Great Composers: Aaron Copland

A look at "the Dean of American Composers."
This was a video request from KZbinr kevs musicandstuff. See all requests at www.lentovivace....
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Classical Nerd is a weekly video series covering music history, theoretical concepts, and techniques, hosted by composer, pianist, and music history aficionado Thomas Little.
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Music:
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring, performed by the Sydney Camerata Chamber Orchestra conducted by Luke Gilmour [original upload: CJYVH_kZkOk]
Thomas Little: Dance! #2 in E minor, Op. 1 No. 2, performed by Rachel Fellows, Michael King, and Bruce Tippette
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Contact Information:
Questions and comments can be directed to:
nerdofclassical [at] gmail.com
Tumblr:
classical-nerd.tumblr.com
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All images and audio in this video are for educational purposes only and are not intended as copyright infringement. If you have a copyright concern, please contact me using the above information.

[@ClassicalNerd]

The lighting gets kind of weird in this one, but hey-new set! Finally, I'm not abnormally close to the camera. It's wonderful. I'll be working out the kinks in this new setup in the coming weeks.

[@IFStravinsky]

I was fortunate enough to meet Copland after a concert in 1971. Still have the program he signed.

[@howardmcclellan2022]

Me too. I met him after a concert in London and he signed my copy of my scores of this Third Symphony and "El Salon Mexico" This was in 1972 (they were not on the programme that night, but I took them along anyway!)

[@edwarddonathan3661]

Wonderful video! Hope to see you get some more fans soon, this stuff is great

[@ornleifs]

Exellent video, learned a lot - thanks for this.

[@JustMiluna]

What a video,I enjoyed it so much! Spread the knowledge boy 💕🎶

[@prestopiano88]

I particularly enjoyed this video and the synopsis of what a challenge it is to define the Copland sound. Great insights into his humanity and his legacy.

[@maxcohen13]

Great video.

[@autsni]

Haven't seen a video in a bit, I'm liking the new setup

[@pulsebot5710]

ooooh new format! looks really great, I really like it :) ive never really been a fan of copland's music but ive always respected the man for his role in music history and how much he did for American music!

[@bogdan98ify]

Try listening to his more light and popular music (if you haven't, of course 😅) Outdoor overture, el Salon Mexico, symphony 3...

[@farticusmaximusOG]

Yes!

[@IPANoah]

Copland's late great masterpiece of 12 tone is Inscape. If you only know his populist music, check that piece out.

[@finneganlindsay]

I've heard modernism defined as "Extremely aware of one's own place in history", and I think that explains the audience-composer gap. We learn about the great composers, the great revolutionaries in large detail, and we say; "I will be the next Wagner, etc.... Audiences will be stunned and cannot comprehend my music just like them". But without creativity, originality, or respect, the results are dangerous, just like how the modern school of thought acted/currently acting. Don't take this as a dig on modernism, I love a lot of it, but what I see in some composers is the need to be absolutely revolutionary without good ideas to back it up, completely unlike Wagner, Shoenberg, etc.

[@Mackeson3]

Great video! I love Copland's music. I also love the story Leonard Slatkin tells of a conversation he had with Copland about American symphonies. He happened to mention that he thought "The 3rd symphony was the greatest American symphony ever written." Of course Copland was very happy to hear this and replied with something on the lines of "Oh thank you Len that's very kind of you to say that. " To which Slatkin replied "Er not yours Aaron, I meant The Roy Harris!" At first Copland was a bit taken aback by this, then he thought for a moment, then smiled and said "You know, you're probably right!" He is! I love Roy Harris's music too...on the whole... although it's got to be said some of his very last works are embarrassingly bad.

[@pearspeedruns]

Mackeson3 This is great! Thanks for sharing

[@MikePulcinellaVideo]

Love this series!

[@brendaboykin3281]

Thanx, Maestro 🌹🌹🌹

[@timothytikker1147]

You mention George Gershwin, also Nadia Boulanger: Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, with Boulanger as organ soloist, was premièred in Aeolian Hall in New York City in the same concert series as was Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Copland in an interview told how after that concert Damrosch said "you know why I said that about you committing murder, don't you?" to which Copland said "yes, of course!" It was meant as a joke, and specifically to help appease the little old ladies who frequented those concerts.

[@timothytikker1147]

And you mention Copland's score for the film The Heiress. In an interview in a PBS TV documentary years ago, Copland told a story about writing that score. Towards the middle of the film, there's a scene in which the title character, played by Olivia de Havilland, is going to elope, only to realize that her fiancé is not coming. Copland told how wrote very romantic-sounding music for that scene. But when the film was first screened to a trial audience, when the heiress realized that the fiancé was not coming, the audience laughed. The director then went to Copland and said that for the audience to laugh at that point was disastrous, as that completely defeated the remainder of the film, adding "and you have to fix it!" So Copland thought and thought about what music was really needed at that point, and finally decided on a mood that was quite tense and agitated, which music he described as dissonant and "quite modern-sounding for its day." When that music cue replaced the old one, and the film then screened for another trial audience, there was no laughter -- mission accomplished! Copland said that this deeply impressed him with what capability film music had for manipulating the audience's emotions. Years later, I finally rented a video of the film and watched it. I watched a rewatched that particular scene, so as to hear exactly what Copland did with it, finally timing the cue, which was just over 30 seconds long. It was amazing to think that a mere half-minute of music could make or break an entire film!

[@roberts9301]

Aaron. Coplands. The. Composers. King.

[@floridaclarinetstudio2338]

GREAT WORK AND RESEARCH!! :) FYI in interviews Copland Pronounces it RODAYO :) #greatmusic

[@pearspeedruns]

Great video! I've gotten interested in Copland recently after hearing the NSO perform Symphony No. 3. Edit: I'd also like to request a bump on your video on Pictures at an Exhibition!

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@Snardbafulator]

You have to do a vid on Roger Sessions, broskis.

[@emily-crawford-soprano9181]

This is a great way to introduce Copland to a wider audience! Thank you! May I have your works cited for this video? Which was your fave bio to read? I'm partial to Annegrette Fauser. ALSO YOU PRONOUNCED BERKSHIRE LIKE A LOCAL I CAN'T EVEN!!!

[@ClassicalNerd]

The book on my shelf is Howard Pollack's 1999 book _Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man,_ which is thorough ... but I tend to find Pollack's writing rather dry. While this video predates my more rigorous cataloguing of cited works, I usually try to find theses and dissertations pertaining to the composer/topic. I usually delete these after I'm done to save space on my hard drive, but I still have two hanging around: "A Study of Tonality in Selected Works of Aaron Copland" by Steven David Creighton (Ph.D, University of British Columbia) and "Tonal Coherence in Copland's Music of the 1940s" by Stanley V. Kleppinger (Ph.D, Indiana University).

[@emily-crawford-soprano9181]

@@ClassicalNerd This is all wonderful.... I can't recommend Alex Ross enough, the work he has on Copland in "The Rest is Noise" is short, but the through-line draws the reader in like it's a novel. Thanks for the reading list, it'll help me in my own research on his opera #TheTenderLand

[@ryangonzalez1956]

Love the video, I'm currently writing a term paper on Copland and stumbled upon the Dvorak quote used at around 4:20. I'd love to reference this if possible.

[@ClassicalNerd]

I did not directly quote Dvořák, but rather conveyed his overall attitude towards American music. He ran an early American conservatory and taught African-Americans for free to promote the nascent American musical tradition; more information can be found in my video on Dvořák at kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKOzeKOtZpp_d7s (and I can always be reached at the e-mail address in the description of every video).

[@Tuba_Travis]

Finally! I always wish Rodeo was just pronounced the right way. Somebody finally said it!

[@blackmagentaorange5940]

17:20 McCohorts. So good.🤣🤣🤣

[@neo-eclesiastul9386]

cool video, like always! make a video about Krzyzstof Penderecki. I know he is still alive, but... if not, make one about Witold Lutoslawski

[@ClassicalNerd]

Lutosławski has been added to the request pool.

[@sebastianzaczek]

Classical Nerd make sure to pronounce his name correctly...😂😃

[@seaotter4439]

@@sebastianzaczek Loo-toh-SWAV-ski?

[@sebastianzaczek]

@@seaotter4439 yeah

[@sebastianzaczek]

Nice new set, nice video... *nice* Also, i'd like to be the 3rd Person to request Frank Zappa... can you give it an upvote in the request Pool?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Zappa has been boosted in the pool.

[@sebastianzaczek]

Classical Nerd 😃

[@seanramsdell4172]

Requests: Randall Thompson, Virgil Thomson and David Diamond

[@ClassicalNerd]

Added.

[@michaelwu7678]

Love your channel! Why no video on Mozart though? :(

[@ClassicalNerd]

You're the third to request Mozart so far, and have thus been reflected in the request pool: lentovivace.com/requestqueue.html

[@michaelwu7678]

Classical Nerd Oh wow thanks!

[@tomd3765]

Could I suggest Erich Wolfgang Korngold to the great composer request list? Thanks. :D

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@neo-eclesiastul9386]

how dare you say Ives is not the first American composer? you know how much this hurts?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Like I said, it pains me a great deal too-but Copland's sound is much more typically associated with what came to be heard as "American" than is Ives'.

[@neo-eclesiastul9386]

just because is more known and more conservative, also more pleasant for the ear, or more entertainfully?

[@ClassicalNerd]

There were more composers of Copland's era who followed Copland's melodic/orchestrational style, so that the quirks of Copland's sound became identifiable to an international audience as "American." Ives' music and style did not latch onto the public consciousness until after Copland's sound was already established.

[@ericrakestraw664]

Actually, American classical music goes back as far as Colonial times with psalm books brought over from Europe by settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One of the first composers born in America was William Billings (1746-1800), who wrote many choral pieces during the American Revolution years. His teachings, particularly in the Sacred Harp singing technique, would have a profound influence on American religious music of the 19th century.

[@neo-eclesiastul9386]

Eric Rakestraw yeah, but they composed pretty rudimentary, and the 19th century composers composed in the style of the European tradition Charles Ives is the first composer to be considered truly "American"

[@sebastianzaczek]

1:09 try "Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz" (i hope that's how it's written), it is from a movie about the 2nd world war... kzbin.info/www/bejne/ql7JlKWkZqqXn80 Yes, Polish names are hard

[@maxalaintwo3578]

Don't agree with the commie sympathies, but nevertheless love his music and general American vibe!

[@ScoBroCity]

Roh-day-oh or the pronunciation that sounds “stupid” would be the pronunciation in the actual language the word is from. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@amedeelefroiddemereaux2865]

Can you do Mereaux plz?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Méreaux has been bumped up in the request pool.

[@amedeelefroiddemereaux2865]

Classical Nerd thx!

[@fancy4121]

Queen?

[@georgealderson4424]

?

[@erniepianezza8940]

Hello Tom, or is it Thom? or is Thomas the only way to go for you?? i enjoy yr vids, but using words like (stupid) really turn me off. I'm the least pretentious person you'd ever meet in your life, but for some reason i like the pronunciation Ro-day-o as opposed to Ro-de-o, to me it gives it a tad more elegance(again a totally unpretentious pizan' here) It's like the different pronunciations of Leroy Anderson's first name: Some simply say Lee Roy, but some give it a bit more dignity and say La' Roy I think YOUR bit of (pseudo huffiness) is ADORABLE....... Btw..... I love La' Roy's works, could you please do one on him?? Also David Rose? I love in particular their Christmas compositions: L.A's Sleigh Ride and D.R's The Christmas Tree, both composed in the 1950's Much Peace and continued success to you always! ern 😱😨😷 😁