Editing Appalachian Spring (section)

== Themes ==
[[File:Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.jpg|thumb|Themes of war, particularly the [[American Civil War]], are present throughout ''Appalachian Spring''.|alt=Chromolithograph of a large battle. One group displays the Confederate battle flag and the other displays an American flag.]]
Themes of war are present throughout the conflict of ''Appalachian Spring''.{{Sfn|Pollack|1999|p=403}}{{Sfn|Crist|2005|p=165}} The central conflict begins in the "Fear in the Night" episode, where the Revivalist delivers a haunting [[sermon]]. [[Howard Pollack]] argued that this scene represented the spirit of [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]], something that could cause the Husbandman to be drafted in the Civil War. Furthermore, the subsequent "Day of Wrath" episode can be seen as the Husbandman leaving for war, depicted with waves of goodbye. "Moment of Crisis" is an expression of anxiety and concern for the Husbandman, and "The Lord's Day" is a prayer for peace and safety. When the Husbandman rejoins the Bride at the end, Pollack suggests this is actually in her imagination, further supported by her final gesture of reaching out to the horizon.{{Sfn|Pollack|1999|p=403}} Mark Franko says that the Civil War themes are possibly a reference to the [[civil rights movement]] and ongoing [[racial inequality in the United States]].{{Sfn|Franko|2012|p=51}}

The opening of the music uses delicately placed [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonances]] to create a dreamy landscape. In the scripts Copland worked from, this scene was to feature the Pioneer Woman sitting "terrifyingly still" and looking over her land. Elizabeth Crist speculates that the entire ballet is the Pioneer Woman's memory; Crist suggests that the dissonances in the music depict the Pioneer Woman reflecting on the hardships she faced, and that the following episodes are entirely her own experiences.{{Sfn|Crist|2005|p=172}} Crist continues that when the opening themes are recalled at the end of the ballet, the Bride disconnects from the Pioneer Woman's memory, becoming her own individual memory; the Bride sits where the Pioneer Woman sat at the beginning, the context having shifted to a new time. Crist describes this as an embodiment of the link between wars among generations: as the youth during World War II saw similar circumstances to the generation of the Civil War, the Bride represents the common experiences of people living on the homefront during the 19th and 20th centuries.{{Sfn|Crist|2005|p=176}} Graham's explanation for this was the fluidity of time, where younger generations feel the ramifications of things the older generations experienced.{{Sfn|Franko|2012|pp=47–48}}

[[Shakers|Shaker]] themes are also heavily present in ''Appalachian Spring''.{{Sfn|Oja|Tick|2005|p=138}}{{Sfn|Pollack|1999|p=400}} This idea is found in the original "House of Victory" script, where the Pioneer Woman is said to sit in a "Shaker rocking chair".{{Sfn|Oja|Tick|2005|p=138}}{{Sfn|Franko|2012|p=61}} Copland's interest in Shakers was not new, as they became a common subject of American art during the Great Depression.{{Sfn|Oja|Tick|2005|p=138}}{{Sfn|Pollack|1999|p=400}} After Copland included the Shaker tune "[[Simple Gifts]]" into the "Interlude", Graham added "The Lord's Prayer" as a possible "Shaker meeting".{{Efn|In her 1991 autobiography, Graham actually claimed that she heard the tune in a cathedral and asked Copland to include it in ''Appalachian Spring''.{{sfn|Graham|1991|p=105}}}}{{Sfn|Pollack|1999|pp=398, 401}} Copland had decided to use "Simple Gifts" early on; by extracting a basic melodic motif from the tune, he created [[Variation (music)|variations]] on it throughout the composition, first referring to it in the opening measures.{{sfn|Rutkoff|Scott|1995|p=218}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Salas |first=Juan Orrego |date=Autumn 1948 |title=Aaron Copland: A New York Composer |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S004029820005395X/type/journal_article |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |language=en |publisher=Cambridge University Press |issue=9 |pages=16 |doi=10.1017/S004029820005395X |issn=0040-2982 |s2cid=143496980 |access-date=August 14, 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The lyrics of "Simple Gifts" are connected to the ballet's themes of peace and remembrance during wartime: "'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free".{{Sfn|Pollack|1999|p=398}}