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Aaron Copland
November 14, 1900 - December 2, 1990
born in Brooklyn, NY, composed during the Modern period
born in Brooklyn, NY, composed during the Modern period
Few figures in American music loom as large as Aaron Copland. As one of the first wave of literary and musical expatriates in Paris during the 1920s, Copland returned to the United States with the means to assume, for the next half century, a central role in American music as composer, promoter, and educator. Copland's sheer popularity and iconic status are such that his music has transcended the concert hall and entered the popular consciousness; it both accompanies solemn and joyous celebrations the world over (Fanfare for the Common Man) and punctuates the familiar words "Beef: It's What's for Dinner!" (Rodeo) for millions of television viewers.
Copland was the youngest of five children born to Harris and Sarah Copland, Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who owned a department store in Brooklyn. He did not take formal piano lessons until he was 13, by which time he had also begun writing small pieces. Instead of attending college, Copland studied theory and composition with Rubin Goldmark and piano with Victor Wittgenstein and Clarence Adler, and attended as many concerts, operas, and ballets as possible. In 1921, he went to Fontainebleau, France, taking conducting and composition classes at the American Conservatory. He went on to study in Paris with Ricardo Viñes and Nadia Boulanger and spent the next three years soaking up all the European culture, both new and old, that he could. He learned to admire not only composers like Stravinsky, Milhaud, Fauré, and Mahler, but others such as author André Gide. Boulanger's performance of Copland's 1924 Organ Symphony with Koussevitzky was the beginning of a friendship between the conductor and composer that led to Copland teaching at the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood) from 1940 until 1965.
After his return to America, Copland drifted toward an incisive, austere style that captured something of the sobriety of Depression-torn America. The most representative work of this period -- the Piano Variations (1930) -- remains one of the composer's seminal efforts. He tried to avoid taking a university position, instead writing for journals and newspapers, organizing concerts, and taking on administrative duties for composers' organizations, trying to promote American music. By the mid-1930s, taking the direct engagement of and communication with audiences as one of his central tenets, Copland's compositions developed (in parallel with other composers like Virgil Thomson and Roy Harris) an "American" style marked by folk influences, a new melodic and harmonic simplicity, and an appealing directness free from intellectual pretension. This is nowhere more in evidence than in Copland's ballets of this period, and it finally earned him the respect of the general public. While Copland gradually became less prolific from the mid-1950s on, he continued to experiment and explore "fresh" means of musical expression, including a highly individual adoption of 12-tone principles in works like the Piano Fantasy and Connotations for orchestra. Still, the fundamentally lyrical nature of Copland's language remained intact and occasionally emerged -- with an often surprising retrospective air -- in works like the Duo for flute and piano (1971). He continued to teach and write and received numerous awards both in America and abroad. In 1958, he began conducting orchestras around the world, performing works by 80 other composers as well as his own over the next 20 years. By the mid-'70s, Copland had for all intents and purposes ceased composing. One of the last of his creative accomplishments was the completion of his two-volume autobiography (with musicologist Vivian Perlis), an essential document in understanding the growth of American music in the twentieth century. ~ All Music Guide, Rovi
Copland was the youngest of five children born to Harris and Sarah Copland, Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who owned a department store in Brooklyn. He did not take formal piano lessons until he was 13, by which time he had also begun writing small pieces. Instead of attending college, Copland studied theory and composition with Rubin Goldmark and piano with Victor Wittgenstein and Clarence Adler, and attended as many concerts, operas, and ballets as possible. In 1921, he went to Fontainebleau, France, taking conducting and composition classes at the American Conservatory. He went on to study in Paris with Ricardo Viñes and Nadia Boulanger and spent the next three years soaking up all the European culture, both new and old, that he could. He learned to admire not only composers like Stravinsky, Milhaud, Fauré, and Mahler, but others such as author André Gide. Boulanger's performance of Copland's 1924 Organ Symphony with Koussevitzky was the beginning of a friendship between the conductor and composer that led to Copland teaching at the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood) from 1940 until 1965.
After his return to America, Copland drifted toward an incisive, austere style that captured something of the sobriety of Depression-torn America. The most representative work of this period -- the Piano Variations (1930) -- remains one of the composer's seminal efforts. He tried to avoid taking a university position, instead writing for journals and newspapers, organizing concerts, and taking on administrative duties for composers' organizations, trying to promote American music. By the mid-1930s, taking the direct engagement of and communication with audiences as one of his central tenets, Copland's compositions developed (in parallel with other composers like Virgil Thomson and Roy Harris) an "American" style marked by folk influences, a new melodic and harmonic simplicity, and an appealing directness free from intellectual pretension. This is nowhere more in evidence than in Copland's ballets of this period, and it finally earned him the respect of the general public. While Copland gradually became less prolific from the mid-1950s on, he continued to experiment and explore "fresh" means of musical expression, including a highly individual adoption of 12-tone principles in works like the Piano Fantasy and Connotations for orchestra. Still, the fundamentally lyrical nature of Copland's language remained intact and occasionally emerged -- with an often surprising retrospective air -- in works like the Duo for flute and piano (1971). He continued to teach and write and received numerous awards both in America and abroad. In 1958, he began conducting orchestras around the world, performing works by 80 other composers as well as his own over the next 20 years. By the mid-'70s, Copland had for all intents and purposes ceased composing. One of the last of his creative accomplishments was the completion of his two-volume autobiography (with musicologist Vivian Perlis), an essential document in understanding the growth of American music in the twentieth century. ~ All Music Guide, Rovi
Selected Discography
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Track List: Copland: Music for Films
Title: The Red Pony, Suite For Orchestra
Title: Our Town, Suite From The Film Score For Orchestra
Title: The Heiress, Film Score
Title: Music For Movies, Suite For Orchestra
Title: Music For Radio ("Saga Of The Prairies"), For Orchestra
x
Track List: A Copland Celebration Vol. 2
Disc 1
Title: Vitebsk, Study On A Jewish Theme, For Piano Trio
Title: Sextet, For Clarinet, Piano & String Quartet (arr. Of Symphony No. 2)
Title: Piano Quartet
Title: Duo, For Flute (Or Violin) & Piano
Disc 2
Title: Lincoln Portrait, For Speaker & Orchestra
Title: Poems (12) Of Emily Dickinson, Song Cycle For Voice & Piano (Orchestrated 1970 As "Poems (8) Of Emily Dickinson")
Title: Old American Songs, For Voice & Piano, Book 1
Title: Old American Songs, For Voice & Piano, Book 2
Title: Billy The Kid, Orchestral Suite From The Ballet
x
Track List: A Copland Celebration Vol. 3
Disc 1
Title: Old American Songs, For Voice & Piano, Book 1
Title: Old American Songs, For Voice & Piano, Book 2
Title: Poems (12) Of Emily Dickinson, Song Cycle For Voice & Piano (Orchestrated 1970 As "Poems (8) Of Emily Dickinson")
Title: In The Beginning, For Mezzo-soprano & Chorus
Title: Lark, For Baritone & Chorus
Disc 2
Title: The Tender Land, Opera
x
Track List: Aaron Copland: Lincoln Portrait & Other Works
x
Track List: Aaron Copland: Music For Piano
Title: Passacaglia, For Piano
Title: Piano Variations
Title: Piano Sonata
Title: Piano Fantasy
x
Track List: Copland: Appalachian Spring, Clarinet Concerto
Title: Latin American Sketches (3), For Orchestra
Title: Quiet City, For English Horn, Trumpet & Strings (From The Incidental Music)
Title: Clarinet Concerto
Title: Appalachian Spring, Concert Suite For Full Orchestra
x
Track List: Copland: Appalachian Spring/Fanfare For The Common Man/El Salon México/Danzon Cubano
Title: Fanfare For The Common Man, For Brass & Percussion (From Symphony No. 3)
Title: El Salón México, For Orchestra
Title: Danzón Cubano, For 2 Pianos (or Orchestra [1945])
x
Track List: Copland: Appalachian Spring; Billy the Kid; Rodeo
Title: Billy The Kid, Ballet
Title: Appalachian Spring, Ballet For 13 Instruments
Title: Rodeo, Selections From The Ballet (Including "Four Dance Episodes")
x
Track List: Copland: Appalachian Spring; Rodeo; Fanfare For The Common Man
Title: Fanfare For The Common Man, For Brass & Percussion (From Symphony No. 3)
Title: Rodeo, Selections From The Ballet (Including "Four Dance Episodes")
Title: Appalachian Spring, Concert Suite For Full Orchestra
x
Track List: Copland: Chamber Works
Title: Pieces (2), For Violin & Piano
Title: Duo, For Flute (Or Violin) & Piano
Title: Capriccio, For Violin & Piano
Title: Lament, For Cello & Piano
Title: Poème, For Cello & Piano
Title: Prelude No.1, For Violin & Piano
Title: Prelude No.2, For Violin & Piano
Title: Vitebsk, Study On A Jewish Theme, For Piano Trio
Title: Elegies, For Violin & Viola
Title: Sonata For Violin & Piano
x
Track List: Copland: El Salón México; Appalacian Spring; Rodeo; Dance Symphony; Fanfare
Title: El Salón México, For Orchestra
Title: Dance Symphony, For Orchestra
Title: Fanfare For The Common Man, For Brass & Percussion (From Symphony No. 3)
Title: Rodeo, Selections From The Ballet (Including "Four Dance Episodes")
Title: Appalachian Spring, Concert Suite For Full Orchestra
x
Track List: Copland: Orchestral Works
Title: Fanfare For The Common Man, For Brass & Percussion (From Symphony No. 3)
Title: Rodeo, Selections From The Ballet (Including "Four Dance Episodes")
Title: An Outdoor Overture, For Orchestra Or Band
Title: The Red Pony, Suite For Orchestra
Title: Lincoln Portrait, For Speaker & Orchestra
x
Track List: Copland: Piano Sonata; Piano Fantasy
Title: Piano Fantasy
Title: Piano Sonata
Title: Piano Variations
x
Track List: Copland: Symphony No. 3; Quiet City
Title: Symphony No. 3
Title: Quiet City, For English Horn, Trumpet & Strings (From The Incidental Music)
x
Track List: Copland: The Populist
Title: Billy The Kid, Ballet
Title: Appalachian Spring, Concert Suite For Full Orchestra
Title: Rodeo, Selections From The Ballet (Including "Four Dance Episodes")
x
Track List: Super Hits
Title: Fanfare For The Common Man, For Brass & Percussion (From Symphony No. 3)
Title: Variations On A Shaker Melody, For Orchestra (Arr. From Appalachian Spring)
Title: Billy The Kid, Orchestral Suite From The Ballet
Title: El Salón México, For Orchestra
Title: Rodeo, Selections From The Ballet (Including "Four Dance Episodes")
Title: Lincoln Portrait, For Speaker & Orchestra
Comments
what you are doing...you are listening to Aaron Copland. Your amerced in and moving with it and it has all of your attention. Your eyes are growing heavier and heavier and you are getting sleepy and becoming more and more relaxed. When I count to ten and snap my fingers you will cluck like a chicken. DMB
great pices of music on his own! We are going from beliving in man's ability to create on his own; to downplaying creativity to not belonging to them but someone that wants to squash man's desire to make beautiful things for all to enjoy! Let Copeland fill the air waves!!!
Aaron Copland works too! DMB
And that Aaron Copeland most certainly did and now even in death his music touches your heart and will touch hearts forever. DMD