Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland- November 14th 1900-December 2nd 1990.



Aaron Copland was an American composer who influenced numbers beyond count, incited the use of jazz in classical music, and created a style truely unique to him only. This is his tribute page. Enjoy.



Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn New York in 1900. Although his parents never saw his true talent, he aspired to become a composer at the ripe age of 15. He started his musical education with Leopold Wolfsohn, Rubin Goldmark (also one of George Gershwin's teachers), and Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris from 1921 to 1924. When he returned to the states, he wanted to create music "American in character." He therefore choose jazz to be the American idiom.



His first written piece was a piano work called "Scherzo Humoristique: The Cat and the Mouse (1920)" His first major work was necromantic ballet "Grohg." His other works of this period (his first, called the "Austre" period) include Short Symphony (1933), Music for Theater (1925), and Piano Variations.



During the Depression, old American fold songs served as the inspiriation of his second (the Venacular) period in 1936. This period started with Billy the Kid and El Salón México, and Fanfare for the Common Man, some of Coplands most popular works. Among these works, Copland also wrote A licoln Portrait (1942), Appalachain Springs(which became a popular orchestral suite), and Rodeo (the tale of a ranch wedding written in 4 movements). Also in this period Copland composed 3 symphonies. Probably the most famous is "Symphony 3" (which is composed of 4 parts). Copland was also a huge contributor to film music. Some would argue that he single-handedly created film music. He wrote the score for William Wyler's The Heiress (1949) which won an Academy Award and several of his themes were used for movie's (Steinbeck's novel adapted to film called "The Red Pony").



Copland died in North Tarrytown, New York on Decemeber 2nd 1990. His carrer was full of beautiful music and his contribution to American music went above and beyond, arguably, any other American composer.