Aaron Copland was an underrated composer and the fiddle is an underrated instrument.

[sir pball]

This may be the single most American piece of music ever written.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. My grandmother and grandfather were in the same Brooklyn high school in the late teens

with Aaron Copeland. They were all players in the high school orchestra: my grandmother and Copeland played piano and my grandfather played violin.

[texasfiddler]

2. I totally agree

[fierywoman]

3. As a violist, I would like to add that this is violins playing fiddle music. And, BTW, it's hard to

play -- but fun!

[sir pball]

5. True, and

Fiddling is purely American. It's one of the few truly native styles of playing. Just pointing out...

[fierywoman]

6. When I was in High School (and still a violinist), one of my classmates got me to

play fiddle music (written out, of course!) We had a kind of Humanities class, taught by the heads of the English, Art and Music departments. (The head of the Music Dept was my violin teacher.) I played the fiddle music with my guitar-playing classmate, my teacher (a very serious violinist) nearly plotzed, and the experience broke down the rigidity of playing classical music for me. My God, such fun, so liberating!

You know, of course, that many other cultures fiddle -- Irish, Scottish...

[yonder]

7. This Irish-style fiddler thanks you for your last comment

as well as "violins playing fiddle music" in post 3. You understand the distinction.

Somewhere around here I have a CD of common Irish dance tunes played by classically trained violinists. Their technique is flawless, pitch and time keeping are perfect and they even manage to get a bit of rhythm going too. But it is not fiddle music and it would be tough to dance to. It just doesn't have the whatever the word is for it. Life? Verve? Whatever it is, it can't be written down with just the lines and dots. One has to learn how to play the music from exposure to it using the nuance the tradition expects, not just playing the notes as written.

Then again, most fiddlers would flop if presented with an art music score and this Copeland piece is a great slice of Americana.

[fierywoman]

8. I absolutely agree with you. It's like mariachi music --

it's got that funky slightly out of tune-ness to it. In LA I heard very well instructed Latino musicians (played very in tune) do mariachi music and it was -- missing the whatever-the word ...! Too in-tune.
Oh and let's add Hungarian fiddle music to the list! (OMG)

An amazing classical violinist friend (tremendous avante-gardist and well rounded violinist) told of hearing of a fiddler in some place in Norway who was more or less the town shaman. He would be invited to a community gathering and if he didn't like the vibe, he'd play in such a way that the people would quickly disperse. But if he liked it, he'd play in such a way (she said), "that you would swear you had smoked something."

[yonder]

11. Yup. There are great musical traditions all over the world played

on many different instruments by excellent musicians. Because of their training, I'd have to put my money on classical musicians doing a better job of playing traditional rather than the other way around. I have a couple of orchestra playing acquaintances who are actually good old-time style fiddlers too. Coincidentally, one of them has played in a Mariachi band for many years. They both get it and that comes from talent and years of playing what they expose themselves to.

You mentioned Hungarian fiddle music. Holy cow. All that Eastern European stuff is wild and try as I might, I can't quite get onto it. It's probably because many tunes are in an oddball time like 15/16 or 7/8. Someone once told me 7/8 is easy; all you have to do is count: Ta-co-Ta-co-Bur-ri-to, Ta-co-Ta-co-Bur-ri-to....

And to bring it all back around to the OP, I did a little digging and found this Alan Lomax recording of Bill Stepp playing his setting of Bonaparte's Retreat on a cross tuned fiddle, DDAD I think. Apparently this is where Copland got his Hoedown. There's a strain of another tune in Hoedown also. Maybe Miss McLeod's?

[fierywoman]

12. Oh yes I hear it, Bonaparte's Retreat is where Copland got the Hoedown from. I once played

Sinfonia India (Carlos Chavez) with Leonard Bernstein in Mexico, and he said he stole the rhythms for West Side Story from Chavez. Do you know Milcho Leviev's Bulgarian Bulge that he wrote for Don Ellis's band? (The trombone blows me away. I'm sure they were all stoned out of their gourds. ) BTW the listeners' comments explain the rhythm really well.

[yonder]

13. Damn, thanks for this -- the hottest thing I've heard in weeks...

and the reason I'll always bow down to the pros. I have absolutely no idea how they do it. Day in, day out, new material, old material, strange material, always a-smiling and effortless. Stoned? Musicians? Never, ha ha.

[fierywoman]

14. You're so very welcome.

[elleng]

15. WOW!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milcho_Leviev

[elleng]

9. Thanks for this thread!

[elleng]

10. Rodeo American Ballet Theatre 1973

[Bengus81]

16. Cool to listen to it synthesizer style with Emerson Lake and Palmer.........

[BluesRunTheGame]

17. A great composer for sure, but probably not the "most American"

I’d be looking at one of the Jazz guys for that. Maybe Coltrain.

Can’t have “American” without “African American”