Welcome to Spring everyone!
I know for those of you back East it was an extremely rough winter. In San Diego not so much we had our bits of rain and frost, but, also plenty of 70 degree plus days, as well.
(Shameless plug, “Sunny & 70“)
Thought I would honor the first day of Spring with Aaron Copland’s famous piece, “Appalachian Spring.” Beautiful melodies, lush orchestration and a pastoral setting of Americana, including his use of the Shaker tune, “A Gift to be Simple.”
Copland was a very innovative composer of the 20th Century, however, became known for and remembered much more for his ‘romanticized,’ settings of Americana which only accounted for a brief period of his compositional output. If you are interested try the following link for a different look into Copland’s work.
Who’s ready for summer?
Enjoy!
Mike Slayen ~ Guitarist 
One of my all-time favorites…. Appalachian Spring Suite by Copland! The version by Louis Lane and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is my particular fave (on the Telarc label).
I will have to check out that version! My alltime favorite part of this is the 2. Allegro. I love the counterpoint between the low end legato and the high staccato melodies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpZtL2mFin4