The “Original Cast” Film of “Appalachian Spring”

While browsing YouTube this afternoon, I discovered that there was an “original cast” film of Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring,” one of the major works in the history of modern dance in the twentieth century. Graham created the piece on a commission by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress, and it was first performed in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium on October 30, 1944. Graham created her choreography to a score provided by Aaron Copland, and that music is better known by the orchestral suite that Copland prepared based on excerpts from the original score, whose instrumentation required only thirteen players. The dance is in a single act with a set that was designed by Isamu Noguchi.

The choreography amounts to a visual poem in praise of the pioneer spirit. The Wikipedia page for “Appalachian Spring” includes a synopsis by Chris Pasles that originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times:

A young farm couple ruminate on their lives before getting married and setting up house in the wilderness. An itinerant preacher delivers a sermon. An older pioneer woman oversees the events with sympathy and wisdom. The newlyweds muse on their future as night falls. In the course of the dance, Graham reveals the inner lives of the four principal characters – Wife, Husbandman, Pioneer Woman and Preacher. She shows that the couple will face a future that will not be all sweetness and light, but she also draws out the private and shared emotional resources they will be able to bring to the challenges. Such is the power of Graham's images, however, that this very particular story broadens out to become a parable about Americans conquering a new land.

Before my first encounter with a performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company, I had seen a film made in the studios of WQED in Pittsburgh in 1959. As might be expected, this film is now available for viewing on YouTube, divided into four parts with automatic sequencing. In 1959 Graham was still dancing the role of the Wife.

As might be guessed, the film of the original cast has problems with image quality. However, those willing to look through those obvious defects to the dance that is taking place will be well rewarded. Graham is clearly younger, and her delivery has both freshness and intensity. She is partnered by Erick Hawkins in the role of the Husbandman. The Pioneer Woman is danced by May O’Donnell, but what makes this film document particularly exciting is the role of the Preacher danced by Merce Cunningham. Graham clearly appreciated the extensive flexibility of Cunningham’s agility; and she gave full rein to all of it in the episode in which the Preacher delivers a hell-and-brimstone sermon (to music that Copland cut from his suite version).

While watching this film may be a bit of a frustrating strain, there is no questioning how much it tells us about one of Graham’s most upbeat creations and about the skills that Cunningham had cultivated prior to striking out on his own.