Aaron Copland

Sound

Aaron Copland

Born November 14, 1900 · Brooklyn, New York

Died December 2, 1990 · aged 90

Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the va…

Known For

He Got GameHe Got Game · 1998
He Got Game
6.71998
MovieDrama
A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.
The HeiressThe Heiress · 1949
The Heiress
7.81949
MovieDramaRomance
In 1840s New York, the uneventful and boring days of the daughter of a wealthy doctor come to an end when she meets a dashing poorer man — who may or may not be after her inheritance.
Copland, BernsteinCopland, Bernstein · 2014
Copland, Bernstein
2014
MovieMusic
From the Giovanni Agnelli Auditorium in Turin: Aaron Copland, Danzon Cubano; Heitor Villa-Lobos, Bachianas brasileiras No. 2; Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story symphonic dances. Conductor John Neschling. RAI National Symphony Orchestra.
The CityThe City · 1939
The City
6.01939
MovieDocumentary
A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men · 1939
Of Mice and Men
7.31939
MovieDrama
An intellectually disabled giant and his level headed guardian find work at a sadistic cowboy's ranch in depression era America.
The North StarThe North Star · 1943
The North Star
6.01943
MovieDramaWar
A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Later re-edited and released as "Armored Attack."
Something WildSomething Wild · 1961
Something Wild
6.21961
MovieDrama
A young rape victim tries desperately to pick up the pieces of her life, only to find herself at the mercy of a would-be rescuer.
The Red PonyThe Red Pony · 1949
The Red Pony
6.01949
MovieDramaFamily
Peter Miles stars as Tom Tiflin, the little boy at the heart of this John Steinbeck story set in Salinas Valley. With his incompatible parents -- the city-loving Fred and country-happy Alice -- constantly bickering, Tom looks to cowboy Billy Buck for companionship and paternal love.

Filmography

Sort
AbstronicAbstronic · 1952
Abstronic
7.01952
MovieAnimationMusic
A pioneer of visual music and electronic art, Mary Ellen Bute produced over a dozen short abstract animations between the 1930s and the 1950s. Set to classical music by the likes of Bach, Saint-Saëns, and Shoshtakovich, and replete with rapidly mutating geometries, Bute’s filmmaking is at once formally rigorous and energetically high-spirited, like a marriage of high modernism and Merrie Melodies. In the late 1940s, Lewis Jacobs observed that Bute’s films were “composed upon mathematical formulae depicting in ever-changing lights and shadows, growing lines and forms, deepening colors and tones, the tumbling, racing impressions evoked by the musical accompaniment.” Bute herself wrote that she sought to “bring to the eyes a combination of visual forms unfolding along with the thematic development and rhythmic cadences of music.”

Music

The Opera HouseThe Opera House · 2017
The Opera House
8.32017
MovieDocumentary
In this documentary, award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke explores the creation of the Metropolitan Opera’s storied home of the last five decades. Drawing on rarely seen archival footage, stills, and recent interviews, The Opera House looks at an important period of the Met’s history and delves into some of the untold stories of the artists, architects, and politicians who shaped the cultural life of New York City in the ’50s and ’60s. Among the notable figures in the film are famed soprano Leontyne Price, who opened the new Met in 1966 in Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra; Rudolf Bing, the Met’s imperious General Manager who engineered the move from the old house to the new one; Robert Moses, the unstoppable city planner who bulldozed an entire neighborhood to make room for Lincoln Center; and Wallace Harrison, whose quest for architectural glory was never fully realized.

Music