In his 1944 Ballet for Martha, also known as Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland uses the melody of the shaker song “Simple Gifts”.
In the orchestral concert suite arrangement, Copland sets the melody six times.
For the first two settings he places the theme against a pedal tone that oscillates between the fifth and first degrees of the home scales.
In the third setting, the pedal tone becomes a more decorative ostinato idea and multiple parts counterpoint one another, using “Simple Gifts” in full and as a form of imitative [counterpoint/fugal] subject.
The fourth is a strident setting in two part counterpoint.
The fifth is a legato woodwind setting where the melody crosses parts and colours.
The final, sixth, setting is a blazing tutti section with the whole orchestra in homophonic texture.
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