The Sound of the American West

Aaron Copland single-handedly invented the musical sound of the American frontier. He captured the vast, lonely openness of the landscape using simple folk melodies that everyone now recognizes as quintessentially American.

Before Copland, American classical music often mimicked European traditions. He broke this mold by blending jazz rhythms and cowboy folk songs into grand orchestral works. His most famous pieces, like Appalachian Spring, evoke a sense of sweeping plains and pioneers. It is ironic that this quintessential American sound was crafted by a Brooklyn-born son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.