Aaron Copland

Composer Aaron Copland was as old as the century and wrote the music that immortalized him by his (and the century's) mid-forties. He died two weeks after his 90th birthday party.Mr. Copland wrote two strands of music. The first was up-to-the-minute, at least the minute of the 1920s when his education in composition took place. It was difficult, intellectual, modernist and had a lot to say to other composers and the musically literate. The other, inspired by his populist politics and his need to earn a living, was melodically accessible to all.And when they are played, listeners say "American!"

If there is a single work that captures the essence of America in sound and movement, it's "Appalachian Spring," the ballet with music by Aaron Copland and choreography by Martha Graham that premiered in 1944 at the Library of Congress. Although the sonic part of the piece is never out of earshot, thanks to the perennially performed orchestral suite Copland fashioned from the score, the opportunity to experience the music and dance in its original form doesn't come around every day. Since last fall, students at the Baltimore School for the Arts have been delving into the ballet from every angle, preparing for "An Appalachian Spring Festival," an interdisciplinary project that includes an art exhibit, a concert and panel discussions.

In a sense, Aaron Copland was to the 20th century what Walt Whitman was to the 19th. What Whitman did through poetry, Copland did through music -- celebrate the grandeur and majesty of the American nation, the vigor and optimism of the American people.Like Bartok and Sibelius, Chopin and Tchaikovsky, Copland will be forever linked with the music of his nation and his people. His life and work was truly, a "Fanfare for the Common Man."

Celebrate the spirit as "Dancing Hearts" presents "Classical Rocks," Sunday, April 22 at 7 p.m. at Resurrection Church, 3315 Greencastle Road, in Burtonsville. Enjoy works such as Aaron Copland's evocative Duo, Scott Joplin's irresistible Rags and the soulful tango music of Astor Piazzolla. The program features flutist Karen Johnson, pianist Carlos-Cesar Rodriguez and percussionist John Kilkenny. Concert is part of the Living Arts Concert Series. A reception follows the concert.

WHEN AARON COPLAND was a young man, he studied music under the composer Rubin Goldmark. Because Goldmark's heroes were Beethoven, Wagner and Fuchs, wrote one biographer, the independent Copland became enamored of composers like Mussorgsky, Debussy, Ravel and Scriabin.There was something always fresh and individual about Aaron Copland, who died yesterday of pneumonia at a hospital in Tarrytown, N.Y., not far from his Peekskill home. He had recently suffered two strokes. He was a man many 20th century musicians contend was America's finest composer, classical or otherwise.

The music world has always prized its elder statesmen, though seldom when they were alive and functioning and able to appreciate the attention.Our need for such father-figures has perhaps never been greater than at present, when there are so few around. Among the senior American composers, Leonard Bernstein and Virgil Thomson are both gone. Elliott Carter, still active at 81, and William Schuman, 80, are respected figures, although neither precisely qualifies as a household eminence.That leaves Aaron Copland.

Celebrate the spirit as "Dancing Hearts" presents "Classical Rocks," Sunday, April 22 at 7 p.m. at Resurrection Church, 3315 Greencastle Road, in Burtonsville. Enjoy works such as Aaron Copland's evocative Duo, Scott Joplin's irresistible Rags and the soulful tango music of Astor Piazzolla. The program features flutist Karen Johnson, pianist Carlos-Cesar Rodriguez and percussionist John Kilkenny. Concert is part of the Living Arts Concert Series. A reception follows the concert.

CoplandEditor: Aaron Copland and George Gershwin were each born in Brooklyn about the same time and had the same music teacher.Copland laid the foundation for his long career by studying in Paris with the famous teacher, Nadia Boulanger. He felt he had to appeal to a larger audience by using folk song material in the brilliant orchestral suite of ''El Salon Mexico'' in 1936, and cowboy songs in ''Billy the Kid'' and ''Rodeo'' ballets.The two cowboy ballets will always be remembered for rekindling American interest in ballet from early in the century to the halcyon days of the Anna Pavlova tours.

The Columbia Orchestra and its conductor, Jason Love, have designated their concerts of 2000-2001 as "An American Century Season." True to that spirit, the orchestra will open its 23rd year of concertizing Saturday evening with a program of works by Aaron Copland, the most quintessentially American composer of them all. Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," "Lincoln Portrait" and Suite from "Our Town" will be performed at the 8 p.m. concert in Jim...

One of the best things about living in Baltimore is that you can get to New York in 2 1/2 hours, Washington in 45 minutes and Philadelphia in 75. Here is a sampling of the many concerts in those cities worth making the trip for:WASHINGTON*Nobody plays Mozart's piano concertos better than Murray Perahia, who will perform and conduct three of them (K. 413, 482 and 503) with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble at the Kennedy Center on Oct. 6.NEW YORK*The great Kurt Masur is the New York Philharmonic's new music director, and his presence has made the orchestra a hot ticket for the first time since the Bernstein era ended more than 20 years ago. One of Masur's greatest strengths is Bruckner, and it's no accident that this composer's mighty Symphony No. 7 -- along with music by John Adams and Aaron Copland -- is featured in the orchestra's first concerts with Masur (Sept.

A bevy of Santas will not tap-dance their way into Rockette-style formations onstage to help the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra celebrate the Christmas season this year. That cute tradition, and the rest of the Holiday Spectacular presented by the BSO since 2005, is on a hiatus prompted by a decline in ticket sales and audience surveys reflecting a desire for a change. That change arrives this week with Holiday Cirque de la Symphonie. Aerialists, contortionists, jugglers, hula-hoopsters and a couple of strongmen will be deployed to the strains of "O Holy Night," "Sleigh Ride" and more.

Ideally, concertgoers in this country would know and love at least two big, hearty all-American symphonies - I'd vote for No. 2 by Charles Ives and No. 3 by Aaron Copland - as deeply as they embrace European classics. But that's not likely to happen if our orchestras don't make more room for them. Although the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra enjoys a solid reputation for its support of American music, it has programmed Copland's Third only four times in the past four decades and has never played Ives' Second.

One simply wanted to be present. Freezing cold or not, a crowd of 2 million, whatever - solemn warnings about tight security, long lines, traffic jams, cell phones not working. In the end, one wanted to be there on the Mall before the Capitol on Tuesday at noon amid the jubilant throng and see the man take the oath of office - our first genuine author-president. So I hitchhiked a ride in the middle of the night on a jet heading to Baltimore and got to the train station at 5 a.m., and already the platform was packed.

The iconic 1939 World's Fair, the last hopeful celebration before war would change everything, was a showcase for any number of forward-looking products, ideas and dreams - "the world of tomorrow." Among the many attractions at the event was a documentary called The City. Made expressly for the fair, it addressed a potent issue of the day - how excessive, unregulated urbanization limited the quality of life. Making the movie all the more effective was its distinctly American music, composed by a man who was then only just beginning to enter the public consciousness.

According to conventional wisdom, Aaron Copland's only full-length opera, The Tender Land, just doesn't cut it. Too static. Too much like one of his Americana ballets, only with words. Not enough story, character development, or truly gripping drama. A very unsatisfying ending. Well, conventional wisdom has been known to be wrong before, and it's wrong in this case. If you don't believe me, just check out Opera Vivente's affecting presentation of the piece. No, you won't come away thinking The Tender Land deserves to be ranked alongside La Boheme, but you're likely to end up with a new - or renewed - appreciation for Copland.

I am not a credible critic of a great deal of the fiction held sacred by the magistrates and myrmidons of many of this nation's schools of writing - and by small literary journals inhabited by them. To the extent that I read what often is called "experimental" and sometimes "postmodernist" fiction, self-referential insistences tend to make me queasy. Writers writing about writers writing of writing's deep agonies. That sort of thing. Thus prejudiced, I am of a mind to conclude that Vanishing Point, by David Markson (Shoemaker & Hoard, 208 pages, $15)

This week should prove an embarrassment of riches musically.Tonight at 8: 15, the newly formed Towson University Chamber Orchestra makes its debut in the university's Center for the Arts Concert Hall. With Mark McCoy on the podium, the orchestra will perform Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Milhaud's "La Creation du Monde" and works by Stravinsky.Tickets, at $4 and $6, are available at the Center for the Arts box office or by calling 410-830-2787.Wednesday night at 8 p.m., Benjamin Pasternack, the newest member of the Peabody Conservatory's piano faculty, will give his first solo recital in Friedberg Hall.

Ideally, concertgoers in this country would know and love at least two big, hearty all-American symphonies - I'd vote for No. 2 by Charles Ives and No. 3 by Aaron Copland - as deeply as they embrace European classics. But that's not likely to happen if our orchestras don't make more room for them. Although the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra enjoys a solid reputation for its support of American music, it has programmed Copland's Third only four times in the past four decades and has never played Ives' Second.

The relationship between television and national memory almost always makes for fascinating holiday viewing. But rarely is the history remembered on screen as heartbreakingly close to home for those in the audience as "In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01" (HBO, 9 p.m.) - a record of that horrible day as seen through the eyes of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and more than 100 of the citizens and workers of that city who bore witness. A body of great film and television documentary is already growing up around the terrorist attacks and our responses in the minutes, hours and days immediately after.

Concert will celebrate 20th-century composers Chamber Music on the Hill will honor composers born near the start of the 20th century at 7 p.m. Sunday in McDaniel Lounge at Western Maryland College. Part of a series at the college, the concert will feature WMC performers David Duree, Kyle Engler, Linda Kirkpatrick and David Kreider; Julie Gregorian, Esther Mellon-Thompson and Melissa Zaraya, all of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Evan Walker of Carroll Community College; and area professional musicians Lynn Griffith and Mindy Niles.