Memorial Day.

Aaron Copland dedicated his one and only Violin Sonata, composed in 1942 and 1943, to the memory of his close friend, Lieutenant Harry H. Dunham (a Princeton alumnus), who died in action in the South Pacific shortly after the work was completed.

Virgil Thomson wrote in the New York Herald Tribune, “I suspect it is one of the author’s most satisfying pieces… It has a quality at once of calm elevation and buoyancy that is characteristic of Copland and irresistibly touching.”

Here’s a performance by Louis Kaufman (who advised the composer on bowings and fingerings), with Copland himself at the keyboard:

Mov’t I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8kY1jO4Z34
Mov’t II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKr4ZZrT3Sw
Mov’t III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUvAi33DkXQ

PHOTO: Aaron Copland, American music’s secret weapon