Old American Songs : First and Second Set

Copland's orchestrations of his two sets of American folk song arrangements were both premiered by William Warfield, who said, "If I had to make a choice, it would probably be toward the orchestra versions, especially for I Bought Me a Cat, where you have all these wonderful barnyard sounds in the orchestration." Copland took such pleasure in the popularity of the folksongs that he also approved various arrangements for chorus and orchestra.

-Vivian Perlis, 1998