Great American Composer of the Twentieth- Century

Aaron Copland is known as one of the most respected classical American composers of the twentieth century.  He created his new style of music by incorporating popular forms of American music such as jazz and folk into his compositions.  Like the other composer of his time he was focused on getting away from the European influence on music and wanted to advance the idea of American music.  During the 1930’s Copland decided that he wanted to make classical music as popular as jazz music in America or folk music in Mexico.  He got involved in a lot of organizations and by the late 1930’s he was one of the most popular composers in the America.  In 1935 Copland produced “El Salon Mexico,” and this began his most productive years in producing his music.  In this song Copland presents a new sound with its roots in Mexican folk music.  Shortly after it begins you hear the trumpet playing loudly over the rest of the symphony.  This trumpet really gives the feel of a Mexican piece.  I really enjoyed this piece, and although I may be a bit biased because I played the trumpet in high school.   I thought the trumpet part was very good, something I would have loved to play.  The piece as a whole kept me interested and wanting to hear more.  And this does not happen with me and full orchestra music often because many pieces tend to bore me. 

In the 1940’s Aaron Copland also composed music for a few ballets one of those being a Martha Graham piece.  Our book has already discussed Martha Graham a bit, but she was known as an innovator in dance.  Copland composed for her “Appalachian Spring” in 1944 for which he won the Pulitzer Prize.  The ballet that Copland wrote the music for presented the views of American country life and corresponded with the folk traditions that he was very interested in. 

The first part I have here of “Appalachian Spring” I feel begins with a slow easy movement and then moves into a very up tempo happy feeling when it speeds up.  I can almost picture the ballet dancers flowing across the stage while the music is playing.  As an American composer he would want to portray the country life as a very positive thing and this music does it well.  Copland had an amazing gift for composing music.  He composed many beautiful works and when I think of writing a piece for one instrument I think it would be difficult let alone an entire symphony all while expressing emotion and feelings through the sounds generated by the different instruments.  Like many other individuals in our book Copland had a clear, unique, talent that like all the other forms of art we have been discussing can be interpreted by each individual in a different way.