Rodeo and Appalachian Spring by Copland: a listening guide for kids
Updated 2026-11-12
Rodeo and Appalachian Spring are two ballets by the American composer Aaron Copland. Rodeo, from 1942, is set on a ranch and is full of cowboy tunes. Appalachian Spring, from 1944, is about a young pioneer couple and their new farmhouse. Both use American folk tunes, and both are often played in concert without the dancing. The best first piece for a child is “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo.
Quick facts
- Composer: Aaron Copland, from the United States
- Rodeo: first danced in 1942, with dances by Agnes de Mille
- Appalachian Spring: first danced in 1944, with dances by Martha Graham
- Length: about 20 minutes for the four dances from Rodeo, and about 25 for the Appalachian Spring suite
- Good to know: Appalachian Spring won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1945
Rodeo: the story
A cowgirl on a ranch wants the cowboys to notice her. She dresses and rides the way they do, and they pay her no mind. At the Saturday night dance, she turns up in a dress. Now everyone notices, and she ends up dancing with the best roper on the ranch.
Rodeo: the four dances
“Buckaroo Holiday.” The cowboys show off. The music lurches, stops, and starts, the way a rider is thrown about on a bucking horse. A trombone plays a tune with long, comic pauses.
“Corral Nocturne.” Evening on the ranch. The cowgirl is alone. The music is slow, quiet, and wide open.
“Saturday Night Waltz.” The orchestra seems to tune up, the way fiddlers do. Then an oboe plays a gentle waltz based on an old cowboy song.
“Hoe-Down.” A barn dance. The strings race through a fiddle tune from Kentucky. The music stops short, more than once, and then takes off again. A piano and a wood block add to the clatter.
Appalachian Spring: the story
The scene is a new farmhouse in the hills of Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. A young bride and her husband are starting their life. A preacher and his followers visit. An older pioneer woman gives advice. By the end, the couple are alone in their house, calm and ready.
Appalachian Spring: what to listen for
The opening. A clarinet plays three slow, rising notes. Other instruments add notes one at a time, until a soft chord hangs in the air. It sounds like a wide, quiet morning.
The burst of joy. The strings leap in with a fast, bright tune.
The dances. Quick, square-dance rhythms for the preacher and his flock.
“Simple Gifts.” A clarinet plays an old Shaker song, alone and plain. Then come five variations. An oboe and a bassoon play it. The violas and trombones play it at half speed. The trumpets and trombones play it fast. Each time, the mood changes. At the last, the whole orchestra plays it, slow and grand.
The ending. The quiet morning chords return.
Things to do together
Barn dance. Play “Hoe-Down.” Gallop, clap, and swing a partner by the elbow. Freeze each time the music stops.
Bucking horse. In “Buckaroo Holiday,” ride a pretend horse that keeps trying to throw you.
Count the turns. In the “Simple Gifts” variations, count how many times the tune comes back. Ask which time was the fastest and which was the grandest.
Sing it. “Simple Gifts” is easy to learn. Sing it on “la,” and then listen for it again.
Paint the morning. Play the opening of Appalachian Spring and paint a sunrise over hills.
Waltz. Count “one, two, three” and sway to the “Saturday Night Waltz.”
A title that came last
Copland did not know the title when he wrote the music. He called the piece “Ballet for Martha.” Martha Graham chose the name from a poem after the music was done. People still told him they could hear spring in the mountains in it.
Where the tunes came from
Copland found his tunes in books of folk songs. “Hoe-Down” uses a fiddle tune that a collector recorded from a Kentucky fiddler. “Simple Gifts” is a song from the Shakers, a religious group known for plain living, and it dates from 1848.
Print and play
Read Copland for kids and print the Copland fact sheet. For how a waltz and a march differ, see time signatures explained. A listening journal page gives a child a place to draw the ranch or the farmhouse.
More guides are listed in classical music listening guides for kids.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.