Composer of the Week: Copland

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Patriotism, 1942

Patriotism, 1942

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Patriotism, 1942

How Copland’s engagement with current affairs shaped his worldview.

Donald Macleod explores how Copland’s engagement with world events shaped his friendships, his worldview and his music.

Donald Macleod explores how Copland’s active interest with current affairs shaped his worldview.

This week of programmes explores Aaron Copland’s most productive decade, and features some of his best-loved works in full. During this time, Copland hit his prime. He became recognised as America’s leading composer, winning the Pulitzer Prize in Music and an Academy Award for his work in Hollywood.

He toured Europe and South America, absorbing diverse influences from each, and composed key works including his Third Symphony, Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait, Fanfare for the Common Man and Rodeo.

We get a sense of how Copland’s personal and professional interests developed over the 1940s and learn about his friendships and challenges during and in the aftermath of World War II.

In this episode, Donald Macleod looks at Copland’s engagement with world events, and how it shaped his friendships and his worldview, from the Americana of Rodeo and the patriotism of Lincoln Portrait to the Hispaniana of Danzón Cubano. 

Music for Movies 
I. New England Countryside
London Sinfonietta
Elgar Howarth, conductor
  
Lincoln Portrait 
Maya Angelou, narrator
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Louis Langree, conductor 

Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Danzón Cubano - (version for 2 pianos)
Genova and Dimitrov Piano Duo


Produced by Iain Chambers for BBC Wales

Composer of the Week: Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores Aaron Copland's most productive decade, the 1940s.

Donald Macleod explores Aaron Copland's most productive decade, the 1940s, and features some of his best-loved works.

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Composer of the Week

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Patriotism, 1942

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