The bass-baritone William Warfield and composer Aaron Copland were almost a generation apart; Copland was born late in 1900, Warfield at the beginning of 1920. Both had connections to Rochester, NY: Warfield grew up there, his parents having moved from Arkansas before he started school, and Copland visited Rochester a number of times during Warfield's childhood for events connected with the Eastman School of Music, where Warfield enrolled in 1937, graduating in 1942. During World War II, while Copland was composing Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man, Warfield enlisted in the Army, serving in military intelligence where he could use the European languages he'd studied as a vocalist. After the war, he earned a master's degree at Eastman and began landing minor roles in Broadway shows.
Warfield's recital debut in New York's Town Hall on March 19, 1950 was a remarkable breakthrough that catapulted him to international attention, launching his storied career as an opera singer, recitalist, and actor. He was immediately swept into the international touring circuit. He starred in the 1951 Show Boat movie, sang the male lead in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess from 1952 through the 1970s, and toured the world performing as a recitalist and with orchestras, often under the auspices of the U.S. State Department.
Warfield's close association with Copland's Old American Songs began shortly after his Town Hall debut. He sang the U.S. premiere of Set 1, gave the world premiere of Set 2, and made renowned, now-classic recordings of both the solo piano and the orchestrated versions, many of these with Copland conducting or accompanying. Warfield remained connected with Copland for the rest of his career, singing the Old American Songs and narrating Lincoln Portrait at tribute concerts, birthday celebrations, Copland memorial concerts, and centennial celebrations.
Old American Songs
The Old American Songs began before Warfield and Copland knew each other. "Shortly after my debut at Town Hall in 1950, I met Aaron and he showed me the Old American Songs I," Warfield told Vivian Perlis (unless otherwise noted, all Warfield and Copland quotations appear in The Complete Copland, pp. 227-228). English composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, tenor Peter Pears, had already scheduled the world premiere, several European performances, and an initial recording. But Copland and Warfield recognized immediately that the Songs were ideal for Warfield.
As soon as he could plan it, Warfield gave the U.S. premiere of Set 1 on his second Town Hall recital on January 28, 1951. "They were a tremendous success," the singer recalled. Contrary to some accounts, Otto Herz, not Copland, was the accompanist. Copland was in Rome at the time, on a 6-month Fulbright fellowship.
When Copland returned from Rome in the summer of 1951, he and Warfield recorded the songs for Columbia Records. The first set contains perhaps the best-known songs. "The Boatmen's Dance" (#1), "Simple Gifts" (#3), and "I Bought Me a Cat" (#5) are often heard individually, while "The Dodger" and "Long Time Ago" (#2 and 4) are more often heard along with the entire set.
Simple Gifts
Warfield has shared valuable insights into some of the songs. One of these is "Simple Gifts," the Shaker melody now attributed to Elder Joseph Brackett, which Copland found in Edward Deming Andrews's 1940 collection and used in Appalachian Spring.
According to Warfield, "When we were rehearsing for the recording of the first set, we had a discussion about singing ‘Simple Gifts.’ [Copland] wanted it simple, almost recitative-like in quality, so you wouldn’t feel it as a rhythmic, bouncy thing. The way it is written in the original, it seems obviously very rhythmic, but Aaron even put the chords on the off-accented beat to be sure it wouldn’t be sung with that regular rhythmic feeling."
Copland did object to a different vocalist's performance, which used "a more formal lieder style," calling it "anything but simple." He once characterized the Old American Songs version as being "in a style closer to the original, with a direct and straightforward melodic line and simple hymnlike harmonies." In comparison to the extensive variations treatment he gave the folksong in his Appalachian Spring ballet score (1944) and orchestral suite (1945), this may be true. But I agree with Warfield that the Shaker original was "very rhythmic," while Copland's song is less so. And, with Warfield, I marvel at the gentle, personal, interpretation evident in Copland's piano-vocal arrangement.
I Bought Me a Cat
"I Bought Me a Cat," the final song of Set 1, was a favorite of Warfield’s. The final song of the set, it's similar to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," with a catalog of animal sounds that grows after each verse. As biographer Howard Pollack wryly observed, "We have Copland to thank for the amusing spectacle of opera stars imitating barnyard animals.” (Pollack 469).
Warfield remembered the preparations for the 1951 recording well. "When we rehearsed 'I Bought Me a Cat,' I stopped at ‘I bought me a cow,’ because the sound written in the score is ‘bah, bah.’ I said to Aaron, 'It doesn’t sound right to me—I think it should be "moo, moo."' He grinned and said, ‘Okay,’ and that’s the way we recorded it.”
A few years later, Warfield premiered Copland's orchestral arrangement of Set 1. He also may have premiered part of Set 2, if his later recollections were accurate. “I did the premiere of the orchestrated sets (eight songs) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Wallenstein conducting [7 January, 1955],” he told Perlis in 1989. It is possible that three Set 2 songs were used as encores, as Warfield is known to have done in later concerts. According to the composer, the accompaniment for "I Bought Me a Cat" intentionally "imitates barnyard sounds in the choices of harmony and figurations.” In 1955, Copland was on an extended European trip when he heard Warfield perform them with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Copland recalled, "I went to the Paris Opéra with Marcelle de Manziarly to hear a concert in which Old American Songs were sung by Warfield, conducted by Ormandy. I noted, 'Marcelle was very taken with my orchestration. I rather liked the way it sounded myself.’” (Complete Copland 257).
Warfield said he had a slight preference for the orchestral arrangements over the piano versions, “especially for 'I Bought Me a Cat,' where you have all these wonderful barnyard sounds in the orchestration."
The orchestrated version Set 2 was premiered in its complete form by Grace Bumbry with Copland conducting the Ojai Festival Orchestra on May 25, 1958, though many sources incorrectly list Warfield as the performer. Warfield was busy with State Department tours of South Asia and Australia that year.
Set 2 and Later Performances
Copland completed Set 2 in 1952 and accompanied the world premiere in Ipswich, Massachusetts that July. "The Little Horses" (#1) is a gentle lullaby, "Zion's Walls" (#2) re-appeared in Copland's opera, The Tender Land, “The Golden Willow Tree” (#3) is perhaps the least familiar, and the fourth is a classic hymn ("At the River"). The upbeat finale for Set 2, "Ching-A-Ring Chaw," (#5) was originally a minstrel song for which Copland altered words to omit racist references. When asked about it in 1989, Warfield claimed ignorance of the song's history.
At the end of December 1958, Warfield sang the New York premiere of the ten orchestrated Old American Songs with Copland conducting the Little Orchestra Society; the orchestrations were "saturated in the naïve, tender atmosphere of the songs," wrote New York Times critic Ross Parmenter (Jan. 4, 1959, sec. X, p.15). And for Copland's 60th birthday, Bernstein tapped Warfield to sing some of them at an all-Copland New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert. ("The only thing I don't want to be presented as, is grandpa for the kiddies," Copland had quipped when Bernstein first proposed the idea.) The live performance on November 12 at Carnegie Hall was broadcast the following February. After conducting Hoe-Down, Bernstein turned the baton over to Copland and introduced Warfield, who sang "The Boatmen's Dance" and "I Bought Me a Cat." "Simple Gifts," "At the River," and "Ching-A-Ring Chaw" were encores.
Another noteworthy performance took place at the Kennedy Center Honors gala in 1979, when Copland was among five honorees. This time, Copland was in the audience next to First Lady Rosalyn Carter while Bernstein conducted. Warfield sang "The Dodger" and possibly "The Boatmen's Dance" though the latter wasn't preserved on video.
Copland and Warfield both recognized the happy pairing of the Old American Songs and Warfield's remarkable voice. The composer praised "Warfield’s ability to sing in a variety of styles, and his warmth and sense of humor was an ideal combination for these folk songs. Warfield could be gentle and lyric one moment, playful and humorous the next." And despite Warfield’s hectic international touring schedule, the baritone appreciated his connection with Copland through these songs. "Aaron was an excellent pianist and, of course, knowing the flavor of them so well, it was a tremendous experience working with him."
Beyond Old American Songs
Beyond his connection with the Old American Songs, Warfield was a favorite among conductors for narrating Lincoln Portrait, particularly during the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations in 1976. Notably, he performed the piece with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic on a European tour, using new German and French translations prepared for the occasion. Warfield's proficiency in European languages was once again useful.
As with the songs, Warfield had insight into Copland's interpretive preferences for the Lincoln Portrait narration. The singer recalled, "Copland didn't want the reading to sound flat, but to overact would take away the straightforward aura that Lincoln projected. What I did was to narrate the descriptive passages ('...and this is what he said...') in a simple, story-telling manner, but then use a somewhat stronger tone when quoting Lincoln's words ('We of this Congress')." (“Completely Copland” 19.)
Another feature of Warfield's Lincoln Portrait interpretation sprang from a source that predated even its composer. Warfield said, "I had the astonishing experience of meeting two 100-year-old people who had actually heard Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address, and they told me that the usual way of speaking the final words is all wrong. According to them, Lincoln didn't say 'government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people...', he said 'of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE and for the PEOPLE.' Isn't that wild? Ever since, I've tried to fluctuate between the two methods [when narrating Copland's work]." (“Completely Copland” 19).
In 1984, Warfield won a Grammy in the "Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording" category for his narration of Lincoln Portrait with the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra. And it was the Lincoln Portrait narration that Warfield contributed to the Copland memorial concert held in Alice Tully Hall on April 20, 1991.
Conclusion
In the 1950s, when Copland completed the various solo-voice versions of Old American Songs, both he and Warfield juggled demanding schedules at the peak of their careers. It is a testament to their mutual recognition of the exceptional suitability of these songs for Warfield's voice that the composer, the work, and the renowned bass-baritone were so closely associated. "Warfield always brought genuine warmth to the songs," Copland noted. "I always enjoyed playing or conducting the songs with Warfield."
For his part, Warfield recognized the important place Copland’s works had played in his career. The year before Copland died at age 90, the 69-year-old baritone recalled, “We have had a tremendously wonderful relationship that has lasted all these years.”
Sources & Further Reading
- “Completely Copland" program book for The New York Philharmonic's Completely Copland Festival, November 20-December 12, 1999, p.19. Artist quotations edited by Robert Sherman.
- Concert program for New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert, 12 November 1960. Program ID 2792, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/c5d8f985-4f35-44a2-b145-5da0ce8a60e1-0.1 Accessed 30 September 2025.
- Copland, Aaron. “Conducting Activities; Orchestral and Chamber Music Programs” Box 243, folder 13-14 (photocopy duplicates in Binder 1). Aaron Copland Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
- Copland, Aaron, and Vivian Perlis. The Complete Copland. Hillsdale, NY.: Pendragon Press, 2013.
- Forbes, Elizabeth. "William Warfield." Grove Music Online. Published in print: 01 December 1992 Published online: 2002. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O005700 Accessed 17 Febrary 2025.
- Hartford, Kassandra. "A Common Man for the Cold War: Aaron Copland's 'Old American Songs.'" The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Winter 2015), 313-349. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44647864 Accessed 24 May 2024.
- Warfield, William. Interview by Vivian Perlis, 8 February 1989. In Aaron Copland, and Vivian Perlis, The Complete Copland (Hillsdale, NY.: Pendragon Press, 2013), 228.
- William Warfield. Interview by Ruth Watanabe and John Braund, 23 December 1992. https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/exhibits/show/living-history-project/william-warfield-1992. Accessed 3 October 2024.
- Warfield, William. Telephone interview by Vivian Perlis, 8 February 1989. Digitized audio file in Oral History of American Music Archive, Yale University Libraries. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/2949689. Accessed 16 September 2025.
