Aaron Copland was born on November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, to conservative Jewish parents from Russian Lithuania. They were active in the Kane Street Synagogue and were Democrats. The introverted and bookish Aaron would become more staunchly Leftist. His father Harris M. Copland had no interest in music and ran a clothing store where the kids helped out. He was surprised the young Aaron wanted to be a composer, but wasn't against it. Aaron worked hard in his Dad’s store, and said this helped him later manage his finances better than most musicians. Their original family name had been Kaplan, but he thinks it was changed in Scotland where his Dad worked for a time to earn fare to the U.S.A.:
“In 1964 when I was conducting in Glasgow, I noticed that there were more Coplands in the telephone book spelt without an e than with an e. One of the reasons, it seemed to me, was that an o in Scotland is pronounced like a u. They don’t say Scotland, they say Scutland. And they would say Cupland, not Copland... Now if you pronounce the name Kaplan in a Jewish or Russian way, you get almost exactly the same sound and I suspect the transliteration was made there in Scotland and that my father simply took the spelling that they gave him.”
His mother, Sarah Mittenthal Copland was a singer and piano player and arranged formal lessons for him. She had spent some time out West, and knew more of cowboy life and legends than most city people. Aaron remembered some of this in his later writing for several commissions. His sister Laurine, a singer and pianist like her mom, gave the young Aaron his first piano lessons. She also brought him opera scores to study. This was important as he then learned about vocal music early, and how different it is to write for than piano. He was playing well and composing his first pieces by age 8, and an operetta sketch by age 11. He took standard Classical piano lessons with Leopold Wolfsohn.
Here’s an early recorded work, Capriccio for Violin and Piano (1916): Very nice writing, not too avant-garde, so Wolfsohn would have approved. Of great interest for his early development. Pretty good duet writing for a 16-year old, the parts are balanced. Late Romantic work harmonically, with the melody and rhythms perhaps inspired by Yiddish or Jewish music he may have heard in Synagogue, or in the neighborhood.
Not many recordings exist of these early works, as he neither published nor performed them later.
After hearing the great Paderewski play in 1915, he decided firmly to become a composer. He then took harmony, theory and composition with Rubin Goldmark, a Jewish composer famous in NY at the time who had studied in Vienna under the Fuchs brothers, also well-regarded composers. Goldmark had also taught George Gershwin, and gave the young Copland a very strong Classical foundation for which he was always grateful:
"This was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared the floundering that so many musicians have suffered through incompetent teaching."
This is his first Piano Sonata No. 1 in G Major (1920). Written as his graduation piece from his studies with Goldmark, it’s an excellent Late Romantic work following classic Sonata Form, with many wonderful musical ideas. Too bad it isn’t played more often. He said it wasn’t original stylistically, but it’s a fine piece of craft in the fashion of Liszt or Rachmaninoff. Every note is his, of course. Shows his knowledge of advanced chord theory and counterpoint at age 20. All 3 movements are just lovely and well worth listening to again. The finale is quite a ride! (and so is the first movement):
Composed by the young Copland, so this pic is him looking back! Couldn’t find another recording with maybe a score, he left the darn thing unpublished. “Not original enough.” Luckily the manuscript survives. It’s a wonderful piece, and of historic interest!
Here’s a very interesting early song, Old Poem for Voice (1920), a lovely Impressionist piece, opening with dark E Minor Sharp 11/Sharp 13 chords:
Interesting developments. Besides the Impressionism, there are little hints of Latin flavor in the accompanying chords, esp at some of the cadential phrases. Note the definite Fandango feeling in the ‘A Tempo’ phrase from 1:20 to 1:50, “My absent love says that he is happy, but I would rather he said he was coming back.” Ending with a haunting cadence on an E Minor Sharp 7 Sharp 11. A subtle preview of things to come.
Increasingly interested in the latest European music, in summer of 1921 Copland left NY for the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris. At first he took lessons with French composer Paul Vidal, but found him too old-fashioned like Goldmark. He switched to famous teacher and composer Nadia Boulanger with some hesitation, on a tip from a friend. She was only 34 and had been Vidal’s student. However, he soon found “This intellectual Amazon is not only professor at the Conservatoire, is not only familiar with all music from Bach to Stravinsky, but is prepared for anything worse in the way of dissonance. She could always find the weak spot in a place you suspected was weak... She also could tell you why it was weak.” Copland found her a quite demanding teacher with an incisive mind. Luckily he’d been raised to be a hard worker. She for her part recalled, "One could tell his talent immediately."
In Paris Copland became acquainted with the famous French composers Les Six, of whom Louis Durey was probably closest to him in spirit, a staunch Leftist who wrote the most experimental music of the group. He also mixed with many other great composers from Milhaud to Ravel, and some of the leading writers and artists of the time like Hemingway, Sartre, Picasso, Pound, Chagall, Gide and Proust to name a few. Gide was his favorite among the writers. Of Boulanger, he said: "it was wonderful for me to find a teacher with such openness of mind, while at the same time she held firm ideas of right and wrong in musical matters. The confidence she had in my talents and her belief in me were at the very least flattering and more—they were crucial to my development at this time of my career." What an exciting time and place for a young Progressive intellectual!
Here are Four Motets for Mixed Voices,(1921) he wrote in Paris. Beautiful and haunting, in modern style but quite tonal. Just lovely voice-leading and counterpoint.
I. Help Us O Lord — II. Thou O Jehovah Abideth Forever — III. Have Mercy On Us — IV. Sing Ye Praises To Our King
Nadia Boulanger required her pupils to learn to compose traditional forms, among them the motet. This requires seriously involved cross-checking of the contrapuntal parts. Written under her instruction, Copland's motets make use of biblical texts for an a capella chorus of mixed voices. He wrote, "I think of these as student pieces that show some influence of Moussorgsky, whom I admired." And what a student! They are wonderful works.
Passacaglia (1922) was also written in Paris. A bit of a dark piano movement, but quite comprehensible. A Passacaille (French spelling) or Chaconne is a Baroque-style form with a repeating Ground or Bass line under changing melodies/harmonies. No doubt a Boulanger assignment, this one is modern but definitely tonal (it’s in G# minor with some Phrygian and Locrian modal mixture), and with many chromatic passages. Starts slowly and mysteriously; really gets going about 2:50. A fine youthful adventure, more advanced than the Sonata in G. There are moments of bitonality, but it ends on a definite G# minor chord:
Copland returned to the US in 1925, after touring the rest of Western Europe. He survived on Guggenheim Fellowships in his salad days, but his talent soon brought patronage by wealthy sponsors like Koussevitzky, the Conductor and Music Director of the Boston Symphony at the time and a gifted modern composer himself.
Maybe one the finest first fruits after Paris is this wonderfully inventive and dynamic composition, which will stretch your ears: Copland plays here his own Piano Concerto, (1926) conducted by his greatest student Leonard Bernstein, who eloquently explains the inception:
Commissioned by the Boston Symphony’s Serge Koussevitzky (a champion of new American music). The 1st movement is a broadly fanfare-like, spacious piece with soaring brass but also unabashed dissonances, and lovely understated wind passages. Pretty cool how the 2nd movement opens with dissonant clusters (8:50) that have the young folk wondering, “can this old dude really play?”, then segues into a Jazzy series of Ragtime Stride riffs, pretty advanced harmonically and technically! The piano leads the other instruments on a delightfully fun ride. It freaked out the conservative Boston audience when it was first premiered. The critics panned it. Bernstein loved it and featured it in his New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts.
Four Piano Blues (1926) Related to the Concerto, with some melodies revised from it but no worries, quite different realizations. The first two were written in ‘26, the second one inspired by Darius Milhaud, a French-Jewish composer Copland met in Paris. The third and fourth were written later.
- Freely Poetic 2. Soft and Languid 3. Muted and Sensuous 4. With Bounce
Also clearly resulting from his studies with Boulanger, here’s his brashly confident and beautiful Symphonic Ode, (1927-29) conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
“For me it is one of Copland’s towering achievements. It’s got all the necessary ingredients to be a concert favourite: triumphant opening, moments of levity in the middle section, majestic brass fanfares and percussion and an ending that builds and builds to monumental climax. It is an absolute belter of a piece.” — Kevin Lindegaard, music critic
The orchestration here is masterful, the harmonic language original and unbridled Copland. Nadia Boulanger wrote, ". . . with the Ode, more than ever, I have understood who you are, what you have come to say, and how you are ready to give it a definite form."
With this solid endorsement from his Guru, Copland was fully unleashed to write in his own voice. Boulanger taught over 100 famous composers, conductors and musicians from Antheil to Yepes to Barenboim, Levine, Stravinsky, Quincy Jones, Elliot Carter, Phil Glass and Burt Bacharach to name a few. She was always unvarnished in her criticism, so those words from her were the highest praise. Here is the next fine result:
2nd Symphony, (1931) also known as his ‘Short Symphony’. Nonetheless full of marvelous invention. Movement I uses Copland’s typical open quartal harmonies, but with daring chromatic tensions and Viennese Tritones he probably learned from Boulanger. Movement II is brooding and meditative. Movement III is upbeat and lively with a hint of Jazz; the 1st movement’s 8th-note theme recurs transformed. Also conducted here in 1996 by Michael Tilson Thomas (note his score markings):
A master conducting the master. MTT is also a fine composer and disciple of Copland/Bernstein.
The critics couldn’t pan this one like they had his Concerto. And with Boulanger’s support and praise, his Ode also entered the pantheon of respected Modern Classical repertoire. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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Inspired by the example of Les Six in France, and also the art impresario Alfred Stieglitz, Copland sought a ‘new American sound’ which he expressed in the advanced quartal harmonies with tertian roots we heard in the Ode. Stieglitz preached that without the historical background of Europe, America needed to cultivate its own ‘new world’ culture. This was a philosophy shared by fellow artists of the time such as Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keefe and fellow composers such as Walter Piston, Benny Goodman, Virgil Thompson, and Roger Sessions. Here’s an excellent early example:
An Outdoor Overture (1938) written for an indoor concert, but it’s more audience-friendly than his more experimental pieces at that time. Good dialogue between brass and winds, and contrapuntal development. Fairly sophisticated structure and development section. Requires a strong cornet player.
Starts with a big theme that is developed as a long solo for the trumpet. A short bridge passage in the woodwinds leads imperceptibly to the allegro section. Shortly afterwards, these repeated notes, played broadly, give us a second march-like theme, developed in a canon form. There is an abrupt pause and the third, lyric theme appears, first in the flute and then clarinet. A fourth and final theme evolves another march, with more serious implications. There is a build-up to the grand opening again, continuing with the trumpet solo melody. A short bridge section based on steady rhythm brings a condensed recapitulation of the allegro section. At the climax of the piece, all the themes are combined. The harmony is quite tonal and triadic, and very likable.
Piano Sonata No. 2, (1939) a little more challenging, a little more formal. Showing Copland’s experimental side. It is nonetheless beautiful, dark and brooding. Advanced harmonies, often subtle, sometimes forceful, wonderfully played here by Fiona Wu:
Starts with some bitonality, B flat minor against D minor. But this quickly resolves to a B flat minor 9th, and then into lovely and mystical secondary dominant progressions. As Miss Wu explains:
“I have admired this powerful work for many years. The austere sonorities of the first movement, the rhythmic play in the second, and the suspension of time in the third, altogether constitute a sonata of a strange and philosophical nature. In my opinion, the final 3 minutes make up one of the most transcendent and ethereal endings in all of piano literature.” — Fiona Wu
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El Salon Mexico (1936) was inspired by his early friendship with the Mexican Composer Carlos Chavez, who took him to the physical ‘Salon Mexico’ a huge dance hall in Mexico City with a Cuban orchestra. Here brilliantly introduced by Leonard Bernstein for his New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts:
Each section begins with an upper-class danzon, then a middle-class foxtrot, then working-class pasodoble music showing his support for the peasantry in the finales. The Salon was a place where all classes mixed (not on the same levels). The socialist Copland championed the lower classes in the development and climax of these movements.
Here’s his first ballet commission, Billy The Kid, (1938) and what a lovely piece of work! Opens with haunting quartal chords and ninths in the woodwinds, and a definite character Leitmotif. Borrows several Western folk songs but changes them utterly. His mother had spent time in the old West, or nostalgic remnants of it, and imparted some of this to Copland. The rest is sheer inspiration:
I. Open Prairie II. Street in a Frontier Town (3:27) III. Mexican Dance (6:43) IV. Prairie Night-Card Game (9:54) V. Gun Battle (12:55) VI. Celebration (14:48) VII. Billy’s Death (17:05) VIII. The Open Prairie returns (18:29). The music is electrifying. Commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein, founder of the New York City Ballet. Part of its standard repertoire now. 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Music For Movies — In 1942 Copland rewrote a collection of some of his film scores into a coherent orchestral Suite, showcasing American life to improve morale at home. Imagine a Walt Whitman poem of American landscapes in all their diversity, morphed into orchestral music:
New England Countryside an absolutely gorgeous 1st movement, reminiscent of Fanfare in its open quartal harmonies. 2nd movement Barley Wagons is a little like Appalachian Spring's Shaker melodies. 3rd movement Sunday Traffic has a Gershwin-like exuberance in city life. Grovers Corners, the 4th movement is a haunting, meditative Andante, almost like the Lincoln Portrait. A lovely work. 5th movement Threshing Machines, from the Of Mice & Men movie, celebrating the American worker. Intervallic mixture, some advanced harmonies, Jazzy rhythms. Ends triumphantly like Fanfare.
Speaking of which, see our July 4 diary for an explanation of the inception of his fine Fanfare For the Common Man, also written in '42 for the war effort.
Also in this vein, here is master choreographer Martha Graham’s commission to Copland for a new ballet using her ‘Graham Method’, Appalachian Spring (1944). Oddly enough it started as a Greek tragedy, but soon became a uniquely American folk paean set soon after the Civil War. Themes of John Brown, The Pioneer Woman, The Frontier Bride, and Shaker Philosophy are presented:
Leitmotifs galore, and no doubt expressly supportive of American values and the war effort at the time. This is the full ballet with 14 movements, but there are roughly eight episodes in the plot. The composition borrows and transforms the Shaker tune Simple Gifts in a set of marvelous variations, and also borrows and repays with interest other Shaker melodies such as Ode to Contentment and The Humble Heart. The Prologue introduces the main characters into a pastoral scene highlighted by an A Major 9th chord, basically a polychord built of an E Major triad (the Dominant) stacked on top of an A Major triad (the Tonic chord). 9ths are standard chords of Jazz progressions, and this A Maj 9 is the tonal basis for most of the music in the Ballet. Some slight dissonances foreshadow the conflict towards the end. Eden Valley (3:35) introduces the Daughter and a Chorale Theme highlights the Bride, while the Husbandman’s theme is rhythmically complex. The movement is similar to the Cowgirl section of Rodeo. Wedding Day continues this dialogue between the Bride’s Chorale Theme and the Husbandman’s changing meters. As the movement ends Simple Gifts begins. The Interlude (21:11) is a series of 4 variations on Simple Gifts, ending with a canon or round as the duet closes. Fear in the Night (29:33) shows the Bride’s anxiety at the coming war and separation, with dissonances similar to the Gun Battle in Billy the Kid. Day of Wrath uses an A major Triad (the Tonic chord) stacked on top of a B minor Triad (the Supertonic) to create essentially a B Minor 11th chord, with darker chromaticism through the whole movement. Moment of Crisis uses unstable tonality and a kind of ‘Klangfarbenmelodie’ or ‘tone-color melody’ as the note patterns are exchanged around the different instruments. The Chorale Theme returns as the Bride briefly dances with the Husbandman and a final variation of Simple Gifts enters as he departs. A masterpiece of programmatic music and choreography.
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Here’s an incredibly beautiful arrangement from his opera The Tender Land, (1954) The Promise of Living re-arranged for mixed chorus and orchestra by John Williams (of Star Wars fame, and a big Copland fan). Absolutely beautiful counterpoint. The Tender Land was based on a libretto by Erik Johns, Copland’s lover who wrote under a pseudonym. Not well received at first performance, but today is considered in the pantheon.
What a gorgeous piece of work, then and today! 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Music for a Great City, 1964 Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra. This is his orchestral masterwork, with expanded forces. It’s exciting and monumental, with quite Jazzy writing, but the critics said it sounded more like New York than London. It certainly has some of Gershwin’s enthusiasm for city life. But the harmonies and melodies are pure Copland, pushing the envelope strongly here and unabashedly American:
Skyline opens with flat 9s and flat 11s, fiercely dissonant chords but well within the Jazz canon. You can almost hear roadwork in the cowbells and xylophones. A snappy Gershwinesque Jazz rhythm takes over and you’re in — the critics were right — New York at night! There are some lovely tonal interludes and then full throttle. Night Thoughts (7:40) starts with a feeling of mournful resignation, this music was first written for the movie Something Wild. There are still beautiful Copland harmonies in the midst of the night though. Subway Jam (14:30) uses muted trombones to the nines, and as it builds up to the approaching train with its warning sirens limned by slides and pitchbends, the rising tension between percussion and brass is brilliant and sublime. Toward the Bridge (17:46) opens with a huge dissonant polychord, D minor against G flat, which could be described as a G Flat Augmented 9th/Flat 7th, a McCoy Tyner chord if you will. Amazing dialogue between muted fluttertongue trumpets and strings. Hard-driving and dark, but hardly atonal — it’s avant-garde Jazz at its finest! This masterwork of Copland needs to be more recognized for its prophetic qualities. It’s powerful, poetically experimental, yet quintessentially American music.
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Copland was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era in the 1950s, but his prestige and connections by that time insulated him, although his great Lincoln Portrait was cancelled at the Eisenhower White House because of it. Despite the FBI investigating his Socialist ties, he personally wasn't in danger or want as the East Coast Intelligentsia like Koussevitzky and Tanglewood supported him. He had to be more careful about his gay relationships, at all times, because in the last century public figures could not be out of the closet. The music and drama world tolerated it, but it had to be strictly under wraps.
In his final decades of life in the 80s and 90s, he retired into conducting for which he was in high demand. Altogether he composed over 150 works still played today, many of them standard repertoire, and is considered one of our greatest composers, "The Dean of American Music'.
This is a fine song cycle exemplifying his support for American cultural idioms and artists, Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson wonderfully performed here by Sophia Hunt:
A just beautiful and quite approachable work written during the Red Scare Era. How appropriate he chose to eulogize this great proto-Feminist, early Modern poet. Celebrating the best America has to offer, its highest intellectual and social ideals. That's what Aaron Copland was all about!
As we take one step back, we need to remember the two steps forward of the very Progressive, New Deal generation. In retrospect, it was a giant leap for mankind.
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