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Now in trade paperback: “The definitive guide to musical enjoyment” (Forum).

In this fascinating analysis of how to listen to both contemporary and classical music analytically, eminent American composer Aaron Copland offers provocative suggestions that will bring readers a deeper appreciation of the most viscerally rewarding of all art forms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

You don't need this book if you already love Copland's music
I've long resented this book for a couple of very simple reasons: Copland is preachy and condescending, telling you what to listen to, what to listen for, what's easy for you, and what may be too hard for you. I understand his motivation, but the result is an insult to the reader.The other peeve: Aaron the magician, the poet, the wizard of engineered sonic emotion, takes that magic away in a few overly long-winded chapters as he proceeds to explain how he has manipulated our emotions with his music for decades.Yes, we knew it, and we ate it up, sentimental, grand, patriotic, religious - all of it.

Better to listen to the great music of Mr. Copland and then hear his influence in hundreds of great films and good TV. The term "influence" may be too weak: Domination is more like it, in a way Copland's own influences like Debussy and Stravinsky and Bartok never enjoyed. Copland can be heard in the network news intro, the insurance company commercial, the coming home scene of many films, and it is a prime source of sonic Americana, rending heartstrings and rousing emotions - if you happen to be from America. Copland makes little sense to many Europeans, I discovered.

Save for yourself the wonder and mystery of this great composer, and skip his book!Listen intently to his music, and you will learn all you need to. In fact, never read a musician's book unless you already hate his music. It took me twenty years to forget and begin again to enjoy Copland as I once did, so fair warning, don't look behind the curtain.

If you are a musician, then of course it is worthwhile to get further insight into the work of this important composer, but if you are just a listener, like me, Copland's view from the inside dulls the sound and spoils the fun.

The modern "Redux" of this book, by Dan Levitin, is called "This is your brain on music".It's very good, and much less of a risk.

Too chit chatty
Sorry I don't like to have to read 40 pages to get one point. Just too much wording without giving me any progress in understanding. I'm just too impatient. I need at least every 5 sentences to add something. I'm sure it's a nice book if I had the time and could stay awake long enough to wait for a point to be made.

For beginners
If you've sung in a chorus or played in a band or orchestra, you'll know most of what's in the book.There are some insights however.It helps if you can read music.

an ear opener
With this book as a guide I learnt a lot about how music is structured and it showed me new and interesting ways to listen to music - although the focus is classical music if you listen to other types of music as well it is also relevant. It is not easy, you need to give it a lot of time, and access to a CD library so you can access all the works he uses to illustrate the book is very useful.

I started to learn the piano a couple of years ago and basic music reading skills and knowledge of an instrument have helped me get the most out of this book. This is not to say to you will not get something about it if you don't have these skills, just that is helps you get more.

Recommended - and a bargain at the price!

Great for beginners
A good introduction to the form of music for the layman.Copland presents the basics of theory in an easy to read manner geared towards actually listening to music, which is more useful and a dense theory text that does not help sharpen the listeners ear.I recommend this book for anyone who wants to attentively listen to an orchestra or band and doesn't have the time or resources for the formal study of music. ... Read more

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"Note on the Revised Edition: Almost twenty years have passed since the first edition of this book was issued in 1939. It is naturally gratifying to me to know that it has continued to be found useful by music listeners since that time, both in America and abroad. During the past two decades we have witnessed an unprecedented spread of interest in all forms of music throughout the world. Both the quantity and quality of music listening have changed, but fortunately for the author, the basic problems of "what to listen for" have remained about the same. For that reason, only minor corrections were needed in the body of the text. Two new chapters have added---one on the thorny question of how present-day composition should be listened to, the other considering the comparatively new province of film acoring and its relation to the movie-goer. The first of these added sections needs a word of explanation in view of my original claim, in the Preface to the first edition, that contemporary composition posed no special listening problems of its own. This still seems to me to be true. Nevertheless, it is equally true that after fifty years of so-called modern music there are still thousands of well-intentioned music lovers who think it sounds peculiar. It seemed worth an extra try to see if I could elucidate some few facets of new music listening that do not come within the scope of other chapters. Both new sections are based on articles originaly prepared for The New York Times Magazine. My thanks are due the editors for permission to recast some of the material originally printed there. At the back of the book a list of recordings of works mentioned in the text (with a few additions) will be found. For those interested in further reading, a short bibliography has been added, including a special listing of books by composer-authors. These were set down in the hope that listeners would want to hear composers speak for......" [by Aaron Copland, Crotonville, New York, 1957] ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pretty abysmal
Aaron Copland must have been one of those geniuses who was unable to convey his thoughts in writing very well -- at least that's the case with this book. This title was originally published in 1939, was revised in '57, and again in '67. And I think there's a fairly new one out but that one appears to have picked up a "co-author" (redactor?).

I acquired my 1967 edition of the book at the local Goodwill Store for fifty cents and thought I'd discovered a lost treasure. I'm a huge Classical Music fan as you'll see if you peruse my numerous reviews. I also read one book after another in the Classical Music and Composers genres. Anyway, I got home and began to read... or at least I tried.

I suppose if you are a classically-trained musician (I'm not -- I can't read a note) then you might extract something from this guide. But if you're like me, just a person who loves listening to one Classical Music CD after another, you will quickly be lost and frustrated as you attempt to digest Copland's text.

I have a strict rule: If I begin a book, I finish it, no matter how bad it is. Well, I stuck it out in this case but I'm no better off for having done so.

Copland was clearly a brilliant, first-class composer of Classical Music but as an author, in this instance, he didn't make the grade. Perhaps this work is just mis-titled (one thinks it's for newbies to Classical Music) but clearly it's not for the greenhorn to counterpoint, notation, and/or composition. ... Read more

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One of the most forthright and talented of American composers writes here of the part played by the freely imaginative mind in composing, performing, and listening to music. He urges more frequent performance and more sensitive hearing of the music of new composers. He discusses sound media, new and old, and looks toward a musical future in which the timbres and intensities developed by the electronic engineer may find their musical shape and meaning. He considers the twentieth-century revolt against classical form and tonality, and the recent disturbing political interference with the form and content of music. He analyzes American and contemporary European music and the flowering of specifically Western imagination in Villa-Lobos and Charles Ives.

The final chapter is an account, partially autobiographical, of the composer who seeks to find, in an industrial society like that of the United States, justification for the life of art in the life about him. Mr. Copeland, whose spectacular success in arriving at a musical vernacular has brought him a wide audience, will acquire as many readers as he has listeners with this imaginatively written book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Keeping in mind that this is based on lectures given by Copland
It's not written to be a concise analysis of any certain subject, but a series of lectures that could be enjoyed at the same time that they were informative.

This book provides great insight into the mind of our great American composer.He speaks on a wide range of subjects, but seems to cycle around the American classical music and it's development.He brings to mind the processes that go along with composing and creating music, and his respect and appreciation for other composers makes this a positive, uplifting but informative and thought-provoking book.

short but profound
Of all the books out there about music, page for page this is one of the best. It's a composer's perspective on why music gets composed, and HOW it gets composed. Copland takes you into the thought processes of musical creation. If you've ever been tempted to subscribe to the idea that music is a universal language, Copland undercuts that idea by exploring the theme of music as NONVERBAL SYMBOLS in a SYSTEM of inherited sounds. The second half of the book is dated, because he's addressing issues that were contemporary in the 1950s. But the first half is well worth reading.

To learn to listen
This book contains the text of the sixCharles Eliot Norton lectures that Copland gave at Harvard. Copland thinks about Music and its meaning. He speaks about the creation and appreciation of Music as activities of the Imagination. He rails against the fuddy- duddy music scene in which all over the world a very limited repertoire of classic works holds the stage. He talks about the special affinities composers have for different types of instruments. He argues for a greater openness to new Music. He distinguishes between the capacity of the ordinary listenerer and the professional musician in terms of their ability to anticipate what is next in the score.
He teaches throughout the meaning of being a listener and lover of Music. ... Read more

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This collection of 24 songs and arias draws on works that span the composer's lifetime, including his early experimental and mature Americana periods. Contents include: Four Early Songs, Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, arias from The Tender Land and The Second Hurricane, and more. ... Read more

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One of America's most beloved and accomplished composers, Aaron Copland played a crucial role in the coming of age of American music. This substantial biography is the first full-length scholarly study of Copland's life and work. A conductor, music critic, and teacher who wrote clearly and accessibly about music, Copland composed some of the twentieth century's most familiar works - Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man - in addition to a wealth of music for opera, ballet, chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, band, radio, and film. Howard Pollack's expansive and detailed biography examines Copland's musical development, his political sympathies, his personal life, and his tireless encouragement of younger composers, presenting a balanced and skillfully wrought portrait of an American original.Amazon.com Review
Opening with a 12-page chapter that gives a sharper impressionof the great American composer's personality than many full-lengthbooks, this superb biography goes from strength to strength as itelucidates Aaron Copland's background, beliefs, affiliations, andachievements. Music historian Howard Pollack depicts Copland (1900-90)as a man whose inner serenity and self-confidence enabled him toencompass "startling dichotomies" in his life and work. "A participantin the avant-garde, he wrote works of popular appeal," comments theauthor. "A Jewish, homosexual, liberal New Yorker, he became anational hero." Moving forward in a generally chronological manner,the narrative mixes two kinds of chapters. Some pursue themes overtime: his feelings about European music (he adored Stravinsky, wasambivalent about Mozart), his political commitments (which got himinto trouble during the McCarthy era), and his relationships withfellow composers and a host of nonmusical artists all equallydetermined to give America its own distinctive culture. Othersconcentrate on describing and analyzing groups of compositions:perennial favorites like Appalachian Spring and Billy theKid, of course, but also the concertos and symphonies respected byhis peers. In either mode, Pollack writes with a clarity and dignityeminently suitable to his subject, who seems as warmly appealing ashis music. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

AN AWESOME WORK ON ONE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST COMPOSERS
Howard Pollack has written a large, immensely-detailed, and very moving biography of a marvelous composer.Copland (1900-1990) was Jewish (Copland later wrote that his parents were "more traditional than religious, but observant"), and Pollack notes that "if Copland was discreet about his Jewish background, he never hid it either....(T)hroughout his life, Copland spoke warmly of the Jewish traditions he had grown up with."Copland was not traditionally religious, however: "He occasionally referred to God ... but he apparently rejected the idea of a personal deity who intervened in human affairs."His funeral was, at his request, nonreligious.

"Copland never joined a political party."He was nevertheless later compelled to testify at the McCarthy hearings "as a friendly but not particularly cooperative witness," who stated categorically, "I have not been a Communist in the past and I am not now a Communist."

Pollack covers all of the necessary biographical details fully, such as Copland's studying advanced composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.Furthermore, "Boulanger's efforts on behalf of his career also earned his gratitude."

Pollack's book is filled with insights into Copland and his music."Copland composed primarily at the piano ... he felt somewhat defensive about this practice until he learned that Stravinsky did likewise."Copland was also influenced by jazz (he later wrote, "I was born in Brooklyn, and that in Brooklyn we used to hear jazz around all the time"), but after writing his Piano Concerto (1926), he "felt I had done all I could with the idiom."

He notes that "to the end of his life, Copland named (Stravinsky) as his favorite twentieth century composer"; yet "Copland and Stravinsky maintained a rather cool friendship."Copland was also one of the first champions of the music of Charles Ives (Copland wrote a chapter on Ives in his book, The New Music: 1900-1960: Revised And Enlarged), and he not only encouraged its publication and performance, but he conducted it himself. Copland also championed the work of Roy Harris (even though Harris later felt that "Copland had usurped his reputation as the country's 'truly American' composer").

Leonard Bernstein nad a particularly fond relationship with Copland (Pollack writes that Bernstein was "blown away" at a party when he "realized that the charming, giggly, bespectacled man sitting next to him" was Copland, whom he had imagined as being a "bearded patriarch."

Copland's homosexuality is also dealt with fully, and tastefully.(Copland himself was rather discreet about his partners.)

Copland's late usage of the twelve-tone system is given a detailed treatment.Pollack notes that "A related cliche contends that the twelve-tone works represented a futile attempt to stay current.In fact, Copland adapted the method prior to its widespread popularity among American composers."

Sadly, "Aside fromthese few late piano pieces and some arrangements, Copland produced no new score in the last seventeen years of his life."Alzheimer's and senility claimed him increasingly during the 1970s and 1980s.

Pollack's book is a wonderful treatment of a wonderful man.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Profile of a couregous and talented composer
The book "Aaron Copeland: The Lifeand work of an Uncommon Man" is the story of a courageous sometimes private, but houmerous man who was not afraid to "stand up" for what he believed in and for what was truly the freedom that we must keep alive in this country. If you are at all interested in msic and courage and the impact that this man had on all arts, please read this book.

Great approach and thorough biography
When Pollack wrote this book, Copland desperately needed a biographer, and for a initial comprehensive effort, Pollack's book more than fills the bill.

The book is a hefty 550 pages, not counting notes and index, but its unorthodox organization--the chapters are chronological, alternating, for example, a history of a few works with an analysis of some aspect of Copland's life--keeps the story moving.In fact, this organizational gambit is about the only thing that makes a life so sprawling as Copland's manageable.By grouping together everything having to do with, say, Copland and European composers, in one chapter, he makes it much easier for the reader to sink his teeth into the subject and to refer back to a topic later on.

This book is almost a hagiography--Pollack clearly adores Copland and, if anything, views him as underappreciated.In particular, Pollack seeks to revive Copland's reputation as a "serious" composer, right up there in the 20th-century American canon with Ives.Along with such staples as "Appalachian Spring" and "Fanfare for the Common Man," Pollack wants us to recognize the achievements of his later, twelve-tone works.Further, he attempts (somewhat convincingly) to show the relationship between his "popular" works and the less-accessible ones, whereas Copland's works have often been seen as belonging to different "periods."

I wouldn't be surprised if someone supersedes this biography in another 15 or 20 years, but for now, Pollack's book is a great introduction to the man and his work.Not only that, but it places Copland's ascension from struggling artist to eminent public figure in such a way to inspire young artists in all fields.A great read.

Modish in parts, but still an essential guide to Copland
Whilst Esquire as early as 1948 called Copland "America's No. 1 Composer", secondary Copland literature (which, given Copland's habitat and distinction, one automatically credits with a forest-wrecking amplitude) proves surprisingly scarce. The first words of Pollack's own book are, in part: "For many years I took Copland for granted ... he remained a shadowy figure at some distance from the central concerns of myself, my classmates and my teachers".

Amazingly, between 1955 and the present volume not a single comprehensive study of Copland's life, by an outsider (as distinct from Copland's own explications of his aesthetic), appeared. "Essential" biographies of someone or other emerge, if we are to believe the book trade's spin-doctors, at least once every week; the account under review actually deserves this adjective. Its author (Professor of Music at the University of Houston) shows his love for Copland's oeuvre on every page, which helps; here is no glorified doctoral thesis where the authorial jargon struggles to drown out the authorial yawns.

Yes, as other reviewers have complained, modish identity politics get too indulgent a treatment; yes, as they have also complained, Pollack makes too small an effort to integrate his insights into a coherent structure. But we're not likely to encounter a better guide to the subject.

Variations on Copland
While occasionally indulging in tendentious "theory," University of Houston professor of music Howard Pollack's ambitious, uneven book is redeemed by the author's encyclopedic knowledge, informed affection forCopland's (1900-1990) person and music, and the biographer's ability, moreoften than not, to write technically sophisticated musical analyses withoutobscuring the music.

Given the identity politics dominating the newmusicology, for all its flaws, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of anUncommon Man, is a good and valuable book.It contains information frompreviously unavailable letters and interviews with the late composer'sfriends and relations.But why does a tenured, respected professor writingfor a trade house adopt the method of cobbling on end chapters dealing withtendentious, identity-political theory that can only detract from the work? And yet, at present, this may be as good as can be hoped for: Some theoryas encore, to satisfy the commissars.The alternative is, increasingly,all tin-eared theory, and no music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An invaluable book, pregnant of brilliant reflections!

Copland on music is a book that certainly should not be absent from your personal library. His author demonstrates a lexicon easily understandable by all kind of readers.

The book picks up more than thirty years of life experiences, witty reflections and sharp observations about the enriching existence of Copland around the world.

In the first part we have to Copland as invited to talk about the music and its meaning.

In the second chapter, he approaches about five personalities who definitively wererelevant in his craft: Serge Koussevitzky (whom he met in 1923), then Nadia Boulanger, Igor Stravinsky, the critioc Paul Rosenfeld and finally the painful letter in memoriam of William Kapell.

The third chapter is (to my mind) the most admirable and penetrating of all. He talks four masters: Mozart, Berlioz, Liszt and Faure with motive of his first centenary in 1945. There are four pages in which he analyzes Beethoven's musical legacy that should be kept in mind by all of us.

Then, he makes a brief analysis about the youngest generation of North American composers.

The next chapter deals with his sojourn in Europe spanned between 1927 and 1932 and five important Festivals: Zurich, 1926; Baden-Baden 1927; Paris, 1928; London, 1931 and Berlin, 1932. He also introduces around the South American composers.

The third part of the book is dedicated to comment briefly the works of Darius Milhaud, the sharp reflections about Benjamin Britten, Stepan Wolpe, Leon Kirchner and William Schumann, as well as written publications about Virgil Thompson, Schoenberg and Bartok.

The last section are occasional works: the first of them is titled. Are my ears wrong?; the interpreters and the new music, the dilemma of the North American Symphonic Orchestras and finally a reflection bout the rhythm's notation.

You will be totally rewarded with this astonishing book; absolutely dismissed, overlooked and forgotten musical essays written by one the most beloved North American composers: Aaron Copland.
... Read more

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The two sets of Old American Songs are beloved, standard vocal literature. This edition combines both sets in one publication, available for the first time with a CD of piano accompaniments. ... Read more

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Contents: Old American Songs (Complete) * Piano Concerto * John Henry. ... Read more

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Focuses on the life and music of the composer who brought American themes to classical music in such works as "El SalonMexico" and "Billy the Kid.". ... Read more

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Wonderful Book
Venezia's love and respect for music shine through in another of the books in his World's Greatest Composers series. The story of Aaron Copland's life is told in an interesting and amusing fashion and shows children howCopland discovered his own style through his experiences over the years.While Venezia's artwork is comical as ever, the choice of artwork is alsowonderful, showing how music as well as art changed as the times werechanging. Children will appreciate how Copland looked to change his musicalstyle when he realized that many people weren't understanding it. Veneziareally brings Aaron Copland to life in this wonderful little book. ... Read more

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Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War is the first sustained attempt to understand some of Copland's best known music in the context of leftwing social, political, and cultural currents of the Great Depression and Second World War.

In the 1930s Aaron Copland began to write in an accessible style he called "imposed simplicity." Works like El Salón México, Billy the Kid, Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring not only brought the composer unprecedented popular success but also came to define an American sound. Yet the political alignment behind this musical idiom--the social agenda that might be heard within these familiar pieces--has been largely overlooked, even though it has long been acknowledged that Copland subscribed to leftwing ideals.

His politics never merely accorded with mainstream New Deal liberalism or wartime patriotism, however, but advanced a progressive vision of American society and culture. His music from the thirties and forties relates to the politics of radical progressivism, which affirmed a fundamental sensitivity toward those less fortunate, support of multiethnic pluralism, belief in social democracy, and faith that America's past could be put in service of a better future. Investing symbols of America--whether the West, folk song, patriotism, or the people--with progressive social ideals, Copland's music wrestles with the political complexities and cultural contradictions of the era. ... Read more

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Text provides an overview of Aaron Copland's writings, taken from his books, essays, and diary. DLC: Copland, Aaron, 1900- . ... Read more

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Aaron Copland is one of America's most beloved musical pioneers, famous for Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Lincoln Portrait, as well as the movie scores for "Our Town" and "Of Mice and Men," and numerous orchestral and chamber works.This candid, colorful memoir begins with Copland's Brooklyn childhood and takes us through his years in Paris, the creation of his early works, and his arrival at Tanglewood.Rich with remembrances from Leonard Bernstein, Virgil Thomson, and Nadia Boulanger, as well as a trove of letters, photographs, and scores from Copland's collection, this is one of our most vivid musical autobiographies, and an enduring record of an American maestro's explosively creative coming of age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a gem of a book.
Copland not only gave us insight into his life, but the lives of the modern classical composers.Through this book you can learn the "family tree" of modern American and European composers. ... Read more

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In this fascinating analysis of how to listen to music intelligently, Aaron Copland, the noted modern composer, poses two basic questions: Are you hearing everything that is going on? Are your really being sensitive to it? If you cannot answer yes to both of these questions, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Whether you listen to Mozart or Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland's provocative suggestions for listening to music from the composer's point of view will bring you a deeper appreciation of the most rewarding of all art forms. ... Read more

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A great book by the master American composer Aaron Copland
I read this for the first time back in about 1989 and it taught me the basics of listening to classical music because that was when I first started buying classical cds. I thought that I had lost the book but found it in the back of my closet a few weeks ago. I think I've forgotten about half of what I learned going through it the first time so I think I'm going to have to give it a second read. A lot of it is on the art of music in general, so if you're not into classical music, it's still a very good book to read. When you learn what the basic terms in the classical music genre are, it makes listening to classical music a lot more rewarding to a newbie like I was back then. This is definitely one of the greater manuals about classical music you will find and definitely one of Aaron Copland's finest achievements in his long illustrious career. ... Read more

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Just what is needed
First: read this book next to the score, take out a pencil, and start annotating the score as you read.


This is the exact type of book on music that is the most informative and useful, but it is also the exact type of book on music one hardly ever sees. The author methodically steps through each song pointing out how the song works. The author freely expresses his opinions, yet any intelligent reader can see them as such. In a way, after reading the author's analysis, one knows enough about the music to even argue against the author's conclusions. The book is verly loosely footnoted, but this gives the impression the author does not feel constrained in his writing.

Other books in this category include Rheinhold Brinkmann's "Late Idyll" (the Brahms 2cd Symphony), David Fanning's book on the Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet, and George Stauffer's book on the Bach B-Minor Mass.

One rarely sees this type of discussion "more academic" writing [sorry for the scare quotes]. What is perhaps the most famous series of books on single works in English, the Cambridge Music Handbooks, fails to accomplish what this author does. That series formats the discussion in terms of a series of articles on various facets of each work, but none of these articles sufficiently covers the innards of this music.


The only unfortunate thing is the book's typography - not the author's fault. The body text is given a sans-serif typeface on lines far too wide to support its readability. The edges are ragged, and the type is far too tracked (i.e. too much space between words). I'm not a typography snob, but just happen to know the terminology and recognize this is one of the worst typeset books I have ever seen.

The Dickinson Songs of Aaron Copland
The text and the enclosed CD are an excellent tools for the study these songs and also as an introduction to the poetry of Emily Dickinson. The footnotes and bibliography provide useful leads for further study. The entire score is essential for fully appreciating the detailed examination of each song although the text includes many musical examples. Ideally the text would have been enhanced if it were possible to provide a miniature score of the songs along with numbering of measures.
James L. Franklin, M.D. ... Read more

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Hailed as important, entertaining, and revealing, Copland: Since 1943 is composer Aaron Copland's irresistible account of the latter half of his career--a career that brought us such pioneering works as Appalachian Spring and Lincoln Portrait, the movie scores for Of Mice and Men and Our Town, and numerous other orchestral and chamber works.It tells the story of how a self-described "brash young man from Brooklyn" went on to become one of the founding fathers of "serious" American music.Featuring cameos by luminaries such as Leonard Bernstein, Martha Graham, Agnes de Mille, Benny Goodman, and other peers of Aaron Copland during this explosively creative period, Copland: Since 1943 is an invaluable memoir that charts the crescendo of one of the most accomplished careers in the modern canon. ... Read more

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well-written memoir from a genius
It was a gift to read Copland in his own words. Not only was he a genius composer, an articulate teacher, critic, teacher, mentor, but a firm believer in modern American music. ... Read more

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Aaron Copland was one of the twentieth century's most popular and distinguished composers. Copland was born in 1900 in Brooklyn, where he began his musical career, before moving to the Paris in the 1920s, where Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Les Six were the centre of attention. On his return to the United States at the end of the decade he began to produce a series of works which could leave no one in any doubt that American composers were capable of writing music equal to the best of their European contemporaries. This chronological survey of Copland's work discusses ever one of his compositions and examines his influential writings on music. Profusely illustrated with music examples and photographs, it includes a conversation on the piano music with Aaron Copland and Leo Smit and also features sketches of Copland in rehearsal by Milein Cosman. ... Read more

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Charles Ives and Aaron Copland are two composers whose works define what is now considered to be the "American sound" in classical music. Though they couldn’t have been more different in disposition, these two brilliant minds helped shape the musical consciousness of an entire era. Ives and Copland: A Listener’s Guide explains—in vivid, picturesque detail—why we still listen with admiration to the work of these men, and how their personalities and the era in which they lived affected their music.

The accompanying CD includes a sampling of their music from masterworks such as Appalachian Spring and The Unanswered Question to less common (yet every bit as worthwhile) gems. Guided listenings deliver a comprehensive account of exactly how the pieces work.

Though these men don’t lack for documentation, Ives and Copland: A Listener’s Guide is an easier, more intimate introduction to their work and lives for the layman or neophyte—or even for the musician—who wants to know more about these composers.Amazon.com Review
The title of this book is a misnomer: there are no parallels between these two composers' lives except that both were Americans and musical innovators. They were as different as they could be. Copland was an open-hearted, open-minded cosmopolitan New Yorker, who, actively engaged in human and social affairs, wrote mainly accessible music and books for the people. Ives was an embittered, idealistic, secretive recluse who wrote mainly inaccessible music and books for himself while selling insurance for a living. Yet, as Daniel Felsenfeld shows in this thoughtful, enlightening book, each in his own way laid the foundation for what came to be defined as the "American" sound and spirit in music. Convinced that a composer's work is inseparable from his life and personality, Felsenfeld divides his book into three inventively organized sections. Beginning with a brief biography and ending with a discussion of some of his subjects' striking characteristics, he shows how their training and experiences influenced their work and careers and then devotes the central part to analyzing their music. Guidance for listening and understanding is aided by a CD of their most familiar compositions in excellent performances.

Copland, son of Jewish Polish-Lithuanian immigrants, studied with Nadja Boulanger, but being surrounded by French music and culture only strengthened his resolve to become an "American" composer. Despite a brief flirtation with serialism, he was determined to close the gap between composer and audience, and he succeeded admirably: his colorful scores, often suffused with folk and jazz idioms, speak to everyone; he became not only one of the most popular, but most respected composers of his time. Ives, whose musician father opened his ears to unheard-of musical combinations, was born into a New England family steeped in transcendental philosophy. His music, eccentric and deliberately perverse, is an acquired taste. Any composer who feels impelled to write a long, linguistically and philosophically impenetrable essay explaining his "magnum opus" can hardly expect to capture a large audience. Felsenfeld makes the best possible case for it, but one senses admiration rather than love. The author's style is not always felicitous (Copland's teacher "feared that Ives' influence might improperly influence the talented young man"), but having obviously read all of Copland's popular and Ives' indigestible writings, he was perhaps improperly influenced himself. --Edith Eisler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

What's on the CD you ask...
Since a third of the book is dedicated to the discussion and dissection of Charles Ives' and Aaron Copland's compositions, here is a listing of the music on the accompanying BMG CD: 1) Copland: Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra with Harp and Piano; 2) Copland: Appalachian Spring; 3) Copland: El Salon Mexico; 4) Ives: The Unanswered Question; 5) Ives: "Memories"; 6) Ives: "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven"; and 7) Ives: Three Places in New England - II. "Putnam's Camp". The recording is dominated by Michael Tilson Thomas who appears as both conductor of the London and San Francisco Symphonies and as pianist on "Memories."Also on the disc are Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra (Appalachian Spring) and Eduardo Mata conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (El Salon Mexico).

introduction to the music with a CD
Brief biographies of the two premier American composers are followed by tutorials on their music focusing on better-known, widely-aclaimed pieces. The guide succeeds in making the music accessible without dumbing it down at all or trying to popularize it. Felsenfeld is himself a composer and a music writer bringing to the task not only compatibility with Ives and Copland, but also an educator's understanding of the reader's position in wanting to learn more about them and enhance appreciation of their music. With the book is the treat of a CD offering ample samplings of music, including Copland's complete "Appalachian Spring" and four pieces of Ives', who wrote shorter, intense works.
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Product Description
A biography of one of the prominent twentieth-century American composers whose music encompasses many forms including opera, ballet, symphony, and concerto. ... Read more