Product Description

The American composer Aaron Copland was also a critic whose writings have influenced critical thought and contemporary taste in the USA. This biography traces his life and work: his childhood in Brooklyn as a son of Russian immigrants, his early coming to terms with his homosexuality, Paris and the "lost generation" of the early-1920s, his major relationships, the full Congressional investigation arising from suspicions that he was a communist, his work in Hollywood, his struggle with dementia, and his posthumous legacy in music.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #887136 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 688 pages

Review
A music historian's (Univ. of Houston) biography of the man who, despite sectarian assaults from the academy, is still regarded as America's greatest composer. Modern biographers appear to feel obliged to write works that weigh in at several pounds; but, length notwithstanding, Pollack's book is remarkably taut and clear. Extensive musical analyses, though with minimal technical jargon, replace the meal inventories and party rosters that usually document life's less dramatic stretches and, given the breadth and diversity of Copland's (1900-90) work, prove both welcome and diverting. But more original is the narrative design. Rather than simply stringing together what he considers telling episodes, Pollack sounds a theme as it occurs chronologically - political affiliations, professional relationships, personal finances - and then offers a summary of its development and variation across a lifetime. The effect is of parallel expositions that create a superstructure only gradually filled in. New events enter into existing contexts, seeming to assume their prescribed places rather than accreting randomly. Pollack sketches character in the same way, presenting a series of sometimes conflicting accounts from friends and rivals, all meticulously footnoted, and then allowing the reader to judge new disclosures of fact accordingly. He appears to have no psychoanalytic theory about Copland-a leftist Brooklyn Jew who came to grips with his homosexuality in the 1920s-which is a welcome relief. Perhaps his even-handedness and circumspection derive from his subject, a paragon of self-control in an environment uniquely hospitable to self-indulgence. Still, such creditable objectivity, even in describing the aesthetic rigor that, combined with Copland's compulsive honesty, could disgruntle colleagues, can't help but stir affection for the man who did more than any other to build a uniquely American musical culture. Not only a success in its own right, but a valuable model of what biography can and probably should be. (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Great information, lousy structure
Up until now, the scholarly information about Aaron Copland has been curiously skewed. The 2-volume book about his life and work by Vivian Perlis relied primarily on an oral history conducted with the composer. Unfortunately, Copland was very reticent to discuss his personal life. Accounts by "friends" and colleagues like Virgil Thomson seemed to have an ax to grind, usually on Copland's neck. So the need for a book that could place the composer's work in the context of his personal life and the larger milieu he lived in was greatly needed. Howard Pollack's new biography has all the goods, from Copland's boyfriends to his collaborations with Martha Graham and Agnes DeMille. It's hard to say, however, who deserves a swift kick in the pants for the book's structure: the author or his editors at Henry Holt. Pollack structures the book like an anthology of articles. While this might ostensibly makes it easier to find specific topics, and use the biography as a reference book, it also means that you are constantly jumping back and forth in time as you try to read the book, which becomes increasingly annoying as one goes along. About halfway through, I stopped trying to read it in sequence and started jumping around from topic to topic. This structural problem also creates other dilemmas. For example, one might assume that since there is a chapter devoted to Copland's personal relationships that one would find all of his significant others there. Not so: to read about his on-and-off relationship with Leonard Bernstein, you must consult the chapter on Copland's relationship to younger composers. Moreover, what is lost in this structure is the unity of the composer's life. By segmenting and sectionalizing various aspects of his life and work into sepearate chapters, we lose the ongoing flow that might encourage readers to connect the "warming" up of Copland's harmonic style to both his involvement in a fairly steady relationship and his engagement with a larger socially-motivated group of artists. Pollack puts the work in one chapter, the boyfriend in another, his colleagues in a third. Copland once quipped that he had a "split personality" (doubtless related to being a closeted homosexual); Pollack shouldn't have split his life up in assembling this biography. All the info is here, but the reader will have to put it together, since the author hasn't.

The quintessential biography of America's greatest composer
Howard Pollack has produced the quintessential biography of Aaron Copland, arguably America's greatest composer. The earlier biographies, and even Copland's autobiography, are historically important but it is Howard Pollack who reveals and confirms just how important Aaron Copland was in defining a body of music that was and remains unique. The key strength of the book for me is that Mr Pollack almost urges the reader to move on and explore the music that he so vividly describes. It is, after all, the music that I and so many of Mr Copland's listeners are drawn to. It is difficult, fo me at any rate, to imagine a world of music without his distinctive and magical voice. Thank you, Mr Pollack, for writing such a full, thoughtful and loving tribute to one of the world's greatest composers.

The finest book on Aaron Copland written thus far.
Howard Pollack has, quite simply, written the finest account of Aaron Copland' life and music thus far. I have all of the other biographies - including the excellent autobiography by Copland and Vivien Perlis. As worthwhile as these earlier publications are, it is Howard Pollack who has given all Copland devotees the quintessential story of the life and the music of America's greatest composer. I can think of no better place to start exploring Copland's genius than with this book as an introduction to the music, without which the world would be a poorer place and the 20th century would be missing a unique body of sound. It is inconceivable, to me at any rate, to imagine a world without Copland's music. No one else comes close to creating his sound world.

Thank you Mr Pollack for making it so clear to all of your readers that Aaron Copland is not only America's greatest composer but is, historically, and without question, one of most important composers the world has ever produced.