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Copland’s fourth and last major ballet, Appalachian Spring, describes pioneer life in Pennsylvania. The principal characters, a bride and groom originally danced by Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, are about to move into their new farmhouse. Alongside other members of the troupe, the couple expresses through dance the joys and fears about their new life. The piece’s clean rhythm and sparing tones highlight a luminous use of pitch and a wide vertical spacing of harmonies, combining to create a sense of vast expanse within the work that mirrors the frontier setting of the plot. The ballet has the flavor of Shaker hymns, whose structures often coincided with Copland’s own style. In the piece’s seventh section, Copland underscores this influence by using a direct quotation from Shaker folklore, "The Gift to be Simple."
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