Aaron Copland

American composer, composition teacher, writer, and conductor (1900-1990)

OverviewAI-generated

Aaron Copland (1900–1990) was an American composer, conductor, pianist, and choreographer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied under Nadia Boulanger and Rubin Goldmark. His musical output included works in the genres of opera, symphony, classical music, and ballet. Notable compositions include the First Symphony, Concerto for Clarinet, and Second Hurricane. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Copland taught the composer Alberto Ginastera. He died in Sleepy Hollow from Alzheimer's disease and respiratory failure. His writings include *Copland on Music* and *What to Listen for in Music*.

Synthesized by Vinony from 43 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works: 59

Top works

Second Hurricane
Copland on Music
Concerto for Clarinet - New Edition
What to Listen for in Music
First Symphony

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Sound · Brooklyn, New York

Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the…

Known for

Paris: The Luminous Years2010
Aaron Copland: A Self Portrait — Self1985
Tanglewood: A Place for Music — Self1985
Are My Ears on Wrong?: A Profile of Charles Ives — Self1979
Bachianas Brasileiras: Meu Nome é Villa-Lobos1979
The Kennedy Center Honors — Self1978
Copland Conducts Copland — Self - Composer and conductor1976
New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts — Self1958
Tanglewood Music School and Music Festival — Self1949
145 W. 211936

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1900
Active to: 1990

20th centuryamericanamerican composerclassicalcomposercontemporary classical

Discography

Member of

Young Composers' Group

Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 304,530
Total plays: 1,958,196

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

BEDTools: a flexible suite of utilities for comparing genomic features
· 2010 · cited 27,590x
The Genome Analysis Toolkit: A MapReduce framework for analyzing next-generation DNA sequencing data
· 2010 · cited 26,080x
MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference and Model Choice Across a Large Model Space
· 2012 · cited 24,647x
Integrated analysis of multimodal single-cell data
· 2021 · cited 15,076x
Generative adversarial networks
· 2020 · cited 13,907x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.”
“I don't compose. I assemble materials.”
“If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Aaron Copland (/ˈkoʊplənd/ KOHP-lənd; November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Music". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many consider the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style often referred to as "populist" and which he called his "vernacular" style. Works in this vein include the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo, his Fanfare for the Common Man and Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera, and film scores.

After some initial studies with composer Rubin Goldmark, Copland traveled to Paris, where he first studied with Isidor Philipp and Paul Vidal, then with noted pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He studied three years with Boulanger, whose eclectic approach to music inspired his own broad taste. Determined upon his return to the U.S. to make his way as a full-time composer, Copland gave lecture-recitals, wrote works on commission and did some teaching and writing. But he found that composing orchestral music in a modernist style, which he had adopted while studying abroad, was unprofitable, particularly in light of the Great Depression. He shifted in the mid-1930s to a more accessible musical style that mirrored the German idea of Gebrauchsmusik ("music for use"), music that could serve utilitarian and artistic purposes. During the Depression years, he traveled extensively to Europe, Africa, and Mexico, formed an important friendship with Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, and began composing his signature works.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Aaron Copland” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.