Aaron Copland Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

The Sound of a Nation

In 1921, a young man from Brooklyn, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, arrived in Paris with a singular, audacious goal. While his American peers were soaking up European culture, Aaron Copland went to study with a brilliant but then little-known teacher named Nadia Boulanger. When he announced his intention to her, he said he wanted to write music that was recognizably "American." Boulanger, a woman of immense intellect and discipline, didn't laugh. Instead, she recognized his talent and encouraged his quest. This journey—from the bustling streets of Brooklyn to the heart of European modernism and back again—is the story of how one man listened to the rhythms of his homeland and forged a new musical language. He took the folk songs, the jazz rhythms, the hymns, and the wide-open spaces of his country and composed what would become the definitive soundtrack of 20th-century America.

From Brooklyn to Paris: Forging a Voice

Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1900 into a family that had little interest in music. It was a quintessentially American upbringing, far removed from the rich musical dynasties of Europe. Yet, driven by an inner need, Copland sought out his own musical education, taking piano lessons and voraciously studying scores from the public library. He was determined to be a composer.

His most decisive move was traveling to France to study at the newly opened American Conservatory at Fontainebleau. There, he became the first of many prominent American composers to study with Nadia Boulanger. She was a masterful pedagogue who demanded absolute technical perfection but, crucially, also pushed her students to find their own unique, authentic voices. For Copland, that meant embracing his American identity. He began incorporating the syncopations and blue notes of jazz into his early works, such as his Organ Symphony, which Boulanger arranged for him to premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the great Serge Koussevitzky. The premiere caused a stir, with one critic famously remarking, "If a young man at the age of 23 can write a symphony like that, in five years he will be ready to commit murder!"

The Populist Turn: Music for the People

Copland’s early work was spiky, modern, and challenging, influenced by Stravinsky and European modernism. But as the Great Depression gripped the United States in the 1930s, he felt a growing desire to connect with a wider audience. He became concerned that modern music was becoming a private conversation among a small elite. He began to believe that composers should play a more active role in the life of their society.

This led to a conscious and dramatic simplification of his style. He began to write "music for use"—for radio, for films, for schools. He turned to American folk music, not as a mere quotation, but as the raw material for a new sound. He used familiar tunes like the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" or the cowboy song "Goodbye, Old Paint," embedding them in transparent, luminous orchestrations. His harmonies became cleaner and more open, evoking the vast, unending landscapes of the American prairie. This new, accessible style, which he called his "vernacular" style, would define his most famous and beloved works.

The Great American Ballets

Nowhere is Copland's populist vision more successful than in his great ballets of the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1938, he composed Billy the Kid, a ballet that told the story of the famous outlaw using cowboy tunes and a cinematic sense of drama. This was followed in 1942 by Rodeo, a vibrant and humorous tale of a cowgirl trying to win the affection of a champion roper. Its boisterous "Hoe-Down" movement has become an iconic piece of American concert music.

His greatest masterpiece in the genre came in 1944 with Appalachian Spring. Commissioned by the legendary dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, the ballet tells the story of a young pioneer couple building their first home in the Pennsylvania hills. Copland’s score is a miracle of warmth, tenderness, and quiet strength. Its emotional climax is a masterful set of variations on the Shaker melody "Simple Gifts," a passage that has become synonymous with a sense of hopeful, homespun American idealism. The work won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1945 and secured Copland’s place as the nation's preeminent composer.

A Fanfare, a President, and the Blacklist

During World War II, Copland contributed several patriotic works to the war effort. The most famous is Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). In response to a request for a piece to honor those fighting in the war, Copland chose to celebrate not generals or heroes, but the ordinary person. The result is a work of immense power and dignity, a simple but unforgettable call played by brass and percussion. He later incorporated it into his majestic Third Symphony. In the same year, he composed Lincoln Portrait, a work for narrator and orchestra that uses Abraham Lincoln's own words to create a moving tribute to American democracy.

Ironically, despite creating these quintessentially patriotic works, Copland's liberal leanings and past associations attracted the suspicion of the U.S. government during the McCarthy era. He was investigated by the FBI and called to testify before Congress. In 1953, his Lincoln Portrait was abruptly pulled from the program of President Eisenhower's inaugural concert due to political pressure. Though he was eventually cleared, the experience was deeply troubling for the man who had dedicated his career to celebrating his country.

Later Years: Conductor and Statesman

After the 1950s, Copland's compositional output slowed. He experimented with serialism and other more abstract techniques, moving away from the popular style that had made him famous. He increasingly turned his attention to conducting, traveling the world to lead orchestras in performances of his own works. He became a beloved elder statesman of American music, a tireless advocate for new compositions, and a generous mentor to generations of younger composers, most notably his close friend Leonard Bernstein, who became the greatest champion of his music.

Aaron Copland died in 1990 at the age of 90. His legacy is immeasurable. More than any other composer, including his great predecessor Charles Ives, he succeeded in creating a style of classical music that was undeniably American. He gave his country a voice—a sound as wide as the prairie, as simple as a folk song, and as resilient as the common man he so nobly honored in his music.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Copland, Aaron, and Vivian Perlis. Copland: 1900 through 1942. St. Martin's Press, 1984.

• Copland, Aaron, and Vivian Perlis. Copland: Since 1943. St. Martin's Press, 1989.

• Pollack, Howard. Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. Henry Holt and Company, 1999.

• Crist, Elizabeth B. Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War. Oxford University Press, 2005.