The Iceberg (1891)
Frederic Church (1826 – 1900) was an American landscape painter. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters.
While committed to the natural sciences, Frederic Edwin Church was "always concerned with including a spiritual dimension in his works".
In addition to capturing the physical and spiritual beauty of native American scenery, Frederic Church travelled extensively the length and breadth of the continent, depicting tropical forests, spectacular waterfalls, volcanoes and icebergs.
West Rock, New Haven (1849)
The Natural Bridge, Virginia (1852)
Cotopaxi (1855)
The Andes of Ecuador (1855)
Mount Katahdin (1856)
Mount Chimborazo, Ecuador (1857)
Niagara Falls (1857)
View of Cotopaxi (1857)
Frederic Edwin Church
The gorgeous landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church and the music of Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring.
Originally, Aaron Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as Ballet for Martha. At its final rehearsal (1944), Aaron Copland approached Martha Graham and asked:
– Martha, what have you named the ballet?
– Appalachian Spring.
– That's nice, but does it have anything to do with the ballet?
– No, I just like the title.
Appalachian Spring is a phrase from a Hart Crane poem, The Dance:
O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!
Because he composed the music without the benefit of knowing what the title was going to be, Aaron Copland was often amused when people told him he captured the beauty of the Appalachians in his music. Little known is that the word spring denotes a source of water in the Crane poem; however the poem is a journey to meet springtime.
Springtime in the Levant (1879)
