Needless to say, Nadie Boulanger was extremely skilled in music technicalities such as harmonic transposition and structural analysis (Copland, Copland on Music 87). Her gift to Copland was her consuming love of music, curiosity and interest in his musical development in “modern” directions, and her way of “surrounding him with an air of confidence” (Copland, Copland on Music 87-88). According to Copland, through her teachings, he realized “I [he] was capable of more than I myself [he himself] thought possible” (Copland on Music 88). During his three years in Paris, Copland had composed several works: Motets for unaccompanied voices, a Passacaglia for piano, a song for soprano, a Rondino for string quartet, and a one-act ballet called Grohg (Copland, “Composer from Brooklyn” xxiii). Upon completion of these three years, Boulanger requested that Copland write an organ concerto for her first American tour (Copland, Copland on Music 88). At this point in Copland’s life, none of his compositions yet been performed. When he finally heard the performance of the Symphony for rchestra and rgan, the conductor, Walter Damrosch, turned to the audience and said: “If a young man, at the age of twenty-three, can write a symphony like that, in five years he will be ready to commit murder!” (Copland, Copland on Music 89). Despite Damrosch’s disapproval of Copland’s use of uneven harmonies and “modern” musical elements, Boulanger responded favorably to the piece (Copland, Copland on Music 89). When Aaron Copland returned to New York, he found himself in a financial slump. Fortunately, it did not last long; he soon obtained the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1925, allowing him to devote his time to working with Serge Koussevitzky, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Berger 421). Copland began to move away from the
European inspirations of his previous works and dabbled with jazz (Berger 421-422). In the same year he obtained the Guggenheim Fellowship, Copland wrote Music for Theatre, a suite for small orchestra influenced by jazz that included “Burlesque” elements, for Koussevitzky (Ross 292). The jazz ingredients used in Music for Theatre was also present in Copland’s next work, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Copland, “Composer from Brooklyn” xxv). In the 1930s, Copland’s music entered a different stage. Copland experimented with abstract music using dissonance with lean textures and patterns (Berger 422). Meanwhile, to support the progress of contemporary music, Copland co-founded the Copland-Session Concerts that lasted from 1928 to 1931 (Berger 422). One of Copland’s works during his “dissonant high modern” (Ross 293) period was his Piano Variations of 1930. This chaotic masterpiece introduced a new American harmony, both brash and bluesy (Ross 293). Piano Variations has a recurring four-note motif consisting of E, C, D♯, and C♯ an octave higher weaved into its striking notes (Ross 293). “The theme is subjected to an astringent sequence of permutations that at times approaches twelve-tone writing” (Ross 293), and there are occurrences of polytonality throughout the piece. Piano Variations lacks ornamentation and complex rhythms, resulting in a focus towards its pungent statements of dissonance. The rests seem to be placed in a way that emphasizes the striking notes in between as much as the notes themselves. Although difficult to listen to for the public audience, Piano Variations was greatly praised by Copland’s colleagues and various other composers, including the American composer who was a great appreciator of Copland, Leonard Bernstein.
chordal structure, and it tends to freshen his melodic and figurational imagination” (Copland, “Composer from Brooklyn” xxxii). There’s no doubt that Aaron Copland played a major role in defining the “American” sound in music. Due to the rise of Populism in America and the progression of technology, a new demand for music that appealed to the common citizen of America emerged. Taking influences from his experiences in the West and South America, Copland defined the classic “American” sound that was simple and folk-inspired and conveyed the romantic prairie life of young America. Works Cited Berger, Arthur V. “The Music of Aaron Copland.” The Musical Quarterly, October 1945: 420-447. JSTOR. Brooks, William. “Simple and Complex Accretions.” Copland Connotations: Studies and Interviews. Ed. Dickinson. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2002. 103-117. Print. Burr, Jessica. “Copland, the West and American Identity.” Copland Connotations: Studies and Interviews. Ed. Peter Dickinson. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2002. 22-28. Print. Copland, Aaron. “Composer from Brooklyn: An Autobiographical Sketch (1939, 1968).” Magazine of Art, 32 September 1939: 522-523, 548-550. Rpt. in Aaron Copeland: A Reader: Selected Writings, 1926-1972. Ed. Richard Kostelanetz. New York: Routledge, 2004. xix-xxxii. Print. Copland, Aaron. Copland on Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1963. Print. Crist, Elizabeth B. “Aaron Copland and the Popular Front.” Journal of the American
Musicological Society, Summer 2010: 409-465. JSTOR. Elizabeth B. Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Ross, Alex. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York: Picador, 2007. Print.