b'PROGRAM NOTESAARON COPLANDLincoln Portrait for Narrator and OrchestraCOMPOSER: Born November 14, 1900, Brooklyn, NY; died December 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, NYWORK COMPOSED: Commissioned by conductor Andr Kostelanetz for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1942, to showcase the magnificent spirit of our country.WORLD PREMIERE: Kostelanetz led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Lincoln Portrait on May 14, 1942, with actor William Adams narrating. The concert also featured musical portraits of Mark Twain (by Jerome Kern), and New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia (by Virgil Thomson). INSTRUMENTATION: Narrator, 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet,3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals,orchestra bells, sleigh bells, snare drum, tam tam, xylophone, celeste, harp, and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 14 minutesI n the spring of 1942, the United States was at war for the second time in less than 25 years, and the country was still recovering from the Great Depression. Andr Kostelanetz, then conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, wanted to present a concert featuring a gallery of musical portraits of great Americans to boost public morale. Kostelanetz approached three well-known American composers with his idea: Virgil Thomson, Jerome Kern, and Aaron Copland. Copland contemplated Mark Twain for his portrait but ultimately chose Abraham Lincoln.Copland biographer Howard Pollack writes, Lincoln Portrait comprises a slow-fast-slow ABA form, with the second A section featuring the spoken recitation. This recitation contains five short quotes punctuated by narrative remarks in keeping with the idea of portraiture, noting Lincolns background, giving his height, sketching his temperament, and citing his achievementsThese quotesin expressing the urgent need for responsible action, defining the democratic principles at stake, and offering thanks and remembrance to the fallen dead and hopes for a new birth of freedomclearly bore on the current crisis [WWII].The letters and speeches of Lincoln supplied the textI avoided the temptation to use only well-known passages, permitting myself the luxury of quoting only once from a world speech [Gettysburg Address].The first sketches were made in February, and the portrait finished on April 16, 1942. I worked with musical materials of my 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, Were bound to work all night, bound to work all day. Ill bet my money on the Lincoln hoss , and a ballad better known today as Springfield Mountain. In neither case is the treatment a literal one. The tunes are used freely in the manner of my use of cowboy songs in Billy the Kid. In the opening section, I wanted to suggest something of the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincolns personality. Also, near the end of that section, something of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit. The quick middle section briefly sketches in the background of the times he lived. This merges into the concluding section where my sole purpose was to draw a simple but impressive frame about the words of Lincoln himself. Elizabeth Schwartz16 Santa Rosa Symphony(707) 546-8742'