the anti-lincoln portrait

When I moved to Cincinnati, I had no idea that the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra had a long tradition of premiering new works¹ and that both Fanfare for the Common Man and A Lincoln Portrait are included in this list.

A Lincoln Portrait was premiered in Cincinnati in May 1942: it was supposed to be premiered at President Eisenhower's inauguration, but because Aaron Copland's sympathies were a little too pinko, the performance at the White House was banned.²

Recently, I've been thinking about this piece since I too wrote an orchestra piece with narration, and my piece is being premiered in Cincinnati seventy years after the Lincoln Portrait premiere. What is the intention of A Lincoln Portrait? What was the purpose? Why did Copland need a narrator? In fact, while discussing how to contact the narrator for my piece,³ the conductor blurted out, "This is the anti-Lincoln Portrait."

I suppose my piece will not have you jump out and yell "AMERICA!!!!!"⁴ That's okay: it's not appropriate to …