An Outdoor Overture

• Copland composed this piece in 1938¹ for the High School of Music and Art in New York City.²
• The work premiered on Dec. 16, 1938. The High School of Music and Art Orchestra performed it, conducted by Alexander Richter.³

“Its opening is as lofty and beautiful as any passage that has been written by a contemporary composer. It is Copland in his prophetic vein. . . never before has he expressed it so simply and directly.”

From Elliott Carter’s review of An Outdoor Overture⁴

1. Howard Pollack, “Copland, Aaron,” Grove Music Online (2013), accessed January 13, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002249091.
2. Vivian Perlis, “An Outdoor Overture: Version for Orchestra,” Aaron Copland (1998), accessed January 13, 2022, https://www.aaroncopland.com/works/an-outdoor-overture/.
3. Ibid.
4. Quoted in Ibid.