名人軼事48:American Music Composer Aaron Copland

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I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today

we tell about Aaron Copland, one of America’s best modern music composers.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Aaron Copland wrote many kinds of music. He wrote music for the orchestra,

piano, and voice. He wrote music for plays, movies and dance. Copland also

was a conductor, pianist, speaker, teacher and author.

Aaron Copland

Music critics say Copland taught Americans about themselves through his

music. He used parts of many old traditional American folk songs in his work.

He was influenced to do this after studying music in France. He said that

composers there had a very French way of writing music. He said Americans had

nothing like that in this country. So he decided to compose music that was

truly American.

VOICE TWO:

Aaron Copland was born in nineteen hundred in Brooklyn, New York. He was the

youngest of five children. His parents had come to the United States from

eastern Europe. They owned a store in Brooklyn. Aaron began playing the piano

when he was a young child. He wrote his first song for his mother when he was

eight years old. His dreams of becoming a composer began when he was young.

When he was sixteen, he urged his parents to let him study composing with

Rubin Goldmark. Goldmark had taught the composer George Gershwin.

VOICE ONE:

When he was in his early twenties, Copland went to Paris where he studied

music with Nadia Boulanger. She was one of the most important music teachers

of the time. He returned to New York in nineteen twenty-four.

The famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky,

learned about Copland's music. Koussevitzky led the orchestra for the first

performance of Copland's early work, "Music for the Theater," in nineteen

twenty-five. Koussevitzky also conducted Copland's "Concerto for Piano and

Orchestra" in nineteen twenty-seven. This work was unusual because Copland

used ideas from jazz music in his concerto.

VOICE TWO:

Copland later wrote the music for two ballets about the American West. One

was about the life of a famous gunfighter called Billy the Kid. Copland used

music from American cowboy songs in this work. This piece from "Billy the

Kid: Ballet Suite" is called "Street in a Frontier Town. "

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen forty-two, the conductor Andre Kostelanetz asked Copland to write

music about a great American, Abraham Lincoln. Copland wrote "Lincoln

Portrait" to honor America's sixteenth president. Copland's music included

parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the American Civil War.

He added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters.

"Lincoln Portrait" has been performed many times in America. Many famous

people have done the speaking part. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President

Franklin Roosevelt, was one of them. Here, actor James Earl Jones performs in

Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."