Aaron Copland

A fanfare usually marks the arrival of someone powerful. Copland redirects that ceremonial attention towards people whose names are not announced. Written during the Second World War for Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for the Common Man makes its public statement through spaciousness rather than haste. Its title is essential to the gesture, but the music does not need a spoken message in order to create a sense of shared dignity.

The scoring excludes both strings and woodwinds. Brass instruments are set against timpani, bass drum and tam-tam, giving every entrance unusual exposure. The opening percussion strokes establish more than a beat: they establish a resonant space. The silence after an attack belongs to the phrase. When the trumpet line begins, the listener has already been taught to hear the interval between events as something substantial.

The principal melody is built from broad intervals and firm, clear contours. It can sound inevitable because its materials are so economical, but the order of its appearances is carefully judged. Additional brass voices increase the weight of the statement without turning it into a stream of continuous sound. Register, spacing and the relation between a single line and a chord create much of the work's architecture.

This is a useful piece in which to listen to resonance. A loud sound is not necessarily a full sound; the players must allow the harmony to speak while keeping its outline clear. The percussion can either open the acoustic space or close it down. Copland's rests make that distinction audible. The work's ceremonial character depends as much on restraint and collective timing as on the force of the brass.

The Fanfare was later incorporated into the finale of Copland's Third Symphony, where its material is developed across a full symphonic movement. Heard on its own, it retains a different concentration. Its short duration is not an incomplete form awaiting expansion. It establishes a public space, gives that space a voice and leaves the resonance with the listener.

The fanfare opened Nova’s May 2022 programme, preceding works by Korngold, Still and Higdon before Sibelius’s Second Symphony. Its brass and percussion established a ceremonial opening against which the more lyrical and rhythmically intricate music could register clearly.

A title with a political setting

Copland’s choice of title was connected with Vice President Henry A. Wallace’s 1942 speech imagining a century shaped by ordinary people. Goossens’s commissioning project had invited wartime fanfares, making Copland’s decision to honour the civilian public particularly distinctive. The Cincinnati premiere took place on 12 March 1943. The correspondence about scheduling it near income-tax time adds a touch of practical humour to a work that has acquired an almost timeless ceremonial presence.

Why the empty spaces matter

Try hearing the rests as the point at which the audience receives each statement. Brass and percussion leave different trails of resonance, and the next entrance changes how those trails are remembered. Copland can therefore enlarge the effect without continually increasing the number of notes. The later appearances of the theme in his Third Symphony place it inside a sustained orchestral narrative; the independent Fanfare preserves the stark exposure of the original gesture. Its public confidence depends on patience as well as force.