Music KS3 / GCSE: Jameela Jamil on Fanfare for the Common Man' by Aaron Copland

DRUMS

TRUMPETS

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Imagine waking up in the morning to this. What's going on, a celebration, an emergency? Whatever it is, do you think you'd be going back to sleep?'

MUSIC: Fanfare For The Common Man by Aaron Copland

JAMEELA JAMIL:I feel excited and nervous and frightened when I hear this music because it means that trouble's coming.

JAMEELA JAMIL:It's almost like the trumpets telling you there's danger ahead and that I have to fight on. I feel like David in the Biblical story, about to face the huge giant Goliath.

JAMEELA JAMIL:I imagine marathons, great contests and impossible challenges ahead.

JAMEELA JAMIL:I can hear the brass instruments trying to lift my spirits. The drums are like cannons making my heart beat faster.

JAMEELA JAMIL:The music tells me I'm about to face a great battle. But I don't know how it ends… yet.

JAMEELA JAMIL:'In fact, when this piece was first performed in 1943 there was a huge battle underway. The Second World War being fought by countries allaround the world. An American composer called Aaron Copland, wrote this piece to pay tribute to all the Americans who were fighting and working so hard during the war.

JAMEELA JAMIL:'But he thought everyone deserved to be remembered. He didn’t want us to just think about the people who were on the battlefield but also the ordinary or common men and women who were suffering and helping during the war.'

JAMEELA JAMIL:And that's why he called the piece Fanfare For The Common Man.

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Throughout history, fanfares were used to get people's attention for the arrival of powerful people like kings or for the start of a grand event. But Copland's fanfare is for you and me, but he makes it sound just as big and impressive, because we're important too.'

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Copland begins the piece with a trumpet, which is traditionally used for a fanfare.'

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Why do you think that is?'

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Can you hear Copland adding another brass instrument?'

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Those are French horns.'

MUSIC: Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Now listen out for the trombones making their entrance.'

JAMEELA JAMIL:'Why do you think Copland gradually keeps adding instruments like this?'

JAMEELA JAMIL:To me, each instrument is another person standing beside me, like an army, making me stronger.

JAMEELA JAMIL:'I love Fanfare For The Common Man, because it really gives me this feeling of suspense and tension, and the way that the music grows makes me feel like I can do anything.

JAMEELA JAMIL:And so I use it sometimes when I'm feeling nervous about something and I need something to give me the confidence. That's what I love about this piece of music.

JAMEELA JAMIL:Now those massive drums sound like something else to me. The sound of victory.

JAMEELA JAMIL:'It's amazing how music can make you feel like you can do anything.'

JAMEELA JAMIL:You know who did used to start their day with this piece of music? American astronauts. They would have Fanfare For The Common Man played to them in their space shuttle first thing in the morning.

JAMEELA JAMIL:I wonder what they were feeling when they heard this music all the way up there in space.