The Musical World of Aaron Copland Essay -- Biography Music

Aaron Copland was born on November 14th, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York, United States (3). His parents, Harris Morris Copland and Sarah Mittenthal Copland, were Jewish immigrants from Russia (6). Copland had four older siblings who grew up together. When he was eleven years old, one of his sisters, Laurine, taught him how to play a piano (3). Laurine also influenced to his musical world by introducing him to ragtime and opera (6). From 1913 to 1917, he took his first formal piano lessons from Leopold Wolfsohn (3, 6). Wolfsohn introduced him to the pieces of the great musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart. When he was fifteen, he attended a concert by composer Ignacy Paderewski. The dream of becoming a composer sprouted inside him after attending the concert (3). While he is attending Boys’ High School in 1917, he began to study composition and music theory through taking corresponding courses taught by Rubin Goldmark (2). Rubin Goldmark was a very conservative American composer, who discouraged modern music. After his graduation from Boy’s High School in 1918, he chose to study composition with Goldmark instead of attending to a university (6). He also received piano lessons from Victor Wittgenstein and Clarence Alder. He was exposed to various genres of music by attending to operas and concerts. The Cat and the Mouse (1920) was his first published composition that was not shown to Goldmark. The Cat and the Mouse is a literal composition which fast tempo depicts the mouse while slow tempo depicts the cat (1). In 1921, he wrote the Piano Sonata for Goldmark (6) Copland did not like the conservative musical world of United States (1). After he completed the Piano Sonata, he left United States and continued his studying in American... ...siconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e2406>. Web. 3. Copland, Aaron, and Vivian, Perlis. Copland: 1900 through 1942. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. Print. 4. Copland, Aaron, and Vivian, Perlis. Copland: Since 1943. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. Print. 5. Griffiths, Paul. "Copland, Aaron." The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 16 Jan. 2011 . Web. 6. Howard Pollack. "Copland, Aaron." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 16 Jan. 2011 . Web. 7. Pollack, Howard. Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999. Print. 8. Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2010. Print.