Aaron Copland  page with free midi's to download

AARON COPLAND

14thNovember 1900 --- 2ndDecember 1990

Aaron Copland(born 1900, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.--died 1990, North Tarrytown, N.Y.), American composer who achieved a distinctive
musical characterization of  American themes in  an expressive modern style. Copland, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, was
born in New York City and attended public schools there. An older sister  taught him to play the piano,  and by the  time he was 15
he had decided to become a composer.  As a first step Copland tried  to learn harmony through a correspondence course. Haltingly
and in an environment not particularly conducive to art, he struggled toward his goal.

In the summer of 1921  Copland attended  the newly  founded school for  Americans at Fontainebleau,  where he  came under  the
influence of Nadia Boulanger a brilliant teacher who shaped the outlook of an entire generation of American musicians.He decided
to  stay  on in  Paris,  where he  became  Boulanger's first  American  student in  composition.  After  three years  in Paris,  Copland
returned to New York City with a important commission, Nadia Boulanger asked  him to write an organ concerto  for her  American
appearances.  Copland composed the  piece while  working as the  pianist of a hotel  trio at a summer resort in Pennsylvania.  That
season the Symphony  for Organ and Orchestra had its premiere in Carnegie Hall with the New York Symphony under the direction
of the composer and conductor Walter Damrosch.

In his growth as a  composer Copland mirrored the important  trends of his time.  After his return from Paris,  he worked with jazz
rhythms  in Music for the  Theater (1925)  and the Piano  Concerto (1926).  There followed a  period during which he was  strongly
influenced by Igor Stravinsky's Neoclassicism, turning toward an abstract style he described as "more spare in sonority, more lean
in texture. This outlook prevailed in thePiano Variations (1930), Short Symphony (1933), and Statements for Orchestra (1933-35)
After this last work,  there occurred a change  of direction that was to usher  in the most productive phase of Copland's career.  He
well  summed up the new  orientation,   During  these years I began to  feel an  increasing  dissatisfaction with the relations of the
music-loving  public with that of  a living composer. It seemed to me  that we composers  were in danger of working in a  vacuum.
Furthermore, he realized that a new public for  modern music was being created by the new media of radio, phonograph,  and film
scores,  It made no  sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if  they did not exist.  I felt that it was worth the effort to see
if I couldn't  say what I had to  say in the simplest possible terms.  Copland therefore  was led to what became  a most  significant
development after the 1930s: the attempt to simplify the new music in order that it would have meaning for a large public.

The decade that  followed saw  the production  of the scores that  spread Copland's  fame throughout the world.  Most important of
these were the three ballets based on  American folk  material: Billy the Kid (1938),  Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944)
commissioned by dancer Martha Graham). To this group belong also El salan Mexico (1936), an orchestral piece based on Mexican
melodies and rhythms; two works for high-school students--the "play opera" The Second Hurricane (1937) "An Outdoor Overture"
(1938) and  a series of film scores,  of which the best  known are Of Mice and Men (1939),  Our Town (1940), The Red Pony (1948)
and The Heiress (1948).  Typical too of  the Copland style are  two major works that were written in  time of war--Lincoln  Portrait
(1942),  for speaker and chorus,  on a text drawn from Lincoln's speeches,  and Letter from Home (1944), as well as the melodious
Third Symphony (1946).

In his later years Copland  refined his  treatment of Americana  "I no longer feel the need of  seeking out conscious Americanism".
Because we  live here  and work here,  we can  be certain  that when  our music  is mature  it will also be  American in quality.  His
later works include an the opera,  The Tender Land (1954), Twelve  Poems of  Emily Dickinson (1950),  for voice and piano and the
delightful Nonet (1960).  During these years  Copland also  produced a number of  works in which  he showed himself increasingly
receptive to the serial techniques of the so-called 12-tone school of composer Arnold Schoenberg.  Notable among such works are
the stark and dissonant  Piano Fantasy (1957),  Connotations  (1962), which was commissioned for the opening of  Lincoln Center
for  the Performing Arts in  New York City  and Inscape (1967).  The  12-tone works  were not  generally  well-received after 1970
Copland virtually stopped composing, though he continued to lecture and to conduct through the mid-1980s.

For the better part of four decades,  as composer of operas,  ballets,  orchestral music,  band music,  chamber music,  choral music
and film scores,  teacher, writer of books and articles on music,  organizer of musical events,  and a much  sought after  conductor
Copland expressed deepest reactions  of the American consciousness to the American scene.  He received more than 30  honorary
degrees and many additional awards. His books include What to Listen for in Music (1939) Music and Imagination (1952) Copland
on Music (1960) and The New Music, 1900-60 (1968). With the aid of Vivian Perlis, he wrote a two-volume autobiography Copland
1900 Through 1942 [1984] and Copland Since 1943 [1989].

Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated on 2022
By Steven Ritchie

And now for the Music

Thank to Walter Voigt for the music below.

New (3685)"Appalachian Morning". Sequenced by Walter Voigt.

Thank to Joseph Robles for the music below. Email (Anchises@aol.com)

(898)"The Promise of Living, from the Tender Land". Sequenced by Joseph Robles

(899)"Danza de Jalisco". Sequenced by Joseph Robles

(865)"Sunday Traffic, from Music for Movies". Sequenced by Joseph Robles

(15a)"Fanfare for the common man". Sequenced by Michael Barrett

Thanks to Gary for sequencing and donating the following music below

(479)"Symphony No.3, Mov.1". Sequenced by Gary

(485)"Appalacian Spring". Sequenced by Robert.G.Ouellette

(486)"Concerto for Clarinet". Sequenced by Matt Harrah

New (3684)"How Down". Sequencer Unknown.

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