INSCRIBED BY COPLAND: QUIET CITY

COPLAND, Aaron. Quiet City. No place: Boosey & Hawkes, (1941). Quarto, original printed wrappers. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase. $1300.

First edition, inscribed by Copland on the front wrapper: “For Robert Thomson / Aaron Copland / June 1950.”

Aaron Copland's Quiet City has been recognized as a masterpiece ever since it was first heard on January 28, 1941. Copland's score originated in the incidental music he composed for a play by Irwin Shaw. According to Copland, the play was "a realistic fantasy concerning the night-thoughts of many different kinds of people in a great city. It called for music evocative of the nostalgia and inner distress of a society profoundly aware of its own insecurity." A trumpet took the leading instrumental part. Adapting the work for chamber orchestra, Copland borrowed the trumpet, some of the musical themes, and the title. Owner signature of J. R. Thomson.

A fine inscribed copy.