 Composer Aaron Copland was commissioned to score the music, and Eugene Loring to do the choreography.The ballet premiered at the Chicago Civic Opera House on October 16, 1938, and has since become a repertory standard.Copland arranged the score for a concert suite that was performed and recorded in 1959 by Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; the recording was released by Columbia Records in 1960.