Aaron Copland: A Reflection of 20th Century Culture

Aaron Copland was arguably America’s most well known composer of the 20th century. He defined a distinctly American sound in pieces such as Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo, Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring, which are considered the epitome of American classical music. It is ironic that he came to be the quintessential American composer, given that he was born to a Russian-Jewish family, was gay, and an ardent leftist, perhaps belonging more to the margins rather than the mainstream American society. In fact he was blacklisted in the 1950s near the beginning of the cold war for his suspected communist ties. Despite this, his music has become the definition of American, instantly recognizable to most of modern society. Aaron Copland has been embraced and reviled unlike any other American composer because his music and life reflect the underlying optimism and fears that flourished in America during the 1940s and 1950s. In order to understand how Aaron Copland's music represented the hope and fears in America during the 1940s and 1950s, the causes of such emotions must be understood as well. During this mid-century era, America's emotional state was in constant motion, ranging from historic depression and pessimism in the early 1940s, to almost unrivaled prosperity and hope in the late 1940s, followed by fear and anxiety in the 1950s. Throughout it all, Copland's music reflected the emotions felt by many during the time period. During the 1930s, America endured a Great Depression and was drawn into World War II. These were not happy times. At the height of the Great Depression, 13 million Americans of

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working capacity were unemployed. The unemployment rate hit 25%. The stock market lost 90% of its value. Gross National Product in 1933 was half the level of 1929. Farmer’s income fell by 67% during this same period. Bank failures were common, stripping “millions of people of both shelter and life savings in a single stroke.” (Kennedy, 162-164) The GDP of the United Sates was $103B in 1929, an output that was not exceeded until 1942. (US Dept of Commerce). Such statistics suggest that the country was stagnant, and there was little reason to hope for a new prosperity. While the American people were suffering economically, they entered a war they did not want to join. People still remembered the tragic losses of the Great War (WWI), “No people came to believe more emphatically than the Americans that the Great War (WWI) was an unalloyed tragedy, an unpardonably costly mistake never to be repeated. More than fifty thousand American doughboys had perished fighting on the western front, and to what avail?” (Kennedy 387) This quote emphasizes the feelings of pessimism associated with entering another costly war. When America entered World War II in December of 1941, it had lived through ten years of economic misery and was now entering a war to end all wars. The American people were tired of war, tired of economic stagnation, and tired of the misery prevalent before World War II. These were times when Americans were looking for any reason to be hopeful, yet it seemed as if there were none to be found. In what now can be viewed as a great irony, it was at this dark moment of economic scarcity and war that Americans began to find sources of hope. America won the war and the war in turn cured the great depression. The war effort required the production of war materiel

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such as planes and tanks, creating a significant market for American industry at home and abroad. As a result, the economy began to take off, “Contracts began to flood out of the military purchasing bureaus—over $100B worth in the first six months of 1942, a stupefying sum that exceeded the value of the entire nation’s output in 1941." (Kenney 626) These numbers provide evidence of this jumpstarted economy. Such economic growth continued in postwar America providing Americans with the promise of prosperity and happiness in stark contrast to the scarcity and pessimism prevalent before the war. By the 1950s, many Americans had left the war and depression behind and were chasing the “American Dream”. This new mindset of many Americans indicated the change to a more positive outlook on the future of America and its citizens. The “American Dream”, as first stated by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book The Epic Of America defined it as, "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” (James Truslow Adams) During the 1950s, many seemed to be living the epitome of the “American Dream”. Unemployment averaged a mere 4 percent during the first five years of the decade. Disposable incomes were 178% higher than in 1935, more than half of all homes were owner occupied, and almost all children where going to school. (http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/1950.pdf" http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/1950.pdf) The 1950s were a time of security and of routine, that so many desired after the unstable times of the Depression and the beginnings of WW II. Living in the 1950s was an embodiment of the “American Dream”, and thus a feeling of inherent optimism was prevalent.

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Despite this surface of optimism, there was a dark side of paranoia that permeated the culture, causing fear and loathing. The 1950s search for safety and routine led to the sense that it was not safe to have political beliefs apart from those of mainstream America. This contradiction was pointed out in novels such as The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson which highlighted the comfort of the routine but also criticized the way the security of the age came at the expense of the individual. (Cit) This was also the era of Joseph McCarthy who, in trying to assure the ideal of 1950s era security, spent his time hunting for communists. Many people found themselves under scrutiny for the smallest offense that could be deemed even slightly communist. Blacklisting was a result of this scrutiny, especially in the entertainment industry, where thousands of artists, actors, screenwriters, musicians and directors were kept from participating in their craft due to their suspected communist ties (although many were never proven to be actual communists). (Patterson 190) In addition, despite the predominant happy thoughts in most Americans heads, lingering in the shadows of the mind was the very real fear of atomic attack on the United States, inflicted by the Soviet Union. The New York Times on May 13, 1951 published an article entitled “Antidote for Atomic Jitters” which described in almost therapeutic terms the fears that many Americans had of atomic annihilation. The article described the fears as the “elements in human nature that create such nervous disorders as the extreme form of ‘atomic jitters’. A person with this disorder is constantly on the alert for an evil force that he imagines is besetting him,. The [person] may decide the evil force is another person or he may give the enemy more obscure or abstract labels: The FBI, technology, electricity. There are styles in these enemies, styles which tend to reflect public

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preoccupations of the day. Atomic force is now one.” (NYT may13 1951) These often excessive fears led to a chronic anxiety in the American people over their personal safety. It was this fear of atomic attack, the subversion of the individual, and the persecution of suspected communists that created a disconnect between the two different sides of 1950’s culture; the appearance of happiness and routine, and the fear of any behavior that deviated from the mainstream. Aaron Copland’s work during the 1940s and 1950s reflected these changes in outlook. Copland’s success waxed and waned with the emotions of the era. When America was successful during the 1940s, so was he. When America was struggling and dealing with hidden fears during the 1950s, Copland was as well. To understand Copland’s music, it is necessary to understand his personal history. Aaron Copland was born November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. He began his musical studies in New York, but his most influential developmental years were spent in France and traveling around Europe. In fact, this most American of composers was thoroughly trained in the ways of European classical music. (Pollack ) He became a full time composer living in America in 1925. His biggest “hits” came in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s: Billy the Kid (1939), Rodeo (1942), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), Appalachian Spring (1944) and A Lincoln Portrait (1944). What made these hits so successful was the distinctly American optimism Copland integrated into his music. Copland used the emerging African American genre of jazz by adding jazz inspired idioms and syncopations to his scores. As Copland explains in his book Listening to Music, such idioms purged his pieces of feeling too European and provided a fresh sound, a

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sound that helped contribute to his reputation as “America’s Composer.” (Copland ) Further, Pollock credits Copland’s irregular jazz meters, quirky and playful rhythms (with odd beats tossed into the scores --- the first six measures of Appalachian Spring are in 4/4, 3/2, ¾, and 5/4 time), as well as folk song allusions to accents related to inflections found in American speech. Unlike European classical music, the classical music of Copland had vigorous angular motifs, sudden harmonic shifts, themes that grow and develop in real time, lean textures, bold, brassy percussion orchestrations and closely knit sonorities within widely space vertical chords that help an American defining an American sound. [Ex. ?] While European composers used large block chords to a large, forceful underlying sound, Copland used single lines of melodies, often carried by a single section or sometimes even a single player. Copland takes this single melody and builds on it, adding single players or sections at a time, building up what almost could be described as a round. At the heart of all of Copland’s music was the use of folk melodies sung by the earliest settlers. Steven Ledbetter points out that early American music consisted of “hymn tunes and ‘fuguing tunes’, theatrical songs and popular ditties, dances and marches: not what we think of when we think of ‘culture.’” (Ledbetter 51) What Copland did first and arguably better than anyone was take this American sound and incorporate into symphonic form. Beyond the American sound produced by Copland’s music are the actual emotions and feelings that the music produced for listeners. Webster’s defines optimism as, “the tendency to tale the most cheerful or hopeful view of matters or to expect the best outcome.” (Webster’s pg#1013) This emotion is certainly what Copland’s music produced. A feeling that all was right in the world, that things where finally starting to look up, the security that Americans longed for

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after WWII. Copland’s music produces images of a familiar and idealized America: sprawling, wide open planes full of roaming bison and cattle, untouched or pure rivers and mountains. It’s almost as if Copland took a picture of how America was for the pioneers and painted it using notes and melodies. Perhaps it was the use of classic folk melodies sung by Copland’s predecessors, or simply the bright, energetic force his music used. But one thing is certain, Copland’s music fills the listener with vivid images of America the way it is portrayed in stories; serene, glorious, with a community of settlers looking forward to the coming days with a cautious, but clear optimism. It is clear that the way Copland composed his music helped contribute to these feelings just as the notes themselves did. Looking back at the methods Copland used (accents related to inflections of American speech, vigorous angular motifs, sudden harmonic shifts, themes that grow and develop in real time, lean textures, bold brassy percussion orchestrations etc.) it is no wonder that textures in Copland’s pieces elicited thoughts of westward expansion or of the optimism of those first settling “the golden land”, America. Although he composed into the 1950s, he strayed from the style that made him beloved. He began using a new technique called the “12 tone method” where the composer used all 12 notes in the chromatic scale, once and only once, in a row. In this version of musical composition, no note is more important than any other, there is an obvious communist association with this type of egalitarian composing. In fact, 12 tone composers considered that no note was more important than any other note, and all notes were created equal (Ross 195). This is essentially communism through the use of notes. Thus using these new techniques, his works were much less appreciated. His music was not only critically panned but commercially his

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works were not nearly as successful, as the American people did not appreciate this communism in note form. (Ross 378-379) This new technique eventually led Copland to be associated with a group that was persecuted and avoided at all costs. In 1950, three former FBI agents published Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. It included a list of 151 people in the radio and television business with citations for their suspect involvement in various suspect organizations. Copland was on the list and, as a result, blacklisted. (Patterson 238) Because of this Aaron Copland had trouble renewing his passport and he was barred for a while from traveling abroad. Most amazingly his piece “A Lincoln Portrait” was pulled from President Eisenhower’s 1953 inauguration ceremony because of his suspected communist ties. To have a piece pulled from the most democratic of American events, the inauguration, because of suspected ties of the composer shows the pervasive fears of the era. This demonstrates how the fears surrounding Copland affected him and his music. Copland’s output dwindled after the mid 1950s. Copland commenting some years later on the trials and tribulations of the 1950s said, “an artist who is forced to live in an atmosphere of suspicion, ill-will and dread will end up creating nothing.” (Ross 383) Today, Aaron Copland is considered America’s composer, and his music is embraced with open arms across the country. As the decades have passed by, and America has evolved and progressed, so has the general opinion on Aaron Copland. Copland has gone from being embraced in the 1940’s, to reviled and feared in the 1950s. The connection to the emotions prevalent in the time and the music Copland produced is clear; during the postwar years Copland produced optimistic, glorious pieces such as Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian

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Spring. However, during the cold war and the red scare, Copland’s music reflected the doubt and suspicion surrounding him. His pieces became much less melodic, and far more thought provoking, no longer producing the clear images of glory they had once done so well. This change in musical style was due to the tribulations of Copland’s own life, as he was blacklisted and suffered hardship after hardship. However, today society once again embraces Copland’s music, and his pieces have been used in countless American productions, ranging from commercials to sporting events. It appears as if Copland has been forgiven as the paranoia of the cold war has faded, and Copland’s music can now be viewed again with clear vision as the epitome of the American sound. His music has endured, which is a simple gift to which we can all give thanks.

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