Aaron Copland was born November 14th 1900 in Brooklyn, New York. He is the youngest of five children to Sarah Mittenthal, his mother and Harris Copland, his father. He had two brothers, Ralph and Leon and two sisters Laurine and Josephine. As early as the age of nine, he began making up songs on the piano and two years later, his older sister Laurine began giving him piano lessons. In 1914, Copland began studying with his first professional piano teacher, Ludwig Wolfsohn in Brooklyn, New York. His first public performance as a pianist was in 1917, one year before his graduation from high school in Brooklyn. Upon it’s grand opening in 1921, Copland attended the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, a music conservatory designed to introduce the best American composers to the French traditions of teaching music, composing and performing.
In 1927, Copland’s first major performance as a pianist took place with his “Piano Concerto” featuring Russian conductor/composer Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Over the next twenty years, Copland would achieve many feats including teaching at Harvard, writing a film score for the documentary The City, and winning a Pulitzer Prize in Music for Appalachian Spring a ballet composed in 1944. Interestingly enough, in 1953 he became caught up in the anti-communist hysteria and was subpoenaed to testify at the infamous McCarthy Congressional hearings, causing many of his musical engagements to be canceled. Without implicating any of his friends or colleagues, he competently navigated the questions asked of him by the committee, all the while sticking to his own personal principles and opinions on issues like socialism. One important milestone of his career happened in 19...
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...s work more then anything represented a sound that was quintessentially American, and displayed a uniqueness never heard before in modern American music. Known as “The Dean of American Composers” Aaron Copland is regarded as one of the best and most well known composers of the 20th century. Despite being a confrontational modernist, Copland eventually found himself established as the ultimate American populist. His work, although unique to the time it was created in is relatable and easy enough to listen to that it still holds up today when heard by the average music fan. It’s likely his songs have inspired those in the country, jazz, blues, and folk genres if not at least served as a guide to aspiring musicians and songwriters in those fields and it is likely his work will continue to inspire those who live to create original works of music for years to come.
"He just got his music out of the air," said one neighbor. One cannot hear the word "ragtime" without thinking of the "King of Ragtime," Scott Joplin. He is clearly one forerunner in the field of American music, particularly at the turn of the twentieth century.
Nearly a century’s worth of compositions has earned Aaron Copland extensive recognition as the foremost American composer of his time. Ironically, Copland was raised the son of Russian Jewish immigrants and inhabitant of a colorless city environment, yet would become known for producing the music of “rugged-souled Americans” (Mellers 4). Unbounded by historical musical constraints such as those present in the culture of France, where Copland studied for many years, Copland found himself free to explore and experiment in pursuit of a unique, undoubtedly American sound.
One man made his impression on the music world soon after he arrived to America. His
Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. He participated in the Chopin International Competition for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honorable mention, after which he decided to limit his public performances to his own works to separate himself from the virtuoso pianists.
Music was used as a critical instrument in the early 20th century in mobilizing and inspiring the civil rights movement by giving them more voice to bring out their grievances. According to Kerk (2007, p.18) Martin Luther King was the most prolific figure who utilized music to sensitize society, “we believe that freedom songs play a big and vital part in the struggle that we are going through” these words were also echoed by the Albany movement “music keeps us alive, it gives us a sense of unity, new courage every dawn, hope to move on that the future still holds something in our most daring and dreadful hours”. Development of Music The 20th century was a century in which the United States had great influence in the world of music across the globe. America was the birthplace of most influential music, from jazz to rock, which was promoted by the quality of technology like radio and phonographs. Advanced technology ensures fast distribution of music to Americans and all around the globe.
The music created by the legendary Scott Joplin can be heard everywhere around the world even to this day. Many of his works are immediately recognizable to millions of people, including myself. I was not even aware that I knew any of Scott Joplin’s masterpieces but I certainly did. The composition entitled The Entertainer has been featured countless times in movies and games that I have experienced and its catchy beat was cemented in my mind (IMDb). Joplin was the king of the ragtime musical genre, and his name is synonymous with that period of music.
Frederic Chopin was a composer, teacher, and pianist born on March 1, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland. He was raised in a musical family as his mother and his sister played piano. At a very young age, he would listen to them play the piano, and not long after he was trying to play their repertoire while trying to make up his tunes. He officially started getting piano lessons at the age of seven, lasting six years, but would soon surpass and leave the teacher to teach himself (Clark). He also wrote two different polonaises at the age of seven; one in B flat major and the other in G minor. He played his first concert at the age of eight, and at age eleven played
Amy Beach was a very famous and influential composer and pianist from New Hampshire, United States. She fought long and hard to get to where she got in her lifetime. Back in the late 1800’s, it was hard for women to get noticed because they believe that their role in society was to stay at home and take care of the family. Amy Beach defeated all the odds of a female gender role in her lifetime. She became a role model for young girls wanting to become a composer or becoming anything they wanted to be, as long as they fought for it. She has made an enormous impact on music in America. The following paper will discuss Beach’s life, her struggles, her musical training, how her music was shaped by the society she lived in and famous compositions
The brilliant composer Clara Schumann was born as Clara Josephine Wieck on 13 September 1819. Even before her birth, her destiny was to become a famous musician. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and music dealer, while her mother, Marianne Wieck, was a soprano and a concert pianist and her family was very musically gifted. Her father, Friedrich, wanted to prove to the world that his teaching methods could produce a famous pianist, so he decided, before Clara’s birth, that she would become that pianist. Clara’s father’s wish came true, as his daughter ended up becoming a child prodigy and one of the most famous female composers of her time.
Leonard Bernstein is widely known not only as one of the greatest American conductors, but also as a composer whose creativity and passion was spread over a wide range. His social and cultural influences helped shape his career into a musical icon and his music rekindled the American spirit. Above all, he will be remembered as one of the most amazing and influential musical personalities of the twentieth century.
Gustav Mahler was born on July 7th 1860 in a village in Bohemia called Kalischt, what is now Kaliste in the Czech Republic. His mother and father were Bernhard and Marie Mahler. Gustav was the second oldest of his twelve brothers and sisters, of which six of them died at a very young age. Mahler grew up in a town called Iglau (now Jihlava). As a child, Mahler studied music with native teachers in his village. Although Mahler loved composing music, his school reports portrayed him as unreliable and absent minded. At the age of four, Gustav discovered his grandparents’ piano and immediately fell in love with it. A few years later at the age of ten, he gave his first public performance in Iglau. Bernhard Mahler, his father, was very supportive of his son’s dreams and ambitions. Bernhard Mahler strived for his sons’ music career and agreed that he should audition for a spot at the Vienna Conservatory. Mahler suffered an unpleasant personal loss of his younger brother, Ernst, in 1874 after a long illness. He wanted to express his feelings by playing music. With help from Josef Steiner, a close friend, he began to write an opera called Ernst von Schwaben as a tribute to his lost brother. In 1875, he went to Vienna to study at the conservatory, where he stayed for a few years. After completing his studies, he took a series of producing steps throughout Central and Eastern Europe, including many cities such as: Budapest, Hamburg, and Leipzig. Then he moved to Vienna, where he conducted the state opera orchestra. Mahler succeeded in transforming the staging and performance standards of the opera house. It was nothing short of remarkable, but it came at a high personal cost. The continual work forced him to restrict his co...
The first thing I will talk about is the type of music he is know for which gave him that name. Most people listen to the type of music he composed but next to none know who or how it was composed. There seems to be an abundance of music fans who know little or nothing about the origin of their music. By discussing what he has accomplished it will explain why he is considered to be so important to his type of music.
For a society that was now being defined by radically changing racial and ethnic diversity, the music that bore the label of “American” by definition required that multiplicity of cultures. Gershwin’s and Copland’s compositions both epitomize this idea because they were so successful in defining and uniting diverse elements of American culture into their arrangements, giving the American music scene a new exclusive tradition of both foreign sounds and exotic rhythms.
In the text book America’s Musical Landscape by Jean Ferris, the book takes us through the history of the evolution of American music. The book delves into the different time periods of America’s music beginning with early North American music all the way to today’s modern music. Additionally, the book also explains how music, theater and film intertwine to provide some spectacular art. Jean Ferris finishes the book by exploring America’s concert music. Let us now take a closer look into the different time periods brought out in the book.
Franz Liszt was a Hungarian born composer. He was one of the best, and most respected pianist of his time. He was a very accomplished conductor, and one of the foremost educational instructors in history. In 1836, King Charles Halle described Franz Liszt as the following. "He is tall and very thin, his face very small and pale, his forehead remarkably high and beautiful; he wears his perfectly lank hair so long that it spreads over his shoulders, which looks very odd, for when he gets a bit excited and gesticulates, it falls right over his face and one sees nothing of his nose. He is very negligent in his attire, his coat looks as if it had just been thrown on, and he wears no cravat, only a narrow white collar. This curious figure is in perpetual motion: now he stamps with his feet, now waves his arms in the air, now waves his arms in the air, now he does this, now that." Franz Liszt, was born on October 22, 1811, In the Hungarian town of Raiding. Liszt was taught to play piano at a very young age by his father, who was also very involved in music. His father, Adam played the cello, and many other instruments, as he was a very passionate musician. Adam taught Franz to the extent that he was giving concerts by the age of nine and starting to compose his own pieces. His father, having obtained permission from his employer, Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, accompanied the young Franz to Vienna. Franz Liszt was financially supported by a man by the name of Antonio Salieri, who gave him free tuition in composition. The boy, Franz, gave some very successful performances before prominent people in Vienna and gained a lot of fame. He became very well known for his ability to take a melody provided by a member of the audience and work it into a...