Aaron Copland
20th Century · 1900–1990
Aaron Copland grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who ran a department store, and at twenty he sailed to Paris to study with the famous teacher Nadia Boulanger. He came home determined to write music that sounded unmistakably American, and by the late 1930s he had found it: wide, open harmonies and borrowed folk tunes that somehow evoke prairie and small town.
The ballet scores fixed that sound in the public ear. Billy the Kid drew on cowboy songs, and Appalachian Spring, written for the dancer Martha Graham, won him the Pulitzer Prize. During World War II he wrote Fanfare for the Common Man for brass and drums, three minutes of music that has opened everything from concerts to Olympic broadcasts since.
Start with Appalachian Spring, then put on Fanfare for the Common Man and hear how much he could say in a very short span.
87 works in the catalog, across 5 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.
Chamber
- Violin Sonata
- 2 Pieces for String Quartet
- 2 Pieces for Violin and Piano
- 2 Threnodies, for flute and string trio
- Duo, for flute and piano
- Lament, for cello and piano
- Movement for String Quartet
- Nonet, for 3 violins, 3 violas, and 3 cellos
- Piano Quartet
- Poème, for cello and piano
- Prelude no. 1, for violin and piano
- Prelude no. 2, for violin and piano
- Sextet, for clarinet, piano, and string quartet
- Vitebsk, study on a Jewish theme, for piano trio
Keyboard
- Piano Variations
- 2 Children's Pieces
- 3 Moods
- 3 Sonnets
- 4 Piano Blues
- Danza de Jalisco, for 2 pianos
- Danzón cubano, for 2 pianos
- Down a Country Lane
- Episode, for organ
- In Evening Air
- Midsummer Nocturne
- Night Thoughts
- Passacaglia
- Petit Portrait
- Piano Fantasy
- Piano Sonata
- Piano Sonata in G
- Sentimental Melody
- The Cat and the Mouse, scherzo humoristique
Orchestral
- Clarinet Concerto
- El Salón México
- Fanfare for the Common Man
- Lincoln Portrait, for speaker and orchestra
- Symphony for Organ and Orchestra
- Symphony no. 3
- 2 Mexican Pieces, for orchestra
- 4 Dance Episodes from Rodeo
- An Outdoor Overture
- Billy the Kid, orchestral suite from the ballet
- Ceremonial Fanfare, for brass ensemble
- Connotations
- Emblems, for concert band
- Inscape
- John Henry, railroad ballad
- Letter from Home, for dance orchestra
- Music for Movies
- Music for Radio: Saga of the Prairies
- Music for the Theatre, suite for small orchestra
- Our Town, suite from the film score
- Piano Concerto
- Preamble for a Solemn Occasion, for speaker and orchestra
- Quiet City, for English horn, trumpet, and strings
- Quiet City Suite, for orchestra
- Red Pony, suite for orchestra
- Statements
- Symphonic Ode
- Symphony no. 2, "Short Symphony"
- Tender Land, suite from the opera
Stage
- Appalachian Spring Ballet
- Billy the Kid Ballet
- Rodeo Ballet
- Dance Panels Ballet
- Grogh
- Of Mice and Men
- Our Town
- The City
- The Cummington Story
- The Heiress
- The Tender Land Opera
Vocal
- 3 Songs, for voice and piano
- 4 Motets
- 8 Poems of Emily Dickinson, for voice and orchestra
- 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson
- Banu
- Canticle of Freedom, for chorus and orchestra
- In the Beginning, for mezzo-soprano and chorus
- Lark, for chorus and orchestra
- Las Agachadas, for soloists and chorus
- Old American Songs no. 1
- Old American Songs no. 2
- Pastorale Song
- Poet's Song, for voice and piano
- Vocalise-etude, wordless song
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