Appalachian Spring is a musical composition by Aaron Copland that was premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite. The music, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon commission of the choreographer and dancer Martha Graham with funds from the Coolidge Foundation. It was premiered on Monday, October 30, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. The set was designed by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his achievement. Music In 1942, Martha Graham and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commissioned Copland to write a ballet with "an American theme". Copland did the bulk of the work in 1943–44, and the work was premiered at the Library of Congress on October 30, 1944, with Graham dancing the lead role. In 1945, Copland was commissioned by conductor Artur Rodziński to rearrange the ballet as an orchestral suite, preserving most of the music. Copland cut about 10 minutes from the original 13-instrument score to make the suite. From the preface in the original Boosey & Hawkes publication of the suite: The original scoring called for a chamber ensemble of thirteen instruments. The present arrangement for symphony orchestra was made by the composer in the Spring of 1945. It is a condensed version of the ballet, retaining all essential features but omitting those sections in which the interest is primarily choreographic. The Orchestral Suite from 1945 was first recorded by Serge Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1954, Eugene Ormandy asked Copland to expand the orchestration for the full score of the ballet. In 1972, Boosey & Hawkes published a version of the suite using the scoring of the original ballet. Thus, there are four versions of Appalachian Spring: 1944, 13-player complete; 1945, orchestral suite; 1954, orchestral complete; and 1972, 13-player suite. The 1944 version was recorded in 1973 by Copland himself directing the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, and by Hugh Wolff and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for Teldec in 1991. The 1954 version was recorded by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for RCA Victor in May 1999. The original ballet and the orchestral suite were well received. The latter was credited as more important in popularizing the composer. Originally, Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as "Ballet