Copland's Musical Education

It wasn’t until the mid 1800s that word came from Europe about these high-art composers, perhaps scaring these once-free New World composers. From then on, the trend of aspiring American composers was to make the pilgrimage to Europe for training. Composers such as George Chadwick were some of the first to make the trip. Chadwick describes his studies abroad as having to harmonize Bach chorales for four years . Correct voice leading and harmony was probably most accurate when confused with that of Bach. This type of analysis and composition was brought back as a trend, just as one might bring back the latest European fashion from Milan.

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

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 was a conductor, teacher, writer and composer, he was born Nov.14,1900 in Brooklyn, New York. Aaron is the youngest of 5 children's. Copland older sister gave him lessons on the piano which he had developed an interest for. After graduating high school Copland furthered his lessons in music and studied at the American Conservation in Fontainebleau where he had a French teacher named Nadia Boulanger. He had spent the final years of his life living in New York. Copland died in December 2, 1990 in New York, New York. Copland was remembered as someone who encouraged composers to find their voice, no matter the style just as him hisself did.

My composer that was given to me was Aaron Copland. Aaron Copland is an American composer, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as " The Dean of American Composers".

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.

In April 1876, MacDowell’s mother took him to Paris to attend the Conservatoire, where he studied piano with Antoine F. Marmontel (Pesce). Dissatisfied, MacDowell went on to Germany in 1878, which helped further his career (Pesce). The beginning of MacDowell’s success as a composer came with the publication of his Erste Modern Suite by German firms (Pesce). Edward MacDowell then married Marian Nevins, a fellow American, and settled in Germany from 1885 to 1888 where he would devote himself exclusively to composition (Pesce). Due to financial difficulties, MacDowell would decide to return to America in the autumn of 1888.

Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.

I really appreciate what Copland has to say in his essay. It is true that there is a great difference between hearing music as a background noise and listening to music as an opportunity to learn. In the final sentence, Copland emphasis his thesis throughout the entirety of the essay. In order to learn from whatever genre of music we listen to, we have to consciously make the decision to tune our ear to what is being played. This essay not only applies to musicians, but to anyone wanting to gain the knowledge that only attentive listening can provide. Copland says, "The simplest way of listening to music is to listen for the sheer pleasure of the musical sound itself." What he is describing is the basis at which learning begins. At first listen,

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7th, 1840, in Vyatka, Russia. His dad worked as a mine inspector. At the age of five years old, he started to take piano lessons. At an early age, he began showing a great talent in music, but his parents thought he should work in civil service. When he was ten, he started going to school at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg. His mother died of cholera in 1854 when Tchaikovsky was 14 years old. In his early twenties, Tchaikovsky began to take music lessons at the Russian Musical Society. After this, he joined the St. Petersburg Conservatory. While he attended the conservatory, he gave private lessons to his fellow music students. Around 1863, he traveled to Moscow to become a professor

In this music school, Chopin studied under Polish composer named Josef Elsner and pianist Wilhelm Wurfel. In 1828, Chopin decided to go to Vienna and gain wider musical experience. A year after, he made his performance in there and composed Piano Concerto No.2 in F Minor and Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor. His first études were also written between 1829 to 1832 and this allowed him to notice technical difficulties in his new style of piano playing. He continued his performance in Poland, Germany, Austria and Paris. In 1832, Chopin decided to settle in Paris and he changed his name from Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin to Frédéric François Chopin. He also built relationships with fellow composers, including Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Vincenzo Bellini and Felix Mendelssohn. After his first Paris concert on the same year he settled in Paris, Chopin realized that not everyone likes his delicate style on keyboard in larger concert spaces. Although he was not favoured by large concert audiences at all, Chopin was soon employed in the great parlors of Paris as a recitalist and a teacher. His raise in earnings allowed him to live well and during this time, he composed pieces like Ballade in G Minor, Fantaisie Impromptu, Nocturnes of

Despite his success on Broadway, George decided to follow his success of Rhapsody in Blue with a few more pieces for piano and orchestra as well as piano solo, including Concerto in F (1925), Preludes for Piano (1926), and An American in Paris (1928). An American in Paris, which was written after George took a trip to the French city, is a tone poem, which transports the listener to the streets of Paris during the 1920's. In efforts to paint a realistic portrait of the "City of Lights." An American in Paris represents the second most popular work for orchestra written by George. George became one of America's first premier composers and his compositions are still used today by teachers everywhere as examples of the American entrance to the musical world of Stravinsky, Chopin, Beethoven, and Mozart.

He hosted a radio show called “Music by Gershwin” in NBC when he was 36. He introduced his most enthusiastic piece, “Porgy and Bess” 11 years after writing “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1935. “The piece was based on the novel “Porgy” by Dubose Heyward, drew from both popular and classical influences.” (A+E Television Networks. 2013) This was successful and later it

César Franck was one of the most sought-after and remarkable composers of the 19th century. Born in Liège in 1822, Franck received his musical instruction at the age of eight at Liège Conservatoire. In 1834, he gave the first public concert in Liège. After moving to Paris in 1835, Frank entered the Conservatoire where he studied counterpoint with Leborne and piano with Zimmermann. It was during his student years at the Paris Conservatoire which Franck composed his first serious works, three trios for piano, violin and cello, that foreshadows his late style music, concluding the early use of cyclic form.

Gustav took piano lessons in Kalischt, Bohemia. His teacher was not mentioned. He was influenced by Arnold Scheenburg, Albon Berg, and Anton Webern. Gustav wasn’t Christian, he was Jewish.