1940's The Arts | "The Aims of Music for Films"

Newspaper article

By: Aaron Copland

Date: March 10, 1940

Source: Copland, Aaron. "The Aims of Music for Films." The New York Times, March 10, 1940. About the Author: Aaron Copland (1900–1990) was a composer, performer, and teacher. He began his formal musical education at the age of fourteen by taking private piano lessons. He studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, the first of many Americans to do so. His best-known symphonic works incorporate American popular song types, such as hymns, cowboy tunes, Mexican dances, Latin American rhythms, and folk tunes.

Introduction

The ease with which Aaron Copland could move from popular to serious music, his ability to incorporate folk and jazz in his symphonic compositions, and his endless energy and wit made him an especially welcome visitor in the Hollywood of the late 1930s and 1940s. During this period, which is...