Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet written by the American composer Aaron Copland on commission from Lincoln Kirstein.
[1] It premiered on 16 October 1938[2] in Chicago by the Ballet Caravan Company, with pianists Arthur Gold and Walter Hendl performing a two-piano version of the score.
He is living in the desert, is hunted and captured by a posse (in which the ensuing gun battle features prominent percussive effects) and taken to jail.
He manages to escape after stealing a gun from the warden during a game of cards and returns to his hideout, where he thinks he is safe, but sheriff Pat Garrett catches up and shoots him to death.
Cowboy and folk tunes were heavily used, for instance:[3] It also includes the Mexican Jarabe dance, played in 58 by a solo trumpet, just before "Goodbye Old Paint".