FREE ESSAY ON ARON COPLAND

ARON COPLAND

Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland wrote a ballet about one of the most famous "western gangsters" in history:
Billy the Kid. The work was written in 1938 and remained popular for over a decade.
Unfortunately, his works are no longer heard or performed often enough today. In my
opinion, Copland is one of the greatest American performers in music history, but he is
not given the recognition he deserves by today's society. By looking at Copland's works
and analyzing his "Billy the Kid," the necessary proof of his greatness will, without
question, show the fact that he is one of the greatest American composers of all time. 
Aaron Copland, whose family name was changed from Kapland by immigration officials in New
York, was born on November 14, 1900 and died December 2, 1990. His parents were of
Lithuanian Jewish descent. His parents emigrated from Russia to the United States. His
father owned a department store and they did not live lavishly. As he explained, "I was
born on November 14, 1900 on a street in Brooklyn that can only be 
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described as drab. It had none of the garish color of the ghetto, none of the charm of an
old New England thoroughfare, or even a pioneer street...."i He began to take piano
lessons at the age of fourteen under the tutelage of his sister Laurine. Soon he wanted
more professional lessons. Despite the fact that his four elder siblings had taken
lessons with no success, he convinced his parents to pay for lessons. "I distinctly
remember with what fear and trembling I knocked on the door of Mr. Leopold Wolfsohn's
piano studio on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn, and-once again all by myself-arranged for
piano lessons."i The idea of composing music was not "connected...with my family or with
my street."iii By the age of 18 he had graduated high school and decided to devote all
his time and energy to music. Under the direction of Rubin Goldmark he studied the theory
of harmony and the works of Chopin, Haydn, Beethoven, Wagner, Hugo Wolf, Debussy, and
Scriabin. Finally his studies led him to France at the age of 21, where he studied under
Paul Vidal for a short period of time and then under Mlle. Boulanger for three years.
Before returning to America, in 1924, Mlle. Nadia Boulanger asked Mr. Copland to write
her a piece to perform on an American tour. He accepted and wrote "Symphony for organ and
orchestra, with Walter Camrosch as conductor and Nadia Boulanger as soloist...."iv 
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Also during this time, he wrote The Cat and the Mouse and a Passacaglia which "made him
known to a large and influential public and definitely established his position in
American musical life."v His musical career took off from there with invitations to write
original pieces for concerts, tours, and such groups as the Boston Symphony.
In 1938, Copland wrote a ballet about William Bonney. William grew up in Brooklyn, New
York, Aaron's hometown. At the age of 12 he saw his mother shot by a wayward bullet
during a street brawl. Following this he stabbed the man responsible for his mother's
death. This is the first of several murders William commits. Later in life he is accused
of cheating during a card game and kills the accuser. Finally, he is captured after a
showdown and jailed. To flee from prison, he slayed his jailer and escaped. William then
meets his lover in the desert and is murdered by his boyhood companion-turned-sheriff Pat
Garrett. All of these actions gained young William the nickname "Billy the Kid."
Copland's rendition includes many classic cowboy tunes. For example, in the first scene,
entitled Street in a Frontier Town, Copland "used such tunes of the Wild West as Goodbye,
Old Paint; The Old Chisholm Trail; Git Along, Little Dogies; The Streets of 
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Laredo; and Great Grand-Dad."vi The songs throughout the piece are slightly changed,
providing for great musical adaptation and amazing 
listening. "But the composer decked them out with polyrhythms, polytonal harmonies, and
dissonance made more striking because they fall on accent beats. The result is a music of
powerful rhythmic thrust and vigorous physical activity, bursting with energy and
excitement as it mounts to a fortissimo climax."vii 
Copland's style brings about vivid pictures of colorful images of cowboy's on horseback
riding into town. The ensuing brawl is animated colorfully by the volume and intensity of
the music. The point at which Billy kills his mother's murderers is so beautifully
depicted one can see Billy raising the knife and slaying the guilty men. Listening to the
music alone, one can envision the entire ballet from its picturesque beginning to the
awe-inspiring conclusion. Copland once described a great symphony as "a man-made
Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a
long foreseen destination."viii Though this may be true, Copland's "Billy the Kid" may
also be described in this fashion. The beginning captivates the audience and holds their
focus all the way to the spectacular finale. For those who know the story, the music
alone will bring 
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about auditory pleasure; for those who do not know the story, the story along with the
entrancing music will undoubtedly arouse enjoyment. 
Copland's works have effected music in many ways, as is evidenced by his numerous awards.
These awards include the New York Music Critics Circle Award, a Pulitzer Prize, an
Academy Award, a Congressional Medal for patriotism, the Boston Symphony Award of Merit,
and his Third Symphony "was singled out by the Music Critics Circle as the most important
new orchestral work by an American composer."ix His greatness can also be seen in the way
others talk about his work. In 1946, Dr. Serge Koussevitzky described Copland's Third
Symphony as "the greatest American symphony-it goes from the heart to the heart."x 
The fact that his contemporaries thought so highly of him shows, in effect, that he was
one of the greatest composers of his time. The fact that his contemporaries gave him many
awards proves that he was one of the greatest composers of his time. Still, the strongest
point in proving his greatness is that fact that he was able to adapt to the changes
around him. By his own admission, "...an entirely new public for music had grown up
around the radio and phonograph. It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing
as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to 
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see if I couldn't say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms."xi His success in
changing to the times speaks volumes about his ingenuity. Many 
people have an extremely difficult time dealing with change and adapting to it. Copland's
fluidity dealing with change was amazing. The fact that he kept up with the changing
times and did it with great success is amazing; he didn't "miss a beat
Bibliography
i David Ewen, American Composers Today (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1949) 67.
ii Ewen 68.
iii Ewen 67-68.
iv Ewen 69.
v Percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford University, 1992) 249.
vi Joseph Machlis and Kristine Forney, The Enjoyment of Music (New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc., 1999) 415.
vii Machlis 415.
viii Machlis 313.
ix Ewen 70.
x Ewen 71.
xi Ewen 70.