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 Martha
Graham
The legendary American choreographer who commissioned Appalachian
Spring, which plays as decisive a role in her own career as it does
in Copland's. Strangely, after Appalachian Spring, Copland and
Graham never collaborate again.
Nadia
Boulanger
Copland's music teacher in France was a legendary musician named
Nadia Boulanger. Boulanger had a special interest in American musicians
- in the 1910s she developed the conviction that American music was
about to "take off," in the way that Russian music had in
the generation of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.
As it turned out, Boulanger was right. It was the generation of Copland,
Gershwin and their contemporaries who produced much of what we consider
the classic American repertoire
Leonard Bernstein
They were friends, fellow composers, fellow conductors - their
careers, as Copland biographer Howard Pollock says, are "inextricably
linked." Copland was a musical idol to the younger Bernstein (Bernstein
called Copland "the only composition teacher I ever had.")
As a conductor, Bernstein promoted Copland's music, and is usually considered
the finest of all Copland conductors.
Rubin
Goldmark
Copland's first important teacher; a nephew of the composer Karl
Goldmark and a student of Dvorak.
When Antonin Dvorak came to America to teach in the 1890s, there were
high hopes that he would train a generation of important American composers.
In the event, it took one more generation. Rubin Goldmark didn't become
a great composer, but his students - Copland and George Gershwin - went
on to make their mark
Victor
Kraft
American violinist, who was probably the most important romantic
attachment of Copland's life. El Salon Mexico is dedicated to
him. Their relationship lasted from 1932 to the mid-'40s; Copland stood
by Kraft even after their break-up, during Kraft's marriage and mental
illness.
Serge Koussevitzky
This Russian-born conductor of the Boston Symphony was a crusader
on behalf of Copland and other contemporary American composers; he is
supposed to have said, "The next Beethoven vill from Colorado come!"
He commissioned the Third Symphony and also founded the Tanglewood Festival
and invited Copland to join its faculty.
Harold
Clurman
Clurman and Copland met as young expatriates in Paris. Their friendship
was probably the longest and deepest of Copland's life. Clurman would
become one of the greatest American theater directors, working with
O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, and Tennessee Williams.
Virgil
Thompson
As young men, American composer Thomson and Copland are close friends,
and comrades-in-arms in propagandizing for new music. When Copland turns
to his "American" style in the '30s, Thomson's earlier work
in the same vein is one of the sources.
Carlos
Chavez
One of Copland's closest friends among composers. Chavez played
a role in Mexican music similar to Copland's in the United States, as
a teacher, administrator, and unofficial composer laureate.
Minna
Lederman
Editor of Modern Music, one of the most important magazines
in the contemporary music world in the mid-20th century. Lederman featured
Copland and his writings in Modern Music; in turn, he brought
in composers such as Thomson, Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, and John
Cage.
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