Aaron Copland Biography Essay

I do agree that Aaron Copland’s works are examples of music with an American quality. The reason for this is because “Hoe-Down” was very energetic and was square dance music. Square dancing and square dance music is something that is of American tradition and people all over America enjoy to hear. I also agree with this statement because “Hoe-Down” has been used in movies and I am sure that so have his other best-known works. Movies make up a great deal of the American life and without good music those movies cannot reach their potential therefore the wonderful music helps give quality to both the ear and the eye because of the visuals and emotions that come with listening to the music.

In 1923 one of Americas most prolific composers Clifton Williams was born in Traskwood, Arkansas. Later in the 1930’s Williams moved to Little Rock Arkansas and even though his family was having a hard time during the depression. Even through this Williams fared well in high school. during this time Williams learned to play the French horn, the piano and the mellophone . After high school Williams went to Louisiana Tech University where Williams studied composition for a year under

St. Louis in 1880’s. The first time he was known for his music was 1891. In 1893, while

When looking at the characteristics of his work, Copland could most likely be described as an experimentalist. He often enjoyed mixing various stylistic ideas of Jazz and Mexican dance rhythms into his music and did not shy away from including these styles into his film scores and

“He had been to school in England, then at Cambridge, then in Germany for a year studying music, and light have passed anywhere on that side of the world for an English gentleman.” (Pg 8)

Aaron Copland is a twentieth century American composer, teacher, and conductor. Schuman (1980), refers to Copland as the “Dean of American Composers”, which he attributes to his stylistic contributions to American culture including film. His works includes songs, chamber music, ballets, theater, symphony orchestra, solos, and chorus. Copland’s approach to composing included twelve-tone, a basic exhibition of serialism. Crawford & Hamberlin (2013), describe this style as organizing twelve pitches of the chromatic scale into a unique pattern. This method expressed a way of organizing notes freely, without focusing on a key center. To non-musical ears, the atonality heard is interpreted as strange, exotic, or in some cases esthetically pleasing. Copland’s musical influence includes his time in Paris during the 1920’s with Stravinsky, a Russian Nationalist. Stravinsky’s style was inclusive of traditional Russian folk music, evident in his ballet Petrushka (Navarro 2011).

Aaron Copland is arguably one of the most important 20th century American composers. His uses of texture and tonal settings have contributed greatly to the way people think about film scoring and orchestral composition. During his life, he was at the forefront of his style, and his legacy is quite immense, including the founding of not only the AMC but also, with his passing, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. He was at times a critic, mentor, and above all, a chief organizer of what was and still is “America’s music”. Copland was born November 14, 1900, in New York. The son of Jewish immigrants, his cultural background, as well as his early childhood, contributed greatly to his musical and business dealings.

As Holland (2003) stated, “Copland is in an odd position: not of representing the ''American sound,'' but of having invented a style that for many listeners became the American sound” (para 4). Unsurprisingly, Copland’s distinctive style continues to impact both the classical world and popular culture. For example, the orchestral suites of “Appalachian Spring,” “Billy the Kid,” and “Rodeo” are programmed more today than the ballets, a sign of the music’s staying power. “Fanfare for the Common Man” is still frequently heard on state occasions and “Hoe-down” was famously used in a successful Beef Council television campaign. Additionally, Copland’s compositional techniques continue to be imitated by American composers. In fact, Copland’s style even had a notable influence on the writing of Leonard Bernstein. Although the two composers’ musical styles are quite different, Copland’s impact on his long time friend and mentee is apparent. Copland pushed Bernstein to find his own distinct American, influencing him to integrate elements of American popular

American born, but European-trained, Edward MacDowell is known as one of America’s prominent composers during the Gilded Age. With the rise of musical nationalism in America, MacDowell composed Woodland Sketches in 1896, which comprised of ten piano pieces whose titles refer to the American landscape and his personal experiences. The most well-known piece of the ten is “To a Wild Rose.” “To a Wild Rose” highlights MacDowell’s skills as a composer to harvest deep emotions and impressions from the listener from a simple motive; however, it was also an attempt for MacDowell to claim an identity as an American composer.

After Dvorak left the Organ School in 1859, he basically disappeared from the public eye for twelve years until 1871, which is when he emerged back into the public as a composer. For those twelve years he spent in seclusion, he was occupied with extensive writing in the classical form (8). To much grief and disappointment Dvorak’s first son died in September and his second daughter in October of 1877. These tragic losses were experienced within his grandiose oratorio “Stabat Mater.” For the next twenty years, Dvorak was invited to other European countries to conduct performances of his own works while enduring a struggling relationship with his publisher Hitherto Simrock (7).

He remained a clerk for three years. He hated his job but he worked feverishly at it for he worked hard at every task he was given. He continued to be drawn into the music world and he took piano and theory lessons. Finally, in 1862, he quit his job and devoted the rest of his life to music which he began by entering the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He graduated with a silver medal in 1865. After graduation he was unsure of what to do until 1866 when Nicholas Rubenstein offered him the job of professor of harmony at the newly formed Moscow Conservatory. It was here that he wrote his first serious works which included AA Festival Overture on the Danish National Hymn,@ his First Symphony in G AWinter Daydreams,@ and his first opera AThe Voyevode.@ Showing his desire for perfection he tore up the opera because he was dissatisfied with it and it wasn=t until 1949 that it was revived.5

Who is the composer (full name and dates)? List three points about his life and environment.

From September of 1850 to May of 1859, Tchaikovsky attended the School of Jurisprudence. At this boarding school in St. Petersburg, he received an excellent education and further pursued his interest in music. During this time,

Antonin Dvorak was a Czech composer during the Romantic Era. He was born on September 8, 1841 in Nelahozeves, Czech which is now known as the Czech Republic. On the other hand, William Grant Still was an African American a composer, arranger and conductor. Dvorak was Baptized as a Roman Catholic and he had a strong love and faith in religion. He was a proud bohemian and interested in his heritage which was a huge inspiration towards music. Even Though his father wanted him to become a butcher just like him, however, Dvorak decided to be in the music career. At the age of six, Dvorak started going to the village school to get some early education in music. In a small amount of time, he learned playing the violin, which led him to play in village and church bands. He went to Zlonice town to continue his education in German and to attend classes in violin, organ, voice, music theory and piano. Dvorak took courses in counterpoint, improvisation, music theory and other important aspects of composition at the Prague Organ School from 1857 to 1859. When he became a music teacher, he fell in love with his student Josefína Čermáková. He even he composed and dedicated the song, ‘Cypress Trees’ to her. Unfortunately, she married another man, then Dvorak married her younger sister, Anna with whom he had 9 children . His most productive years was In 1875 because it’s the year his first son was born and when he composed his 5th Symphony. In 1877, Johannes Brahms, german

By the age of eight, Liszt began to compose elementary works. At the age of nine, he made his first public appearance as a concert pianist at Sopron and Pozsony. His playing impressed the local Hungarian magnates so much that they put up the money to pay for his musical education for the next six years. His father took a leave of absence from the Prince, so that he could devote his time to helping his son’s musical education. They went to Vienna, where he learned piano with Carl Czerney, a composer and pianist who had been a pupil of Beethoven, and studied composition with Antonio Salieri, the musical director at the Viennese Court and one of Mozart’s rivals.