Essay Biography of Aaron Copland - 1169 Words

Aaron Copland was born November 14th 1900 in Brooklyn, New York. He is the youngest of five children to Sarah Mittenthal, his mother and Harris Copland, his father. He had two brothers, Ralph and Leon and two sisters Laurine and Josephine. As early as the age of nine, he began making up songs on the piano and two years later, his older sister Laurine began giving him piano lessons. In 1914, Copland began studying with his first professional piano teacher, Ludwig Wolfsohn in Brooklyn, New York. His first public performance as a pianist was in 1917, one year before his graduation from high school in Brooklyn. Upon it’s grand opening in 1921, Copland attended the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, a music conservatory designed to†¦show more content†¦Aaron Copland died on December 2nd 1990 in North Tarrytown, New York at the age of ninety. Without question his most famous work is his Pulitzer Prize winning â€Å"Appalachian Spring† with which he received the prestigious award in 1945. Commissioned by American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham in 1943, Copland finished the work a year later while teaching at Harvard. The song had a traditional American sound much like his previous works, â€Å"Quiet City† and â€Å"Billy the Kid† and won immediate success with audiences when it debuted in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 1944. The material of the piece is largely folk and even incorporates an old shaker song called â€Å"Simple Gifts† by Elder Joseph Brackett written in 1848. One song, a patriotic piece called â€Å"A Lincoln Portrait† was written at the beginning of World War II after Copland was commissioned to write a musical portrait of an eminent American political figure. He quoted original folk songs of the time such as the well-known â€Å"Camptown Races† and also included material from letters and speeches Lincoln had given. 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 andShow MoreRelatedThe Concert Hall, Raleigh, Concert, By Paul Randall And Composed By Bill Evans1721 Words   |  7 Pagestrumpet were held for emphasis and as the tempo shifted. There were many dynamics used in this tune. The tune started from really soft to really loud with a crescendo and stayed in this routine until the ending when the pattern was reversed. â€Å"Aaron Copland† was for me a tune of a love affair from the time the very first note started. The tune was hot and enthusiastic and shown dialogue without using any words. The ensemble played this piece by Cassia Lee supplied the drawn-out conversation that sounded