“THE UNEXPRESSED FEELINGS OF DAILY LIVING”: THE RED PONY, INSCRIBED BY AARON COPLAND

COPLAND, Aaron. The Red Pony. Film Suite for Orchestra. London: Boosey & Hawkes, circa 1965. Quarto, original printed wrappers; pp. 119. $650.

Later edition of the full score, inscribed on the title page, “For Stuart Wright. Aaron Copland. 1977.”

“Aaron Copland wrote the music for the film ‘The Red Pony’ in 1948, on the studio lot of Republic Pictures in the San Fernando Valley, California. The concert suite, completed during August of the same year, was prepared in response to a commission from Efrem Kurtz, who included it in his first programme as conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra on October 30, 1948. The following description of the suite has been prepared by the composer: ‘Steinbeck’s well-known tales is a series of vignettes concerning a ten-year-old boy called Jody, and his life in a California ranch setting… The kind of emotions that Steinbeck evokes in his story are basically musical ones, since they deal so much with the unexpressed feelings of daily living” (from the “Programme Note”). The publisher’s advertisement on the last page lists works by Copland not published until 1965, indicating a later edition.

Price sticker to front wrapper. A fine inscribed copy.