Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)

Ancestors

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Family 1.2 Young Musician 1.3 Composer 1.4 Legacy 2 Sources

Biography

Aaron Copland was a composer whose name is synonymous with works such as Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, and the "Hoedown" from Rodeo.^[1] Many do not realize Copland's influence on American music extended far beyond the composition realm. In addition to his creative output as a composer, Copland was also a teacher, lecturer, author, editor, and conductor.^[1] Because of his involvement in these different facets of artistic expression, and because he was successful in merging a distinctly American style of composition, Copland is frequently referred to as the "Dean of American Music".^[2][3][4]

Family

Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 14 November 1900, the youngest of five children, to Harris Morris Copland and Sarah Mittenthal Copland, both of whom were Jewish immigrants from Russia.^[5][1][6][7] Copland's parents arrived in Brooklyn in 1877, and upon reaching America, they adopted an Anglicized version of their original surname, Kaplan.^[8] Aaron grew up in New York.^{[6][9][7][10][11][12]}

Aaron would never marry.^[1]

Young Musician

Copland's earliest musical training came in the form of piano lessons he received from his sister, Laurine.^[1][3] Copland's formal training began in 1914 with piano lessons from Leopold Wolfsohn.^[1] At age sixteen, Copland began studying counterpoint and composition with Rubin Goldmark.^[3][12] Copland was discouraged, however, by Goldmark's strict adherence to the conservative masters of the 19th century, and took it upon himself to explore the music of the more innovative and modern composers of his day which included Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Alexander Scriabin.^[8] After four years under Goldmark's tutelage, Copland decided to follow in the footsteps of many of his contemporaries and headed to Europe to further his musical training.^[1][12]

In June of 1921, Copland moved to France where he attended the Summer School of Music for American Students at Fontainebleau.^[7][3][12] It was during his study at Fontainebleau that Copland became acquainted with the legendary pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger.^[3]

Upon completion of the summer courses in September, Copland followed Boulanger to Paris to begin composition lessons at her home on Rue Ballu.^[8] Among the other young American composers in Boulanger's studio were Herbert Elwell, Melville Smith, and Virgil Thomson.^[8] From 1921-1924, Copland studied with Boulanger, who, in turn, became one of the most important influences on his composing career.^[8] Boulanger encouraged Copland to expand his horizons by studying all periods of classical music.^[12] It was also through Boulanger that Copland's first composition was published, a piano solo.^[8] The Cat and the Mouse (scherzo humoristique), which Copland completed in March 1920, was published by Durand and Sons in 1921.^[12]

Composer

Upon his return to the United States in 1924, Copland was preoccupied with a work he was writing on commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.^[8] Through her associations with Walter Damrosch, then conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, and Serge Koussevitzky, the recently appointed conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boulanger secured the commission for Copland as well as for two performances of the work.^[3][12] The result was Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, which received its debut on 11 January 1925 by the New York Symphony Orchestra under Damrosch's baton with Boulanger as soloist.^[3] The premiere was a success and essentially launched Copland's career as a promising young American composer.^[8]

It was also during this time in New York that Copland became involved with the League of American composers, as well as with the organization's journal, Modern Music, which published Copland's first article in 1925.^[1][4] In addition, Copland, along with his colleague Roger Sessions, organized the Copland-Sessions Concerts of Contemporary Music in New York, which ran from 1928-32 with the objective of exposing audiences to many European avant-garde works that had never previously been heard in the United States.^[4][12]

As America entered the Great Depression, Copland sought to produce works that appealed to mass audiences, works that spoke to wide varieties of individuals during the difficult economic times.^[12] Copland's movement in this direction may have been inspired by the success of his composition El Salón México (1936), a work described by the composer as a model of "imposed simplicity" and heavily influenced by his trip to Mexico City.^[12] By infusing various elements of Mexican folk music into El Salón México, Copland was able to communicate to a larger public.^[12]

This conscious use of folk materials to produce music in a melodic and accessible medium foreshadowed Copland's success with ballets such as Billy the Kid (1939), Rodeo (1942), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Appalachian Spring (1944), with the latter known especially for its masterful set of variations on the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts."^[1][3][12]

Copland also generated music of a patriotic nature during this time with works such as A Lincoln Portrait (1942), for orchestra and narrator, and Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), for brass and percussion, both of which were intended to boost American morale; to this day these works remain synonymous with American patriotism.^[4]

During the 1950s, Copland focused his attention on writing for the voice, producing the majority of his vocal works during this decade (the most notable exception is that of his children's opera, The Second Hurricane, which was written in 1936).^[8] In 1950, Copland completed his first major vocal work, the Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, scored for soprano solo and piano, which is considered among the greatest song cycles of the twentieth century.^[8] In addition, Copland fashioned two sets of song collections based on American folk tunes, which he dubbed his Old American Songs.^[8] The first set appeared in 1950, with the second set following two years later.^[8]

Copland also produced his only full-length opera during this decade.^[8] In 1954, Copland was commissioned by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to create music for The Tender Land, an opera based on James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.^[8] Although the opera has not entered the main repertoire of the operatic stage, it has been greeted with some success, and one of the most memorable arias from the opera has found new life as "Laurie's Song," for soprano solo and piano.^[8]

Legacy

Toward the end of his life, from about 1960 on, Copland found himself more involved as conductor rather than composer.^[1][12] Copland had great difficulty in his later years in capturing his inspiration in the form of musical composition, and in his own words, it was quite literally as if "someone had simply turned off a faucet."^[12][8] Instead of creating new works, he spent his time revising his earlier compositions and preserving his already extant works through a series of recordings in the 1970s for Columbia Records.^[8] Despite his energy and commitment to these projects, Copland suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease and was frustrated by his inability to harness his memory.^[8]

Copland succumbed to diabetes and respiratory failure brought on by pneumonia on 2 December 1990, a few days after his ninetieth birthday, at the hospital in North Tarrytown, New York.^{[12][1][5][3]}

Besides his Pulitzer Prize, he also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, the Henry Howland Memorial Prize from Yale University in 1970, the Gold Baton from the American Symphony Orchestra League in 1978 and the Kennedy Center Award in 1979.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) 03 December 1990, obit for Aaron Copeland Dies At 90, GenealogyBank.com (https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/145281C904D76140 : accessed 7 December 2017)
2. ↑ Aaron Copland Collection at the Library of Congress
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8} Biography.com Editors, Aaron Copland, Biography.com, A&E Television Networks. Accessed 7 Dec 2017.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Copland House
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGSN-SMG : 19 May 2014), Aaron Copland, 02 Dec 1990; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M5CL-JJJ : accessed 7 December 2017), Aaron Copland in household of Harris N Copland, Brooklyn Ward 9, Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 168, sheet 14B, family 303, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 960; FHL microfilm 1,374,973.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2} "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5B-QL1F : 4 September 2015), Aaron Copland, 1921; citing Passport Application, New York, United States, source certificate #34733, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 1608, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,672,541.
8. ↑ ^{8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 8.16 8.17} Wikipedia:Aaron Copland
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4LN-CM7 : accessed 7 December 2017), Aaron Copland in household of Morris M Copland, Brooklyn (Districts 0001-0250), Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 138, sheet 35B, line 98, family 730, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1515; FHL microfilm 2,341,250.
10. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJ5L-5H7 : accessed 7 December 2017), Aaron Copeland in household of Harris Copeland, Brooklyn Assembly District 10, Kings, New York, United States; citing ED 579, sheet 23B, line 99, family 510, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1159; FHL microfilm 1,821,159.
11. ↑ New York State Census, 1905, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKS3-6YV : 8 November 2017), Aaron Copeland in household of Harris N Copeland, Brooklyn, A.D. 11, E.D. 09, Kings, New York; citing p. 36, line 21, county offices, New York.; FHL microfilm 1,930,260.
12. ↑ ^{12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13 12.14} "American Masters: Aaron Copland, PBS.org, accessed 8 Dec 2017

See Also:

• Further information, including holograph manuscripts, sketches, letters, and other primary resources are available through the Library of Congress's on-line presentation of the Aaron Copland Collection
• Copland, Aaron and Vivan Perlis. Copland: 1900 Through 1942. First edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.
• Copland, Aaron and Vivan Perlis. Copland: Since 1943. First edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
• Crist, Elizabeth B. and Wayne Shirley. The Selected Correspondence of Aaron Copland. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006.
• Pollack, Howard. The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
• "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXL1-MLY : 2 October 2015), Aaron Copland, 1927; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9CD-NRF : accessed 7 December 2017), Aaron Copland, Councilmanic District 2, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 60-119, sheet 21B, line 50, family 492, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 398.
• "Brasil, Cartões de Imigração, 1900-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8HP-8Z9 : 6 August 2017), Aaron Copland, Immigration; citing 1941, Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (National Archives, Rio de Janeiro).
• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KJFQ-DP2 : 21 May 2014), Aaron Copland, Residence, New York, New York, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.
• "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24FS-XN2 : 2 October 2015), Aaron Copland, 1929; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• Aaron is mentioned in the book 'BOOSEY & HAWKES: THE PUBLISHING STORY' written by Helen Wallace.'Boosey & Hawkes, the Publishing Story' by Helen Wallace-1
• Beth Britten's biography of her brother Benjamin Britten the composer, entitled 'My Brother Benjamin', published by The Kensal Press in 1986 (ISBN 0-946041-40-7), includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'music world' are also mentioned in the text.'My Brother Benjamin' by his sister Beth Britten