Aaron Copland
1900 – 1990
Aaron Copland was one of the few 'serious' 20th-century composers whose music touched the heart of the 'common man'.
Music and Life
- By the late 1930s Copland had developed a magical sound-world that seemed to encapsulate the North American pioneering spirit. His impact on American musical culture was on a par with his friend and supporter Leonard Bernstein.
- Copland's musical gifts were obvious from the start. By the age of five he was inseparable from the family piano, while childhood visits to see Walter Damrosch conduct the New York Symphony and Isadora Duncan as a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company sparked his imagination.
- Copland started composing seriously after he began piano studies with Rubin Goldmark in 1917. His first published piece - The Cat and the Mouse, a Debussyian miniature for solo piano - appeared in 1920.
- Copland spent three years in Paris between 1921 and 1924, studying with Nadia Boulanger.
- His return to New York was marked not only by such exuberant orchestral pieces as Music for the Theatre (1925) and the jazz-orientated Piano Concerto (1926), but also a new enthusiasm for a whole range of other musical disciplines, including lecturing, concertising (as pianist), and lending enthusiastic support to the work of local music societies.
- During the early 1930s Copland cultivated an almost Stravinskian austerity and tightness of construction. Indeed many feel that such underrated works as the Piano Variations (1930) and Statements (1934) for orchestra are among his finest compositions.
- The extraordinary success of El salon Mexico (1933-6) ushered in a decade of intense activity which embraced many of Copland's most celebrated pieces, including Fanfare for the Common Man and three popular ballets, Billy the Kid, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring.
- Copland found himself increasingly involved in the general musical life of America. He was head of the composition department at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood from 1940-65, and lectured widely, most notably at Harvard.
- His many awards included an Oscar for his 1948 film score to The Heiress, honorary doctorates from several universities (including our own York), and a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for Appalachian Spring.
- Copland's output slowed markedly from the mid-1950s, in part because of his decision to take up conducting. He was making regular appearances all over the world in addition to recording the greater part of his orchestral output, mostly with the London Symphony Orchestra for CBS.
- By the time of his death in 1990, Copland was widely acknowledged to be one of the world's finest composers and musical educators. Yet perhaps his greatest legacy is the unstinting support he gave to musicians from all walks of life.
Did you know?
Copland's best known work is called Fanfare for the Common Man, and it is now used at American presidential inaugurations.
