Aaron Copland's Sound of America

On the Media

• Episode: Aaron Copland's Sound of America
• Website: On the Media
• Feed URL: http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia
• Duration: 00:25:34
• Published: 2021-07-07 18:00

There are many Americas. Nowadays they barely speak to each other. But during the most perilous years of the last century, one young composer went in search of a sound that melded many of the nation's strains into something singular and new. He was a man of the left, though of no political party: gay, but neither closeted nor out; Jewish, but agnostic, unless you count music as a religion. This independence day (or near enough!), we revisit Sara Fishko's 2017 piece on the story of Aaron Copland.