I am a fan of Appalachian Spring, the finest orchestral work by the American composer Aaron Copland.

Much of its 45 minutes are tuneful, but one line of melody is the most pronounced and the most enjoyable. The kind of thing you hum while out on a walk today … tomorrow … the next day … which is pretty much the definition of an earworm.

I heard the “Skaker Hymn” part of this when I was 10 years old. It was the music used by a TV network (I’m thinking CBS) for a special report entitled: “D-Day Plus 20 Years”, which I watched with my grandmother.

The network used Copland’s  powerful, ponderous take on “Shaker Hymn” — befitting a documentary on the Normandy landings in northern France in June of 1944.

The trumpet announces (at the 31:19 mark) the return of what previously had been a light, delicate air … and eventually it sounds rather like the march of a victorious army.

The bassoon picks up the tune, passes it to the clarinet, who hands off to the flute, which goes quiet … and at the 35-minute mark the tune becomes the magisterial fanfare that involves the orchestra playing at “11” on a scale of 10.

I remember being impressed with that bit when I was 10, but it was several years before I got around to hearing the latter stages of Appalachian Spring, and enjoyed a big, “There it is!” when we got to the latter stages.

It was later yet that I learned the tune often called “Shaker Hymn” is actually named Simple Gifts and was written in 1848 by a member of the Shakers, a revivalist sect whose numbers peaked in the middle of the 19th century.

Here is a simple rendition of “Simple Gifts” by schoolgirls.

Copland never hesitated in attributing the passage to the old Shaker tune but now, I prefer the layered orchestral arrangement, which came along a century later.

Copland’s take on the tune seems equally adaptable to gentle handling as well as the powerful treatment late in Appalachian Spring.

It’s been knocking around my head for months now, especially since I found the Detroit Symphony Orchestra version on You Tube … as well as a “light” version by a group named Perspective Ensembles, who make a trimmed version of “Spring” work with 15 musicians.

I like their handling of another popular passage at the 4:40.