On Display: Maya Angelou, Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, & More…

Display for Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s performance Nov 8, 9, & 10, 2013

The performance featured Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire (performed by Eighth Blackbird), Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait (narrated by Dr. Maya Angelou), and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 (dun dun dun duuuunnnn…).

In addition to CDs with recordings of the works performed, I included several books by Dr. Maya Angelou, a few interesting biographies of Lincoln, and a biography of Aaron Copland.

Books by Dr. Maya Angelou: Letter to My Daughter, I Shall Not Be Moved, Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, The Heart of a Woman, and the biography Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration by Marcia Ann Gillespie, Rosa Johnson Butler and Richard A. Long (with a foreword by Oprah Winfrey). As tends to be the case, all our copies of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings were checked out.

Picking out biographies about Abraham Lincoln was a bit tougher, since there were so many to choose from. I went with a few that stood out as being a) interesting/widely-appealing and b) relevant to the text of Copland’s piece (considering the added context of Dr. Angelou reading). Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery & Race by George M. Fredrickson, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard, and The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life & Legacy from 1860 to Now, edited by Harold Holzer. This last one I picked out mainly because of its amazing cover.

On Beethoven, I went with Martin Geck’s Beethoven and David Wyn Jones’ The Life of Beethoven. I really wanted to include Beethoven’s Hair by Russell Martin, but our copy was checked out. As with the books on Lincoln, I wanted to try and get people interested—which means going with books that are externally appealing: great cover, seductive design.

I included only one book about Aaron Copland: Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland During the Depression & War by Elizabeth B. Crist. Although there were several others to choose from, Copland has probably the least wide-appeal of the subjects of the display—which is ironic, as he was such a populist and is among the most beloved American composers. But next to Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, and Maya Angelou, Copland is small potatoes. This title seemed the ideal choice, because it focuses on his life & career during the time when he wrote Lincoln Portrait, which was premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on May 14, 1942. It also focuses heavily on his most well-known work, Fanfare for the Common Man, which was commissioned (and premiered) by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Cincinnati is fiercely devoted to its own cultural heritage, so I try to use every opportunity to play up local connections.

Since this is a display about music, it’s biggest draw is the CDs. I won’t list all of them here, but I was surprised to learn we do have a copy of Higdon’s On a Wire—and even performed by Eighth Blackbird, who performed the piece at Music Hall.