阿隆·科普兰

阿隆·科普兰（英语：Aaron Copland，1900年11月14日—1990年12月2日），美国古典音乐作曲家、指挥家和钢琴家。

生平

科普兰的祖先为立陶宛犹太人，家族移居美国之时，将原来的姓氏“卡普兰”（Kaplan）改成“科普兰”（Copland）。。15岁时，科普兰聆听了波兰钢琴家帕德雷夫斯基的一场音乐会后，决定以作曲为职业。1921年他前往巴黎，成为娜迪亚·布朗热门下第一个正式的美国学生。日后声名日隆，曾于1945年以作品《阿帕拉契之春》获得普利策音乐奖。晚年创作极少，主要从事指挥工作，1990年去世之时，他已经被认为是美国最伟大的古典音乐作曲家之一，是美国民族风格的代表。

2010年3月3日，水星上位于37.5°N，286.7°W的撞击坑以他的名字命名。

音乐

科普兰是第一位被国际社会认为有本土风味的美国作曲家，虽然此说与事实未必相符，但科普兰在挖掘和利用美国乡村民歌方面确实有着他人难以替代的贡献。他的不少作品都已位列美国音乐最著名的篇章，例如经常在各种盛大仪式上演奏的《平凡人的号角》。他的其他重要作品还包括了著名的三部芭蕾《牧区竞技》《小伙子比利》和《阿帕拉契之春》。

Aaron Copland ( KOHP-lənd; November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Music". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many consider the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style often referred to as "populist" and which he called his "vernacular" style. Works in this vein include the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo, his Fanfare for the Common Man and Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera, and film scores.

After some initial studies with composer Rubin Goldmark, Copland traveled to Paris, where he first studied with Isidor Philipp and Paul Vidal, then with noted pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He studied three years with Boulanger, whose eclectic approach to music inspired his own broad taste. Determined upon his return to the U.S. to make his way as a full-time composer, Copland gave lecture-recitals, wrote works on commission and did some teaching and writing. But he found that composing orchestral music in a modernist style, which he had adopted while studying abroad, was unprofitable, particularly in light of the Great Depression. He shifted in the mid-1930s to a more accessible musical style that mirrored the German idea of Gebrauchsmusik ("music for use"), music that could serve utilitarian and artistic purposes. During the Depression years, he traveled extensively to Europe, Africa, and Mexico, formed an important friendship with Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, and began composing his signature works.

During the late 1940s, Copland became aware that Stravinsky and other fellow composers had begun to study Arnold Schoenberg's use of twelve-tone (serial) techniques. After he had been exposed to the works of French composer Pierre Boulez, he incorporated serial techniques into his Piano Quartet (1950), Piano Fantasy (1957), Connotations for orchestra (1961), and Inscape for orchestra (1967). Unlike Schoenberg, Copland used his tone rows in much the same fashion as his tonal material—as sources for melodies and harmonies, rather than as complete statements in their own right, except for crucial events from a structural point of view. From the 1960s onward, Copland's activities turned more from composing to conducting. He became a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the U.S. and the UK and made a series of recordings of his music, primarily for Columbia Records.