Where this was said
Classical Music: Aaron Copland's Rodeo
At 5:35 · chapter starts 2:02
Joshua Barone makes an elegant case for Aaron Copland's Rodeo as the definitive American classical work. Copland was writing in the 1940s, a moment when American composers were actively trying to carve out a sound distinct from European tradition. His method was to go deep into folk music: Rodeo's first movement draws on 'If He'd Be a Buckaroo by His Trade,' and a waltz section is built from 'I Ride an Old Paint,' a tune Woody Guthrie also recorded. The result created the aesthetic template we now call Americana. Its finale, 'Hoe Down,' became so embedded in mass culture that it ended up as the theme for the 'Beef, It's What's for Dinner' campaign in the 1990s — a trajectory from ballet stage to barbecue backyard that Barone finds perfectly, unselfconsciously American.
Joshua Barone argues Copland's Rodeo is the most American classical piece because it created the vibe of Americana by drawing directly on folk tunes, bridging highbrow and popular culture.
Aaron Copland didn't invent Americana — he excavated it from folk songs already in the American soil. His ballet Rodeo, built on tunes Woody Guthrie also recorded, created the vibe of a nation trying to distinguish itself from Europe, and its 'Hoe Down' finale ended up selling beef on national TV. That's the arc from serious art form to mass culture in one piece.
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