The Daily Book of Classical Music

DAY 143

GREAT COMPOSERS

Aaron Copland (1900–1990)

AMERICA’S COMPOSER

Probably no American composer has gained more prominence than Aaron Copland. Born in humble surroundings to Russian Jewish immigrants at the turn of the last century, Copland’s life and music have come to represent the American “everyman.”

In his early 20s, Copland studied under Nadia Boulanger in Paris; it was she who first identified his compositional style and unique rhythmic patterns as distinctly “American,” something she had not previously heard.¹ In the years that followed, Copland focused on developing that unique sound, writing several innovative works without ...