Aaron Copland and His World
Aaron Copland and His World reassesses the legacy of one of America's best-loved composers at a pivotal moment—as his life and work shift from the realm of personal memory to that of history. This collection of seventeen essays by distinguished scholars of American music explores the stages of cultural change on which Copland's long life (1900 to 1990) unfolded: from the modernist experiments of the 1920s, through the progressive populism of the Great Depression and the urgencies of World War II, to postwar political backlash and the rise of serialism in the 1950s and the cultural turbulence of the 1960s.


Continually responding to an ever-changing political and cultural panorama, Copland kept a firm focus on both his private muse and the public he served. No self-absorbed recluse, he was very much a public figure who devoted his career to building support systems to help composers function productively in America. This book critiques Copland's work in these shifting contexts.


The topics include Copland's role in shaping an American school of modern dance; his relationship with Leonard Bernstein; his homosexuality, especially as influenced by the writings of André Gide; and explorations of cultural nationalism. Copland's rich correspondence with the composer and critic Arthur Berger, who helped set the parameters of Copland's reception, is published here in its entirety, edited by Wayne Shirley. The contributors include Emily Abrams, Paul Anderson, Elliott Antokoletz, Leon Botstein, Martin Brody, Elizabeth Crist, Morris Dickstein, Lynn Garafola, Melissa de Graaf, Neil Lerner, Gail Levin, Beth Levy, Vivian Perlis, Howard Pollack, and Larry Starr.

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Aaron Copland and His World
Aaron Copland and His World reassesses the legacy of one of America's best-loved composers at a pivotal moment—as his life and work shift from the realm of personal memory to that of history. This collection of seventeen essays by distinguished scholars of American music explores the stages of cultural change on which Copland's long life (1900 to 1990) unfolded: from the modernist experiments of the 1920s, through the progressive populism of the Great Depression and the urgencies of World War II, to postwar political backlash and the rise of serialism in the 1950s and the cultural turbulence of the 1960s.


Continually responding to an ever-changing political and cultural panorama, Copland kept a firm focus on both his private muse and the public he served. No self-absorbed recluse, he was very much a public figure who devoted his career to building support systems to help composers function productively in America. This book critiques Copland's work in these shifting contexts.


The topics include Copland's role in shaping an American school of modern dance; his relationship with Leonard Bernstein; his homosexuality, especially as influenced by the writings of André Gide; and explorations of cultural nationalism. Copland's rich correspondence with the composer and critic Arthur Berger, who helped set the parameters of Copland's reception, is published here in its entirety, edited by Wayne Shirley. The contributors include Emily Abrams, Paul Anderson, Elliott Antokoletz, Leon Botstein, Martin Brody, Elizabeth Crist, Morris Dickstein, Lynn Garafola, Melissa de Graaf, Neil Lerner, Gail Levin, Beth Levy, Vivian Perlis, Howard Pollack, and Larry Starr.

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Aaron Copland and His World

Aaron Copland and His World

Aaron Copland and His World

Aaron Copland and His World

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Overview

Aaron Copland and His World reassesses the legacy of one of America's best-loved composers at a pivotal moment—as his life and work shift from the realm of personal memory to that of history. This collection of seventeen essays by distinguished scholars of American music explores the stages of cultural change on which Copland's long life (1900 to 1990) unfolded: from the modernist experiments of the 1920s, through the progressive populism of the Great Depression and the urgencies of World War II, to postwar political backlash and the rise of serialism in the 1950s and the cultural turbulence of the 1960s.


Continually responding to an ever-changing political and cultural panorama, Copland kept a firm focus on both his private muse and the public he served. No self-absorbed recluse, he was very much a public figure who devoted his career to building support systems to help composers function productively in America. This book critiques Copland's work in these shifting contexts.


The topics include Copland's role in shaping an American school of modern dance; his relationship with Leonard Bernstein; his homosexuality, especially as influenced by the writings of André Gide; and explorations of cultural nationalism. Copland's rich correspondence with the composer and critic Arthur Berger, who helped set the parameters of Copland's reception, is published here in its entirety, edited by Wayne Shirley. The contributors include Emily Abrams, Paul Anderson, Elliott Antokoletz, Leon Botstein, Martin Brody, Elizabeth Crist, Morris Dickstein, Lynn Garafola, Melissa de Graaf, Neil Lerner, Gail Levin, Beth Levy, Vivian Perlis, Howard Pollack, and Larry Starr.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691124704
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 08/21/2005
Series: The Bard Music Festival , #54
Pages: 568
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Carol J. Oja is William Powell Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University and the author of Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s. Judith Tick is Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Music at Northeastern University and the author of Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsxi
Permissionsxii
Between Memory and History: An Introductionxv
Part IScanning A Life
Copland and the Prophetic Voice1
Founding Sons: Copland, Sessions, and Berger on Genealogy and Hybridity15
Part IICopland's Greater Cultural World
"To Become as Human as Possible": The Influence of Andre Gide on Aaron Copland47
Copland and American Populism in the 1930s81
From the New York Avant-Garde to Mexican Modernists: Aaron Copland and the Visual Arts101
Making an American Dance: Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring121
Part IIICopland's Inner Circle
Dear Aaron, Dear Lenny: A Friendship in Letters151
Aaron Copland and Arthur Berger in Correspondence179
Part IVAnalytic Perspectives
War Drums, Tolling Bells, and Copland's Piano Sonata233
Copland's Gift to be Simple Within the Cumulative Mosaic Complexities of His Ballets255
Part VPolitical Edges
Copland and the Politics of Americanism277
From Orient to Occident: Aaron Copland and the Sagas of the Prairie307
Aaron Copland, Norman Rockwell, and the "Four Freedoms": The Office of War Information's Vision and Sound in The Cummington Story (1945)351
Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers: A Television Special379
Part VICopland and His Public
Aaron Copland and the Composers' Forum-Laboratory: A Post-Concert Discussion, February 24, 1937395
Copland on Television: An Annotated List of Interviews and Documentaries413
Part VIIReconfiguring Copland's World
Copland Reconfigured439
Index487
Notes on Contributors499
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