This week’s theme of “Promise/Vow/Oath” resonates deeply with a piece of music that holds personal significance: “The Promise of Living,” a powerful song from The Tender Land by the renowned American composer Aaron Copland. This piece, often referred to as “The Promise Song”, is more than just a melody; it’s an embodiment of community spirit and the hopeful essence of shared labor.
[Bài viết gốc]:Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday this week has the theme Promise/Vow/Oath.
My connection to “the promise song” is rooted in a moving experience. Our church choir had the privilege of performing it a few years ago at the funeral of a beloved member’s grandfather. This personal touch is why I’m drawn to share the beauty and meaning of this piece, particularly Angel City Chorale’s rendition with full orchestration, although it’s frequently performed with just piano accompaniment, as was the case with our choir.
The lyrics of “the promise song” beautifully encapsulate the themes of hope, community, and the dignity of work:
The promise of living with hope and thanksgiving
Is born of our loving our friends and our labor.
The promise of growing with faith and with knowing
Is born of our sharing our love with our neighbor.
The promise of loving, the promise of growing
Is born of our singing in joy and thanksgiving.
For many a year we’ve know these fields
And know all the work that makes them yield.
We’re ready to work, we’re ready to lend a hand.
By working together we’ll bring in the blessings of harvest.
We plant each row with seeds of grain,
And Providence sends us the sun and the rain.
By lending a hand, by lending an arm
Bring out the blessings of harvest.
Give thanks there was sunshine, give thanks there was rain,
Give thanks we have hands to deliver the grain.
O let us be joyful, O let us be grateful to the Lord for his blessing.
The promise of living, the promise of growing
The promise of ending is labor and sharing and loving.
These poignant words are drawn from Copland’s 1954 opera, The Tender Land. This opera, with a libretto by Horace Everett (pseudonym for Erik Johns), delves into the heart of American life, celebrating the meaningfulness of labor, particularly farming in the Midwest during the 1930s. “The promise song” emerges as a central piece, reflecting the opera’s core themes of cultivating both the land and a fulfilling life through community and shared effort. The narrative follows a farm family during the spring harvest and the high school graduation of the protagonist, painting a picture of rural American life inspired by Walker Evans’ Depression-era photographs and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
Despite its rich themes and Copland’s esteemed composition, The Tender Land faced an unexpected journey. Commissioned for NBC’s Television Opera Workshop, it was surprisingly rejected by network producers, possibly due to perceived weaknesses in character development and plot. Although it premiered at the New York City Opera in 1954, its intimate nature, perhaps better suited for television, didn’t fully translate to the stage.
It’s remarkable to consider a time when television networks actively commissioned operas from composers. This era saw successes like Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, an operetta that became a beloved Christmas tradition on television throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. NBC Television Opera played a significant role, producing several operas for television between 1949 and 1964, showcasing a commitment to bringing opera to a wider audience.
The Tender Land and, by extension, “the promise song”, continued to evolve. Copland and Johns revised the opera, expanding Act II. In 1987, Murry Sidlin rescored the work for a smaller ensemble, leading to a successful 50-performance run in New Haven. A concert version was released on CD in 1965, further extending the opera’s reach.
In 1958, Copland transformed the opera’s music into an orchestral suite, ensuring that “the promise song” would resonate beyond the stage. The orchestral version of “the promise song” is available here: https://youtu.be/uyDljV1-BSc.
The music of “the promise song” begins with a gentle awakening, reminiscent of birdsong at dawn, gradually building into a majestic and uplifting hymn of thanksgiving. The powerful conclusion, in both the vocal and orchestral versions, leaves a lasting impression, embodying the full emotional range of the piece.
The information presented here is drawn from insightful resources such as The Promise of Living: Copland for Labor Day by Timothy Judd and the Wikipedia entry for The Tender Land. These sources offer further exploration into the context and significance of “the promise song” and Aaron Copland’s work.
