Research requires focus. Being able to read a paragraph, then another, and another, and then retain the information. This has proved to be, putting it mildly, difficult. My mind is elsewhere. On top of that it seems the internet isn’t the most stable space for information that we would like to think it is. While researching for my topic I stumbled upon a post from this class from 2015. The post includes sources that were quite relevant to my topic. One of them (which I had already found independently) purported to have the original program to the partisan premiere of Copland’s Music for the Theatre. Alas it did not. Though it may have had the program back in 2015, the link (assuming it was ever there) was gone, though many other programs remained. This was needless to say, frustrating. I have however been able to find the program for the Boston premiere of the piece. As such I am inclined to approach this assignment from the perspective of a Parisian critic who just so happened to be in Boston on the night of the premiere. I am still working on figuring out the exact sense I will approach this piece through, but it will likely be through the lens of nation and race. I still need to locate other performances which occurred on the same date.
Meanwhile here is a picture of Koussevitzky with Copland at Tanglewood I found in the pursuit of my research:
