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Aaron Copland

b: Brooklyn, New York, USA, Nov 14, 1900

d: , 5, 1990

Aaron Copland was an American composer of concert and film music. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers." Copland's music achieved a balance between modern music and American folk styles. The open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. Copland incorporated percussive orchestration, metric changes, polyrhythms, polychords, and tone rows in a broad range of works for the concert hall, theater, ballet and films. In addition to being a composer, Copland was a teacher, lecturer, critic, writer and conductor, generally, but not always, of his own works.

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A melody is not merely something you can hum.

antithesis of self-consciousness.

Don't ever let him near a microphone.

If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach.

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, Is there a meaning to music? My answer would be, Yes. And Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be, No.

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.