Classical Music | Music for Trio

Recorded on 02/01/2005, uploaded on 01/25/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Vitebsk (Study on a Jewish Theme)      Aaron Copland

Simply put, Aaron Copland is one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. He established a concert music sound that was distinctly "American," and created a generous path for composers in his native land, bringing to "the new world" what was mostly, up until that point, an imported European art form.

His piano trio Vitebsk, one of his few "Jewish" works, is a startling piece, full of wailing dissonances, even using microtones, notes which fall in between the cracks of piano keys, not of the "Western" well-tempered system. It is based on The Dybuk, a Jewish folk-tale about spirits and doomed love in a small Hasidic community. Copland hoped the music would in its taut single movement "...reflect the harshness and drama of Jewish life in White Russia."     Denali Trio

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.