Amidst the threat of World War II, President Roosevelt and his administration sought to unite Americans around the war effort by celebrating American ideas. Using concepts from his speeches and fireside chats, as well as official documents such as The Atlantic Charter, Roosevelt engaged Americans with rhetoric and language describing a wholly democratic world liberated by America’s Four Freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. After Pearl Harbor, Americans gained strength and motivation from these words and ideas, believing that the conflict allowed the United States to lead the world in a quest for universal peace and social welfare. Speeches, such as Vice President Wallace’s “The Price of Free World Victory: The Century of the Common Man,” echoed Roosevelt’s international agenda and reached working-class citizens in the United States, many of whom became inspired by New Deal rhetoric concerning the quest for worldwide peace and social justice.
Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, originally composed as a contribution to Conductor Eugene Goossens’s Fanfare series for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s 1942-1943 season, stands as a lasting symbol of an American idea during this time. By employing the rhetoric of Wallace’s speech in his title, Copland effectively adapted a genre historically employed in Britain to introduce and honor members of royalty to instead salute and pay tribute to the largest, most ordinary demographic, the common man. Fanfare for the Common Man, conceived at the hands of an American composer and commissioned by a British conductor, reflects the international agendas of the United States and Great Britain during World War II, yet does so in a uniquely American way that emphasizes the United States’ commitment in the 1930s and ’40s to equality and social welfare for all.
This study examines social, historical, and political perspectives of Copland’s contribution to the Goossens Fanfares, focusing on the circumstances surrounding the Fanfare’s conception, the socio-political climate that motivated its creation, and the wartime rhetoric that formed the basis for the Fanfare’s title. It also observes the ways that Copland modified and adapted the fanfare genre during a time of international conflict by selecting a poignant and appropriate title reflective of President Roosevelt’s determination to spread the American form of Social Democracy abroad and the general wartime sensibility of the country during World War II.