Independent Research Entry - Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Think of a composer, a song, a musical piece of work, a technological innovation, an inventive musical style, and a trend setting accomplishment. How has it affected me as a composer, performer, or producer? What does it take to make an impact, a difference? This is a bigger question that it first appears, for initially I need to establish what determines innovation. Innovation means "new", regarding the creation of a better idea or product that becomes accepted by society. This requires forming an attitude about the product, accepting or rejecting it, then implementing it for use by others. Innovation is the catalyst to growth and creativity. So, immediately, I thought of the AM radio, transistors, Sony Walkman, the compact disc, the Fender Telecaster guitar, and rock and roll. Easy, right? Delving deeper, I wanted to think of what innovative person or technology makes me a better thinker, a better musician? What actually moves my spirit to be a better, more creative individual? Is it linked to a device, an idea, or a person? I think of the composer Aaron Copeland.

Aaron Copland was one of the world's greatest composers. He was and still is considered the "Great American composer". Surprisingly, he did not grow up in a musical family. His parents were Jewish Russian immigrants with little musical interests or experience. His mother played piano and his brother was a violinist. A teen he took music lessons in New York from Leopold Wolfsohn. He then traveled to Paris, France where he was under the tutelage of the famed Nadia Boulanger. Born in 1900, he was part of the creative atmosphere in Paris in the 1920's and he was in the company of such famous American expatriates as Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis and Gertrude Stein. Remaining enthusiastic about his musical education and creativity, he moved back to New York in 1925 to begin his work as a full time composer. Upon his return, he became aware of American artists Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe and his inspiration to composition shifted to the landscape of the American West. He also formed a group of young American composers with whom to collaborate, called " The Commando Unit", including Roger Sessions, Roy Harris, Virgil Thompson, and Walter Piston. Due to his generosity in sharing his vision and efforts with other young composers, he became known as the "Dean of American Music".

Regarding his personal life, Aaron Copland was a gay man who tried to maintain guarded privacy, although he did frequently and openly travel with a stable of younger musically talented men as lovers. Such notables included photographer Victor Kraft, pianist Paul Moor and composer John Brodbin Kennedy. Politically, Copland was a progressive, supporting the Communist Party USA ticket in the 1936 presidential election. He was opposed to militarism, having been influenced negatively by Germany and World War I. As a result, Copland found himself blacklisted and investigated by the FBI, as well as bearing the frontal assault of Joseph McCarthy. Due to the immense support of the musical community, the McCarthy probes never affected his reputation or career. He later became a Democrat after openly decrying the loss of artistic freedom in Russia during the Cold War.

Compositionally, Copland was one of the first modern composers to incorporate jazz rhythms into symphonic music. He was also a student of the "Twelve Tone Technique", a technique of composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg where " ... All 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as on another in a piece of music, while preventing the emphasis of any through the use of tone rows, an ordering of the twelve pitches". An excellent example of this is " the first 12-note work": Schoenberg's Op. 23, movement 5, measures 1-4. This was in juxtaposition to earlier classical music that treated notes in the tonic and dominant more importantly than others.

Aaron Copeland's most known works include Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Fanfare for the Common Man. These were written in the 30's, after his jazz period. " The open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are archetypical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit." Fanfare is recognizable to today's youth as the theme of the Olympics, and Hoedown invokes the vision of the uplifting pioneer spirit he felt toward America upon his return from Paris.

Aaron Copland epitomizes the American spirit and acceptance of diversity, though trying at times. The son of oppressed immigrants; he was a true pioneer in music that has defined a nation of proud citizens. He lived during one of the most creative times in our history, the early 20th century, the modern renaissance. When I hear his work, I stop to listen, to hear the simple and the complex arrangements that take me to another place. They inspire me to be better. His music is our music, our nation. We need not take any drug or enter any alternative mental state to be able to be filled with the visual scenery his symphonies invoke. I encourage everyone to listen, to hear, to experience his work and use our imagination to create something new. We can only aspire to create even a fraction of his genius. He is an inspiration to all who aspire to be an innovator in the truest sense of the word.

Rudolph Rustin

References


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/copland.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schoenberg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Boulanger

http://deliciousdeity.blogspot.com/2011/04/aaron-copland-and-victor-kraft.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tllOFCsamKw

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEro8pG0hiE

http://vimeo.com/5020134