ABSTRACT
Folk tunes saturate the Eurocentric concert repertoire. Composers have used them to signal national identity, illustrate narratives, and freshen their musical language. In each case, the composer brings some elements of the folk performance into the concert hall while discarding others. While this process is inevitable, the discarded elements are often vital to the musicians who cultivate the source tradition and constitute integral components of the music. In this chapter, I theorize the “composer's ear,” which hears (both literally and metaphorically) musical elements that find a place in classical frameworks while ignoring those that do not. I then undertake a close analysis of an example common to music history curricula: Aaron Copland's use of the fiddle tune “Bonaparte's Retreat,” as recorded by Kentucky fiddler William H. Stepp, in his 1942 ballet Rodeo. I outline activities that will reveal students’ own listening habits and biases, present a counternarrative that centers Stepp in place of Copland, and consider Stepp's alternate legacy in the old-time fiddling tradition.
