With the completion of El Salón México, Aaron Copland built a bridge between two phases of his storied life in composing. Whether he knew it or not, this zesty orchestral fantasia shows Copland at a crossroads. He gained notoriety in the 1920s for his brazen incorporations of jazz (his Piano Concerto, for instance) and modern techniques (Symphonic Ode), most of which Serge Koussevitzky would dutifully premiere with the Boston Symphony.
But somewhere along the way, Copland changed direction. It can surely be traced to El Salón México, for everything that follows in the late 1930s and 1940s breaks free from his youthful swagger and embraces a more straightforward course that becomes his – and America’s – signature sound.
It’s also the first of his works to use Latin materials. His Mexican Dance for Billy the Kid, Danzón cubano and one of his final compositions, Three Latin-American Sketches, all show Copland’s attachment to this region.
Copland’s Trip and Use of Mexican Folk Tunes
When he first visited Mexico in 1932, composer and native son Carlos Chavez brought Copland to the finer spots of Mexico City. Well, almost. They both stopped at a seedy, rollicking dance hall called El Salón México that fascinated Copland. The crush of people gathering and mingling left a clear impression.
In conjunction with the Boston Symphony’s recording, Copland writes in 1939: “It wasn’t the music that I heard there, or the dances that attracted me, so much as the spirit of the place.” That holds true, because Copland does not quote any of the music he heard in the dance hall, but rather existing folk songs culled by Ruben Campos and Frances Toor.
There are mixed meters and offbeats aplenty from the opening measures, with a woodblock hammering out the irregular pulse. Two folk songs are referenced early, but the introduction gets clipped rather amusingly. A boozy trumpet staggers in with another tune, broken twice by the clarinet. The low woodwinds, who sounded just as groggy with the trumpet earlier, get themselves together for a new melody that the strings play in a two-part harmony which exists almost symbiotically with mariachi music.
The full orchestra then restates the very first tune in unison, and it’s the ascending arpeggio figure that is critical to the development of the last half. Among the highlights: the chamber feel of the slower section with solo strings and woodwind; the saucy clarinet solo which leads directly to an orchestral climax, jauntily accented on beats 1, the “and” of 2 and 4; and an abrupt ending that never ceases to catch the listener off-guard.
Timeline and Future Performances
Copland began work on El Salón México in 1933, and finishing touches spilled into the following year. It wasn’t orchestrated until 1936, and not premiered until 1937 in Mexico City, with Chavez conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de México. The New York Philharmonic’s program note annotator, James M. Keller, indicates that the piece was finally published in 1939, a good seven years after Copland set foot in that dance hall.
Take a scan of the 2009-10 concert seasons across the fruited plain, and the insertion of El Salón México remains quite common. Although not a comprehensive list, among the upcoming performances are Leonard Slatkin guest-conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony on Oct. 23-25; JoAnn Falletta conducting the Buffalo Philharmonic on Feb. 20; and Giancarlo Guerrero guest-conducting the Milwaukee Symphony on March 12-13.
