Influences, harmony, and structure are considered in this comparison of three pages that compares Three Piano Preludes by George Gershwin and Down a Country Lane by Aaron Copland. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
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work, it is obvious to any listener that their music is American in origin. In Coplands work, this is largely due to his reliance on American folk tunes as
his melodic inspiration. In Gershwins music, on the other hand, one hears the influence of such folk idioms as jazz and the blues. The following discussion examines the work of
both of these American composers. . Coplands Down a Country Lane (1962) comes under the category of "music for young performers." (Copland
and Perlis, 1989). However, Copland warns that the piece is more of a challenge than it would seem at first glance. Commissioned by Life magazine. It was featured in the
June 19, 1962 issue, with an accompanying article that explained that it is among the few modern pieces composed especially for the young piano student by a major composer
(Copland and Perlis, 1989). Nevertheless, Copland warned at the time that "Even third year students will have to practice before trying it in public" (Copland and Perlis, 1989, p.
259). Down a Country Lane begins with instructions to the performer to play "gently flowing in a pastoral mood" (Copland and Perlis, 1989). The brief midsection of the piece
is played slightly faster, and the ending return to the original tempo. It begins in F major, with a simple harmony that is build largely on thirds. After the slightly
faster middle section begins it switches keys to A-flat major, switch to C major when the piece returns to the original tempo, recapitulating the first melody. As this indicates,
Coplands harmonic language is essentially diatonic and the triad is basic to his compositional thinking (Machlis, 1961). Another characteristic of his compositional style is a vacillation between major and minor