Aaron Copland(picture from 8notes.com)
Born: 1900
Died: 1990
He grew up in Brooklyn, NY. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. His family name was Kaplan. He is considered to be the voice of American music and his pieces included melodies from hymns and popular American tunes. Aaron Copland went through a few phases of music in his career. He was interested in Jazz music while living in Paris and studied with Nadia Boulanger, who helped him create his own style. He created dissonant sounding music during the Great Depression. Later in 1950s his music resembled America. His famous pieces are: Fanfare for the Common Man, Billy the Kid, Appalachin Spring, Rodeo, and so much more.
Listen here to Appalachin Spring:
http://www.classicsforkids.com/music/music_view.asp?id=16Hoedown: http://www.classicsforkids.com/music/music_view.asp?id=1
Listen here to Emerson, Lake and Palmer and compare the two versions of this piece: Hoedown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0FuFfcCZiE
Emerson, Lake and Palmer(photo from Wikipedia) A Progressive Rock Band, 1970s, Origin- England
Why am I putting Aaron Copland and ELP together?
Emerson, Lake and Palmer focused on combining classical pieces with rock music. Their keyboardist, Keith Emerson must have taken classical training. He plays very well. If you play piano, try taking a classical piece, maybe 8 bars of it and improv, jazz it up a bit- add a drum sound if you have a keyboard. I will blog about improv another time.
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