Aaron Copland News Feature - 1985

This 1985 CBS News features marks the 85th birthday of American composer, Aaron Copland. Copland is seen conducting, playing the piano and at Tanglewood.

[@JohnJApanovitch]

What an amazing documentary, about an amazing composer/conductor. Aaron Copland will go down in history as one of the most brilliant composers of modern times. It's amazing. What's even more amazing, is that I was born almost exactly 100 years after he was. He was born on November 14th, 1900, and I was born on November 20th, 2000. Thank you for sharing this documentary. Aaron Copland is someone who was extremely serious about what he did, but also had a wonderful personality. May he rest in peace, and I hope his soul is flying through the heavens with Maestro Bernstein and Maestro Stravinsky.

[@davismiller4369]

What an extraordinary piece, John! One can feel Copland the man in ways I haven't experienced in the many varied documentaries. Thanks immensely for sharing this!

[@srothbardt]

Tanglewood is still a great place though those greats aren’t there.

[@echorrhea]

I actually have a vague memory of watching this at the age of 5. A question for people who know Copland’s work better than I do: how acute was his Alzheimer’s? I only ask because my understanding was that it was already noticeable in the 1970s, resulting in his retirement from composing (save for the two piano pieces he reworked for Bennett Lerner). Yet interviews I’ve heard of him well into the 1980s seem to betray no loss of mental acumen. Not doubting his illness, by the way. Just wondering how it progressed.

[@johnrandolph6121]

I met him in 1980 when I was a student at Tanglewood. We were performing his Nonet so we had lunch with him and afterwards played it for him. It was noticeable in that he tended to repeat himself. He did still have definite ideas about his music though. I do remember he made the same comment about Koussevitzky two or three times though. Based on my experiences with him in 1980 I was actually really surprised how sharp he seemed five years later. The remark about switching places (faculty/student) with Bernstein was quite clever.

[@echorrhea]

John Randolph Thank you for your reply. How incredible to think that these titans still walked the earth in 1980! And I thought the same thing in that exchange with Bernstein. Very sharp quip. I get the feeling that it must’ve taken tremendous forces of personal will to keep himself so composed.

[@srothbardt]

African Americans invented ragtime and jazz and the blues, not whites, and we shouldn’t forget that even though Copland and others are good, no doubt. That music is all written, not improvised, as jazz, etc.