Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as “the dean of American composers.” Copland's music achieved a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles, and the open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. He incorporated percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords and tone rows. Aside from composing, Copland taught, presented music-related lectures, wrote books and articles, and served as a conductor (generally, but not always, of his own works). Image File history File links AaronCopland. ... Image File history File links AaronCopland. ... is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Äž: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ... Modernism in musicis characterized by a desire for or belief in progressand science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, politicaladvocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with tradition or common practice. ... Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble) or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium. ... Particularly, this article is not about Hymn meters, as often found on hymn tunes Meter (UK spelling: metre) is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western music notation by a symbol called a time signature. ... Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms. ... In music and music theory a polychord consists of two or more chords, one on top of the other, multiple chords. ... In music, a tone row or note row is a permutation, an arrangement or ordering, of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. ... A conductor conducting at a ceremony A conductors score and batons Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. ...

Biography

Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Lithuanian Jewish descent. Before emigrating to the United States, Copland's father had Anglicized his surname “Kaplan” to “Copland” while in Scotland. Throughout his childhood, Copland and his family lived above his parents' Brooklyn shop. At the age of fifteen he had already taken an interest in music and aspired to be a composer, even though his parents never encouraged him or directly exposed him to it. His musical education included time with Leopold Wolfsohn, Rubin Goldmark (who also taught George Gershwin), and Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris from 1921 to 1924. He was awarded a Guggenheim in Fellowship in 1925 and again in 1926. For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ... This article is about the state. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the country. ... Rubin Goldmark (August 15, 1872 (New York City) - March 6, 1936 (New York City)) was an American composer, pianist, and educator. ... Gershwin redirects here. ... Nadia Boulanger (September 16, 1887 – October 22, 1979) was an influential French composer, conductor, and music professor. ... // The Fontainebleau Schools started with the involvement of the United States in the First World War. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... 1925 U.S. and Canadian Fellows Percival Bailey, Deceased. ... 1926 U.S. and Canadian Fellows Warren Ortman Ault, Deceased. ...

Copland defended the Communist Party USA during the 1936 presidential election. As a result, he was later investigated by the FBI during the Red scare of the 1950s and found himself blacklisted. Because of the political climate of that era, A Lincoln Portrait was withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower. That same year, Copland was called before Congress where he testified that he was never a communist. Outraged by the accusations, many members of the musical community held up Copland's music as a banner of his patriotism. The investigations ceased in 1955 and were closed in 1975. Copland was never shown to have been a member of the Communist Party. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... F.B.I. and FBI redirect here. ... A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ... blacklisting is gay ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army. ... Congress in Joint Session. ...

Copland exerted a major influence on the compositional style of his friend and protegé Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was considered the finest conductor of Copland's works. Leonard Bernstein in 1971 Leonard Bernstein (IPA pronunciation: )[1] (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. ...

Copland was a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the U.S. and the U.K. He made a series of recordings of his music, especially during the 1970s, primarily for Columbia Records. In 1960, RCA Victor released Copland's recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra of the orchestral suites from Appalachian Spring and The Tender Land; these recordings were later reissued on CD, as were most of Copland's Columbia recordings (by Sony). Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. ... Sony BMG Music Entertainment is the result of a 50/50 joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment (part of Sony) and BMG Entertainment (part of Bertelsmann AG) completed in August 2004. ... The Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of the worlds premiere orchestras. ...

Copland's homosexuality was documented in Howard Pollack's biography, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man.^[1] Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... A professor of Music History and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Houston. ...

Copland died of Alzheimer's disease and respiratory failure in North Tarrytown, New York (now Sleepy Hollow), on December 2, 1990. Respiratory failure is a medical term for inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system. ... Sleepy Hollow is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...

Career

Influences

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (November 2007)

Aaron Copland greatly admired Igor Stravinsky, who was in many ways his model.^[2] In many of his works we can find Stravinsky's rhythm and vitality.^[3] Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Igor Stravinsky. ...

Early work

Upon his return from his studies in Paris, he decided that he wanted to write works that were "American in character" and thus he chose jazz as the American idiom. His first significant work was the necromantic ballet Grohg which contributed thematic material to his later Dance Symphony. Copland composed the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra in 1924, whose Boston premiere brought him into contact with Serge Koussevitzky, another figure who would prove to be influential in Copland’s life. A composer with a penchant for promoting the promising work of others, Koussevitzky performed twelve Copland works during his tenure as conductor of the Boston Symphony. Copland’s relationship with Koussevitzky was apparently unique, as his interpretations of Copland’s works reflected the particular admiration that the latter had for the young composer. For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... Necromancy (Greek νεκρομαντία, nekromantía) is a form of divination in which the practitioner seeks to summon operative spirits or spirits of divination, for multiple reasons, from spiritual protection to wisdom. ... For other uses, see Ballet (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

During this period in Copland’s life, he sought to support himself through teaching and lecturing, before attaining financial security through a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Copland’s compositions in the early 1920s reflected a prevailing attitude among intellectuals that they were “chosen” in a way, and that music, like other art, need not be accessible to anyone but a select cadre of individuals who could appreciate it. Toward this end, Copland formed the Young Composer’s Group, modeled after France's “Six”, gathering together promising young composers and acting as a sort of benevolent dictator for their interests^[4]. Other major works of his first period include the Music for Theater in 1925, the Piano Variations in 1930, and in 1933 the Short Symphony. However, this jazz-inspired period was brief, as his style evolved toward the goal of writing more accessible works. Le Groupe des Six, 1922, by Jacques-Emile Blanche. ... The Piano Variations of American composer Aaron Copland were written for piano solo from January to October of 1930. ...

Music for the Common Man (vernacular)

Mounting troubles with the Symphonic Ode (1929) and Short Symphony (1933) caused him to rethink this paradigm, as the idea of orchestral music for a select group was financially contradictory. In many ways, this shift mirrored the German idea of Gebrauchsmusik, as composers sought to create music that could serve a utilitarian as well as artistic purpose. Impressed with the success of Virgil Thomson’s Three Saints in Four Acts, Copland wrote El Salón México in 1934, which was met with popular acclaim, in contrast to the relative obscurity of many of his previous works. This work also marked the return of jazz patterns to Copland’s compositional style, though they appeared in a more subdued form than before, as part of a whole rather than as a centerpiece. At a time when conservatories were teaching more astringent methods of composition, Copland held onto the respect of academics by reasoning that he wanted to see if he couldn't say what he had to say in the simplest possible terms. Gebrauchsmusik is a German term, essentially meaning “utility music,” for music that exists not only for its own sake, but which was composed for some specific, identifiable purpose. ... El Salón México is a symphonic composition in one movement by Aaron Copland, in which he uses Mexican folk music as his theme. ...

Fanfare for the Common Man, perhaps Copland's most famous work, scored for brass and percussion, was written in 1942 at the request of the conductor Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It would later be used to open many Democratic National Conventions. The fanfare was also used as the main theme of the fourth movement of Copland's Third Symphony, where it first appears in a quiet, pastoral manner, then in the brassier form of the original. The same year Copland wrote A Lincoln Portrait which became popular with a wider audience, leading to a strengthening in his association with American music. He was commissioned to write a ballet, Appalachian Spring, which he later arranged as a popular orchestral suite. The commission for Appalachian Spring came from Martha Graham, who had requested of Copland merely "music for an American ballet". Copland titled the piece "Music for Martha", having no idea of how she would use it on stage. Graham created a ballet she called Appalachian Spring (from a poem by Hart Crane), which was an instant success, and the music acquired the same name. Copland was amused and delighted later in life when people would come up to him and say: "You were so right - it sounds exactly like spring in the Appalachians", as he had no particular program in mind while writing the music. Fanfare for the Common Man is one of the most recognizable pieces of 20th Century American classical music. ... Image of a trumpet, foreground, a piccolo trumpet behind, and a flugelhorn in background. ... Percussion redirects here. ... Eugène Goossens has been the name of three notable musicians: Eugène Goossens (February 25, 1845, Bruges, Belgium - 30 December 1906, Liverpool, England) was a conductor. ... As the fifth-oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours. ... For other uses, see Fanfare (disambiguation). ... Aaron Coplands third and final symphony was written at the end of World War II. Its the essential American symphony that fuses his distinct Americana style of the ballets (Rodeo, etc. ... Lincoln Portrait is an orchestral work written by American composer Aaron Copland. ... Appalachian Spring is a ballet score by Aaron Copland that premiered in October 1944, and achieved widespread popularity as an orchestral suite. ... An orchestral suite is a suite of stylized dances for orchestra, either originally composed (like the four Orchestral Suites by Bach) or as a series of brief orchestral excerpts from a longer work, such as a ballet or opera. ... For the supercentenarian, see Martha Graham (supercentenarian). ... Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. ...

The ballet Rodeo, a tale of a ranch wedding, written around the same time as Lincoln Portrait in 1942 is another enduring composition for Copland, and the "Hoe-Down" from the ballet is one of the most well-known compositions by any American composer, having been used numerous times in movies and on television. Rodeo is a ballet score written by American composer Aaron Copland in 1942. ... Lincoln Portrait is an orchestral work written by the American composer Aaron Copland. ...

Symphonic Works

Copland composed three numbered symphonies, but applied the word “symphony” to more than just symphonies. His early three-movement Organ Symphony was rewritten omitting the organ, calling the result his First Symphony. His fifteen-minute Short Symphony was the Second Symphony, though it also exists as the Sextet. The Third Symphony in the more traditional format (four movements; second movement, scherzo; third movement, adagio) with a forty-five minute approximate run-time. His Dance Symphony, was hurriedly extracted from the earlier unproduced ballet Grohg to meet an RCA Records commission deadline. RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. ...

Later Work

Copland’s work in the late 1940s included experimentation with Schönberg’s twelve-tone system, a development that he recognized the importance of without fully embracing it. However, in contrast to the Second Viennese School, Copland’s use of the system emphasizing the importance of the “classicalizing principles” in order to prevent the material from falling into “near-chaos”.^[1] Also, he found the atonality of serialized music to run counter to his desire to reach a wide audience. He would later adapt the twelve-tone system into a ten- or eleven-tone system, reserving one or two notes as tonal anchors. Schönberg is the name of some villages in Germany and Austria. ... Serialism is a rubric applied to diverse systems of composing music in which various elements of a piece are ordered according to a pre-determined set or sets of musical pitches (sometimes called rows), and variations on them. ...

Despite the difficulties that his suspected Communist sympathies posed, Copland nonetheless traveled extensively during the 1950s and early 1960s, observing the avant-garde stylings of Europe while experiencing the new school of Soviet music. Additionally, he was rather taken with the work of Toru Takemitsu while in Japan, and began a correspondence that would last over the next decade. In observing these new musical forms, Copland revised his text The New Music with comments on the styles that he encountered. In particular, while Copland appreciated the importance of the work of John Cage and others, he found these trends in music to render it impersonal and inaccessible to a wider audience. A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Tōru Takemitsu (武満 徹 Takemitsu Tōru, October 8, 1930 - February 20, 1996) was a Japanese composer of music, who explored the compositional principles of Western classical music and his native Japanese tradition both in isolation and in combination. ... For the Mortal Kombat character, see Johnny Cage. ...

Later in life, Copland found himself composing less as his career as a conductor expanded. Though not enamored with the prospect, Copland found himself without new ideas for composition, saying “It was exactly as if someone had simply turned off a faucet.”^[1] In 1976 Copland toured US universities conducting their orchestras in concerts comprising his own works.^[5] A conductor conducting at a ceremony A conductors score and batons Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. ...

Copland and Hollywood

While his ballets found success on the stages of America, Copland sought to enter another arena, the emerging industry of motion pictures. He saw this as both a challenge for his abilities as a composer and an opportunity to expand his reputation and audience. However, the tendency of studios to edit and cut movie scores went against Copland’s desire for creative control over his work. Copland found a kindred spirit in director Lewis Milestone, who recognized the benefits of allowing Copland to supervise his own orchestration and refrained from interfering with his work. This collaboration resulted in the notable film Of Mice and Men (1939) that earned Copland his first nomination for an Academy Award. In a departure from other film scores of the time, Copland’s work largely reflected his own style, instead of borrowing from the late Romantic period. Additionally, he rejected the common practice of using leitmotiv to identify characters with their own personal themes. A leitmotif (also spelled leitmotiv) is a recurring musical theme, associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea. ...

His score for William Wyler's 1949 film, The Heiress won an Academy Award. Several themes he created are encapsulated in the suite Music for Movies, and his score for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel The Red Pony was given a suite of its own. This suite was one of Copland's personal favourites. His score for the 1961 independent film Something Wild was released in 1964 as Music For a Great City. It is difficult to overestimate the influence Copland has had on film music. Virtually every composer who scored for western movies, particularly between 1940 and 1960, was shaped by the style Copland developed. // North America Adams Rib Jolson Sings Again Pinky I Was a Male War Bride, The Snake Pit, Joan of Arc ACADEMY AWARDS: Best Picture: All the Kings Men - Rossen, Columbia Best Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz - A Letter to Three Wives Best Actor: Broderick Crawford - All the Kings... The Heiress is a 1949 film which tells the story of two young people who want to marry despite the girls fathers objections. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. ... The Red Pony is a film score, after Steinbecks short story of the same name. ... An independent film, or indie film, is usually a low-budget film that is produced by a small movie studio. ... Something Wild was a 1961 independent film, starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker and directed by Jack Garfein, who was Bakers husband at the time. ...

Awards

Copland was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in composition for Appalachian Spring. His scores for Of Mice and Men (1939), Our Town (1940), and The North Star (1943) all received Academy Award nominations, while The Heiress won Best Music in 1949. The Heiress is a 1949 film which tells the story of two young people who want to marry despite the girls fathers objections. ...

Notable students

Samuel (Sam) Adler (born March 4, 1928) is an American composer and conductor. ... Elmer Bernstein (pronounced Bern-steen[1]) (April 4, 1922 – August 18, 2004) was an Academy and two-time Golden Globe award winning American film score composer. ... Paul Frederic Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999), was an American composer, author, and traveler. ... Mario Davidovsky (born March 4, 1934) is an Argentine-American composer. ... David Del Tredici, born March 16, 1937 in Cloverdale, California, is a contemporary composer. ... Jacob Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. ... Halim El-Dabh (b. ... Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (Buenos Aires, April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983 Geneva) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. ... Elliot Goldenthal, born on May 2, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York City, is an American composer of contemporary music and has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. ... Anthony Iannaccone is an important American composer whose expressive manner has moved from the twelve-tone style of his early music to the more accessible character of most of his works after 1975. ... Karl Korte (b. ... Yehoshua Lakner Yehoshua Lakner (b. ... Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. ... Knut Nystedt, born September 3, 1915, in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, is an orchestral and choral composer. ... Ben-Zion Orgad (b. ... Einojuhani Rautavaara (born October 9, 1928) is a Finnish composer of classical music, probably the best known Finnish composer of his generation. ... Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is a noted American composer and diarist. ... Robert Ward (born September 13, 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American composer. ... Raymond Wilding-White (also known as Ray Wilding-White; b. ...

Selected works

The Piano Variations of American composer Aaron Copland were written for piano solo from January to October of 1930. ... Ballet as musical form is a musical composition intended for ballet performance. ... El Salón México is a symphonic composition in one movement by Aaron Copland, in which he uses Mexican folk music as his theme. ... Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet written by the American composer Aaron Copland and commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein. ... Quiet City is a well-known composition for trumpet, cor anglais, and string orchestra by Aaron Copland. ... Our Town is a 1940 film adaptation of a play of the same name by Thornton Wilder starring William Holden, Martha Scott, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee and Frank Craven. ... Fanfare for the Common Man is one of the most recognizable pieces of 20th Century American classical music. ... Lincoln Portrait is an orchestral work written by the American composer Aaron Copland. ... Rodeo is a ballet score written by American composer Aaron Copland in 1942. ... Appalachian Spring is a ballet score by Aaron Copland that premiered in October 1944, and achieved widespread popularity as an orchestral suite. ... Aaron Coplands third and final symphony was written at the end of World War II. Its the essential American symphony that fuses his distinct Americana style of the ballets (Rodeo, etc. ... The Red Pony is a film score, after Steinbecks short story of the same name. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman[1] , (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician and virtuoso clarinetist, known as King of Swing, Patriarch of the Clarinet, The Professor, and Swings Senior Statesman. // Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish... Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. ... The Tender Land is an opera by Aaron Copland (libretto by Horace Everett, a pseudonym for Erik Johns), about a farm family in the Midwest of the United States. ... For other uses, see Opera (disambiguation). ... Connotations For Orchestra or sometimes simply Connotations is a piece for orchestra by Aaron Copland. ... Something Wild was a 1961 independent film, starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker and directed by Jack Garfein, who was Bakers husband at the time. ... The definition of inscape, according to Websters New World College Dictionary is the essential quality of a thing, place, person, etc. ...

Film

• Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait (1985). Directed by Allan Miller. Biographies in Music series. Princeton, New Jersey: The Humanities.
• Appalachian Spring (1996). Directed by Graham Strong, Scottish Television Enterprises. Princeton, New Jersey: Films for the Humanities.

• Copland Portrait (1975). Directed by Terry Sanders, United States Information Agency. Santa Monica, California: American Film Foundation.
• Fanfare for America: The Composer Aaron Copland (2001). Directed by Andreas Skipis. Produced by Hessischer Rundfunk in association with Reiner Moritz Associates. Princeton, New Jersey: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Bibliography

• Copland, Aaron (2002). What to Listen For in Music, Revised, New York: Signet Classics. ISBN 978-0451528674. 
• Copland, Aaron (2006). Music and Imagination, New Edition, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674589155. 

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Aaron Copland

• Copland House
• American Masters "Aaron Copland" at www.pbs.org
• The Aaron Copland Collection, 1900-1990, Music Division, Library of Congress
• American Composers - Aaron Copland Centennial
• Review of "Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man" by R. James Tobin
• Who Was That Masked Composer? by David Schiff
• How a composer cowed McCarthy
• Aaron Copland and His World
• Aaron Copland discography at MusicBrainz
• Brief Copland Bio
• 1990 audio interview with Vivian Perlis, author of Copland by Don Swaim at Wired for Books.
• Keeping Score: Copland and the American Sound - Multimedia website produced by the San Francisco Symphony

Listening

• Art of the States: Aaron Copland
• Audio (.ram files) of a 1961 interview for the BBC
• Audio (.smil files) of a 1980 interview for NPR