Aaron Copland -- Billy the Kid Orchestral Suite, Erich Kunzel Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

This is the complete Orchestral Suite, not the Ballet Suite. (Apologies for my poor labeling of the piece as I somehow managed to note 'Part 2' twice; this was done when I created the video before YouTube allowed running times longer than ten minutes...)

Copland's "Billy the Kid" was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein for his ballet company, Ballet Caravan, in 1938. The hope was to create an "American" ballet, to counteract the Russian tradition so popular in ballet for centuries.

The result, and I'll quote as I know the music but don't know ballet, was, "the first full-fledged American ballet in style and form as well as content," according to the choreographer of the ballet, Eugene Loring.

As I said, I don't know ballet, but I know classical music and this is a wonderful piece of music regardless of the reason for its composition.

This is the entire Suite for Orchestra which came directly from the ballet with very little change from the ballet score. The Suite was split in to 7 pieces by Copland and, though I don't know, and I apologize, where each begins or ends, I'm sure my educated guess as to the end of each piece and the beginning of the next is accurate, but I haven't noted my guesses in the video.

The sections of Copland's Suite are: I Introduction: The Open Prairie II Street in a Frontier Town III Prairie Night IV Gun Battle V Celebration (after Billy's Capture) VI Billy's Death VII The Open Prairie Again

Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet written by the American composer Aaron Copland on commission from Lincoln Kirstein. It was choreographed by Eugene Loring for Ballet Caravan. Along with Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, it is one of Copland's most popular and widely performed pieces. The ballet is most famous for its incorporation of several cowboy tunes and American folk songs and, although built around the figure and the exploits of Billy the kid, is not so much a biography of a notorious but peculiarly appealing desperado as it is a perception of the pioneer West, in which a figure such as Billy played a vivid role.[1]

It was premiered on 16 October 1938[2] in Chicago by the Ballet Caravan Company, with pianists Arthur Gold and Walter Hendl performing a two-piano version of the score. The first performance of Billy the Kid in New York City occurred on 24 May 1939, with an orchestra conducted by Fritz Kitzinger. [Billy the Kid (ballet), Wikipedia] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_the_Kid_(ballet)

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