Title
Alone
For
voice and piano
Year Composed
1922
ARCO Number(s)
3-B.2
Category
Vocal
Duration
2'
Text Information
based on an Arabic text by John Duncan
Premiere
  • World: New York, December 4th, 1985 (Jan DeGaetani and Gilbert Kalish)
Related Persons
Publisher
Boosey & Hawkes
Publishing Status
Published (in Four Early Songs (2000))
Member Of

Program Note

As a young man, Copland had an intellectual friend, Aaron Schaffer, who was a poet. Copland set three of his poems to music: Night, A Summer Vacation, and My Heart is in the East. Among Copland's earliest pieces, these short songs are traditional in style with occasional touches of Debussy and Ravel, the "modern" music of the times. The fourth song in the grouping is a two-page setting of a poem by John Duncan, titled Alone. It was discovered in Copland's files by Vivian Perlis and premiered by Jan DeGaetani.

Author
Vivian Perlis
Year
1998