoire you've chosen here =)
Greetings,
on a more precise scale , it is actually a Grade 8 piece for the British Associated Board exam system. Taht means its hard.
Cheers,
Buri
Hoedown is an awesome piece! I'd say its playability is an eight. (I've played it three times in concert, twice as a second violin and once as a first) But the challenge is totally worth it! Piano playability is a ten for sure. It's very challenging, and is over five pages long! I'm working on it currently. I think the rewards to playing this piece are tremendous!
I was ironically reading through it yesterday. The arrangement is by Copland himself. It isn't terribly difficult to play from a technical standpoint.
I'd love to get some feedback on the fingerings that Copland indicates for the Hoe-Down, especially all of the open strings. I am a conductor and am not a violinist, but I was surprised to see that my violins, as instructed by their private teachers, were playing some of these sections in third position instead of utilizing the open strings as indicated by Copland. To me, the open strings produce a different sound that I imagine was more along the line of what Copland had in mind for the fiddle-tune qualities of the piece. Am I way off base? Should my sections be using an alternative fingering? Thoughts?
How particular are you about intonation? A whole violin section's worth of open E strings can peel the paint off the walls and send the audience straight out of their seats. Even if everyone has tuned carefully, small changes in temperature can send all the Es out of tune with each other quickly. Your violinists are probably trying to be considerate.
Seeing as the piece is an emulation of a barn dance, less-than-perfect intonation can be used stylistically, especially at the beginning of the piece where the double stops are to sound like someone tuning. You need to decide how rough you want it to sound for how long.
Here's a link to the 1937 recording of Bonaparte's Retreat by William Stepp that Copland incorporated, pretty much note for note, into "Hoedown". Might give you an idea of Copland's intent.
Stepp's rendition is pretty idiosyncratic, even by fiddling standards.
Tuning is Ddad, BTW. Crosstuning, or scordatura, is pretty common in southeastern fiddling. Many different tunings are used.
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July 29, 2006 at 05:28 AM · I have it. It's not too difficult.