Collection Items

  • Web Page
    Related Resources By Copland Copland, Aaron. "The Composer and His Critic." Modern Music 9, no. 4 (May-June 1932): 143-47. ______. Copland on Music. New York: Doubleday, 1960. ______. Music and Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952. ______. The New Music, 1900-1960. Revised and enlarged edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968. ______. Our New Music: Leading Composers in Europe and America. New York and London:...
  • Web Page
    Rights and Access The Library of Congress is providing access to The Aaron Copland Collection for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Note that there may be U.S. copyright protection...
  • Article
    Articles and Essays Top of page Skip to main content Library of Congress Search Everything Audio Recordings Books/Printed Material Films, Videos Legislation Manuscripts/Mixed Material Maps Notated Music Newspapers Periodicals Personal Narratives Photos, Prints, Drawings Software, E-Resources Web Archives
  • Article
    A 75th Birthday Tribute The following articles were originally published in the Schwann record catalog in Schwann-1 Record and Tape Guide. November, 1975: To honor Aaron Copland on his seventy-fifth birthday the following pieces have been contributed for this issue by some of his closest friends. We are most grateful to them for their instant and enthusiastic cooperation in offering tribute and personal birthday greetings to Aaron Copland,...
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    A Wise and Trusted Friend Aaron Copland was the first American composer I met on arrival to Boston from Paris in the fall of 1929, and I recall Serge Koussevitzky's words of introduction: "This is Aaron Copland--remember the name: You will hear a great deal of him and of his music. . . ." And, indeed, I have. Memorable are the early years of strong opposition to Copland's music...
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    Aaron and Moses I have known Aaron Copland for half of his lifetime, and loved him all those years. I have known his music for even longer than that, and have loved it with equal constancy. But critics and colleagues have been writing about the man-and-his-music for even longer, for half a century, in depth and out of it. And so, at this seventy-fifth milestone, I find...
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    Birthday Tribute Celebrating Aaron Copland's birthday has for me become virtually an avocational pursuit. At the time Aaron was sixty I was president of the Juilliard School and had the satisfaction of organizing a grand festival of his works. For his seventieth there was a special program at Lincoln Center organized by his publishers, who for both birthdays gave splendid parties after the performances. It was...
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    My Friend Aaron Aaron Copland is quite simply a great man. I do not refer to his eminence as a composer; I speak of the person. It is his simplicity which is the essential mark of greatness.
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    Tribute to Aaron Copland Does the celebration of an anniversary impose on us the burdensome weight of accumulated years, or is it every year a kind of rebirth? As times elapses, new aims, new means are found, unspoiled by evolution. Aaron Copland gives a vivid example of this duality.
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    A Brief Introduction to the Music of Aaron Copland Top of page Skip to main content Library of Congress Search Everything Audio Recordings Books/Printed Material Films, Videos Legislation Manuscripts/Mixed Material Maps Notated Music Newspapers Periodicals Personal Narratives Photos, Prints, Drawings Software, E-Resources Web Archives
  • Article
    1950's and 1960's: Opera and Stylistic Diversity Aaron Copland sorting his mail, Music Division, Library of Congress. In 1950 it seemed that another of Copland's ambitions was about to be fulfilled: Sir Rudolf Bing approached him with the suggestion that he and Thornton Wilder write an operatic version of Our Town for the Metropolitan Opera. But Wilder declined ("I'm convinced that I write a-musical plays . . . that in them...
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    Early Years and "An American Music" Aaron Copland in Paris, early 1920s, Music Division, Library of Congress. When Aaron Copland boarded a ship for Paris in June 1921, a few months short of his twenty-first birthday, he already had a good musical training thanks to his conservative but thorough American teacher, Rubin Goldmark. He carried in his luggage the manuscript of what was to be his first published piece, the...
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    Final Accomplishments During the 1970s Copland put his musical house in order, producing works based on earlier sketches, of which the most extensive is the Duo for Flute and Piano of 1971. A second career, that of conductor, opened up for him as he conducted not only his own compositions but those of other Americans and works from the standard repertory. He also recorded much of...
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    Major Works for Orchestra and for the Voice Aaron Copland with Marian Anderson, rehearsing "Lincoln Portrait", Music Division, Library of Congress. Copland also continued to write works for the concert hall, often using the somewhat simplified musical language he had developed for his ballet and film scores and for a series of works for young performers, including the school opera The Second Hurricane, of 1937 and An Outdoor Overture from 1938, the...
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    Modernism, Mexico and Beyond Aaron Copland and Serge Koussevitzky, Tanglewood, Music Division, Library of Congress. Copland's music of the late 1920s drives towards two of his key works, both uncompromising in their modernism: the Symphonic Ode of 1929 and the Piano Variations of 1930. The fate of these compositions contrasts sharply. While the Piano Variations is not often performed in concert, it is well known to pianists because...
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    Music for Dance and Film Billy the Kid: production shot, 1938, Music Division, Library of Congress. In the mid-1930s Copland began to receive commissions from dance companies. The first, from the Chicago choreographer Ruth Page, resulted in the 1935 score Hear Ye! Hear Ye!, a ballet with a Rashomon-like plot set in a court of law. Hear Ye! Hear Ye! was a local success but did not make the...
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    The Achievements of an American Composer Aaron Copland under umbrella, University of Kansas, 1973, Music Division, Library of Congress. When people talk about the American aspects of Copland's music, they often emphasize the Western flavor of some of his works. This is perhaps understandable, for the three major ballets (Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, and Billy the Kid), his three most often performed works in the concert hall as well as on...
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    An Intimate Sketch On November 14, Aaron Copland will be seventy years old. November 14--it's a date seared into my mind. Two of the most important events of my life occurred on that day, the first in 1937, the second in 1943--and so I never forgot Aaron's birthday.
    • Date: 1937
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    Copland Timeline 1900 to 1990 1900-1990
    • Date: 1900
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    1900-1920 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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    1921-1930 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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    1931-1944 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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    1945-1960 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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    1961-1975 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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    1976-1990 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;