Copland, Aaron: John Henry (1940,rev.1952) 4'

for orchestra

Scoring
2(II=picc ad lib).2(1).2.2(1)-2.2.1.0-timp.perc:anvil/tgl/BD/SD/sand paper-pft(ad lib)-strings

Programme Note  
Originally intended for radio broadcast on CBS' "School of the Air," John Henry was revised for high school orchestras. It is a programmatic piece about the American folk legend, a 19th Century black man, and his heroic battle in a contest against a railroad pile-driver. Copland wrote, "Knowing my audience was to be a young one, and that young people like their music exciting and not too long, I kept John Henry down to less than four minutes and called it "a descriptive fantasy." The music is meant to simulate the sounds of a train and John Henry's hammer.

-Vivian Perlis, 1998

More on this Composer