Aaron Copland : the life and work of an uncommon man

Author / Creator

Pollack, Howard

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Summary

"The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Aaron Copland (1900-90) became one of America's most beloved and esteemed composers." "Howard Pollack's meticulously researched and engrossing biogra...

"The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Aaron Copland (1900-90) became one of America's most beloved and esteemed composers." "Howard Pollack's meticulously researched and engrossing biography presents Aaron Copland in all his symphonic grandeur and nuanced complexity. Pollack explores Copland's childhood in Brooklyn, his studies with Nadia Boulanger against the background of Paris in the 1920s, his return from France to write music commissioned by Serge Kousse-vitzky, his efforts on behalf of other composers and his involvement with Harold Clurman's Group Theatre, his romantic relationships, his work in Hollywood during the thirties and forties, his leftist activities and his hearing before a congressional committee during the McCarthy period, his controversial adoption of the twelve-tone method of composition, his conducting career, and his struggle with debilitating dementia in his final years." "Pollack also details Copland's achievements as critic, teacher, and lecturer, summarizing his thoughts on such subjects as the great European tradition, the music of the United States and Latin America, postwar avant-garde, jazz, and rock." "Fittingly, Pollock devotes much of his energies to informed and valuable discussions of Copland's music, explaining and clarifying its newness and originality, its aesthetic and social aspects, its distinctive and enduring personality."--BOOK JACKET.

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