Harmonizing America: The Life and Legacy of Aaron Copland

by Casey Lamb

Legendary composer, educator, and musicologist Aaron Copland turns 123 this November 14th. A lifelong New Yorker (hailing from Brooklyn), Copland is often credited with “finding the American sound.” It’s clear from his music to anyone that it is extremely American, from Lincoln Portrait to Billy The Kid. But can we really credit this to Copland? His contributions to American music are immense, that much is undeniable, but to what can we really accredit the “The American Sound”—and if not Copland, who?

Born in Brooklyn in 1900, Copland, the youngest of 5, had begged his father for music lessons after his four older siblings had failed and wasted the lessons. Aaron, however, showed strong commitment and promise. His father finally gave in, and there began Copland’s music career.

In his adolescence, Copland traveled to Paris to study music at the Fontainebleau School, where he became familiar with the European tradition of classical music and learned how to compose in that convention. There as well, he studied with the famous Nadia Boulanger: a trailblazing composer and teacher, she taught virtually every 20th century composer we now revere, from Elliot Carter to Leonard Bernstein.

Copland moved back to America after his studies. It was clear that Copland had widely studied the academic tradition of composers, writing serialist pieces sounding much more like Webern or Schoenberg than anything he wrote otherwise. Somewhere throughout his career, however, his compositional philosophy changed.

As he grew as a composer, Copland began to change his ideas, he began to write increasingly for the audience. He wrote pieces for young children, and began writing these programmatic pieces like Billy the Kid and El Salón Mexico. These pieces began his fascination with the American Frontier, and he began to write these recognizable pieces, which became distinctly associated with The American Sound. Turn on any one of his pieces from this era and they are just bursting with American Idealism, from Lincoln Portrait to Appalachian Spring and maybe the most characteristic of them all: Fanfare for the Common Man.

Now, we can examine the characteristics we now associate with this American Sound. Key ones that come to mind with Copland are earnest but expansive brass solos, percussion (especially the snare drum and timpani), and— of course—the use of American Folk songs, most famously his use of the Shaker Melody in Appalachian Spring (more widely known as the

Simple Gifts melody).

This may all sound very familiar to those familiar with Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák set out on a similar mission when he moved to New York to direct The National Conservatory (later Julliard) in the late 19th Century. Dvořák noted that the US had not yet established a distinct national identity musically, and sought to aid in finding one. National identity was extremely important in classical music at the time: German music was distinctly German, English music was quintessentially English, Italian wholly Italian. America, as a new nation, had yet to find this identity. Through this mission, Dvořák incorporated many of the same tactics that Copland would later use in his music, especially in his “New World” Symphony which later became renowned. Dvořák also integrated spirituals from the American South. Dvořák's efforts were extremely important in cultivating what became American Classical Music: folk music was at the heart of every culture’s distinct sound, and this was especially true in the US.

Jazz is what clearly became the original and distinct style of American music— the only form of American music at the time that could be called truly American. What Copland did was create a distinct synthesis of American traditions, and European Classical traditions, along with his own compositional voice, to create a classical music appealing to the public largely disillusioned with the academic and esoteric works of the avant garde and abstract composers of the time like Schoenberg, Berg, and the other serialists. Copland made it so that classical music could speak to anyone, from children to the academic composition circles at Princeton and Yale. In this sense, don't waste my time tryin' to get what you got / I work at pleasin' me 'cause I can't please you / And that's why I do what I do / My soul flies free like a willow tree" ("Appletree" - Erykah Badu). These are words to live by, and at times when I’ve felt less grounded in my choices or the environment I was in, I’d repeat these lyrics in my head.

Copland’s synthesis of traditions made great contributions to the American Classical music scene, such that everyone could again begin to enjoy the art and much wider audiences were exposed to it.

To hear more about Copland and his career, as well as his works, make sure to tune in on 89.9 FM November 19th at 2pm-7pm to hear a Copland profile hosted by the author, Casey Lamb.

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Benjamin Rothman, programmer: "Spaceships don't come equipped with rear view mirrors / They dip as quick as they can / The atmosphere is now ripped" ("Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)" - UGK). A great example of how hip hop can be used for really unorthodox metaphors.

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This bar always hit for me because I am a short Asian woman and I feel sometimes that my stature and body lends itself to an inherent power imbalance in some interactions.