Copland, Aaron (1900-1990)

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Copland, Aaron (1900-1990)

One of the greatest American composers of the twentieth century, Aaron Copland wrote music for American audiences with genuine American themes. He changed the face of a composer's lifestyle by being involved in activities outside of the concert hall, and he wrote music according to the popular trends of his time. This ability to tap into the pulse of American popular culture elevated Copland to the status of musical icon, although Copland was a humble man who did not have the same ambition to acquire the huge audiences and fame that other musicians sought out. Copland's range of musical styles was diverse, including jazz, opera, and American folk styles. He also taught, lectured, and wrote books on musical topics. To him, music was the ultimate symbol of passion and vigor in a personality.

Copland's family came from Poland and Lithuania to the United States in the 1870s. Aaron was born on November 14, 1900, the youngest of five children. Harris and Sarah Copland, whose department store earned the label "Macy's of Brooklyn," gave their children a strong work ethic and a sense of orderliness and self-determination that one can see in Copland over the course of his musical career. As a youngster, he quickly realized his love for music as he studied the works of Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and Ravel, among others. He played the piano, and an older sister served as a tutor, but he soon realized that he needed a professional musician if he was going to make a career out of it.

Despite his father's disappointment with his career choice, Copland went to Paris in 1921 to study at the new music school for Americans at Fontainebleau and take in the city's rich, vibrant culture. He studied harmony under a superb music instructor, Nadia Boulanger. He toured other European cities such as Berlin and Vienna, two world-famous musical centers, to take in as many musical influences as he could. But Copland soon longed for New York, and he returned to the United States in 1924.

During his years in Europe, Copland had formulated a better contemporary understanding of music. He discovered that there were vast differences in musical tastes between Americans and Europe-ans—the music scene was much more energetic and accomplished in Paris than in New York. Copland's experiences enabled him to write his first major piece, Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, in 1924, which premiered with the New York Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in early 1925. Copland worked with jazz styles and rhythms in his Music for the Theater (1925) and Piano Concerto (1926). He showed a more abstract style in Short Symphony (1933) and Statements for Orchestra (1933-35). He changed his style in the following decades and concentrated more on producing works with American folkloric themes, which gained him a wider audience. His most important works during these years included Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). Copland also experimented with opera: The Second Hurricane (a "play opera" for high school students in 1937) and The Tender Land (1954). His most famous orchestral scores include El Salón México (1936) and A Lincoln Portrait (1942) with spoken excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's famous speeches. Copland also composed music for films such as Of Mice and Men (1939), Our Town (1940), The Red Pony (1949), and The Heiress (1949, for which his score won an Oscar), and he became known as one of the leading composers of movie scores.

Copland was the recipient of many distinguished commissions, awards, and prizes, such as the Medal of Freedom in 1964 awarded by the United States Government. Copland's books include What to Listen for in Music (1939), Copland on Music (1960), and a two-volume autobiography with Vivian Perlis. Copland ceased composing after 1970 but continued to conduct, write, and lecture. He died in Tarrytown, New York, on December 2, 1990.

—David Treviño