American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is best known for using folk songs, ethnic rhythms and open harmonies to create an "American style" of serious music.

    Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the youngest of five children. His father was an immigrant who ran a small department store. The Coplands lived over the store, where all of the children worked helping their father. Aaron's mother played the piano and sang; she made sure all of the children took music lessons.

    Like scientist Linus Pauling (born the following year), young Aaron loved reading, often sitting on the front steps of the store with a book. When he was 11, he wrote the story and some music for an opera; by age 15 he had decided to become a composer.

    While studying with excellent teachers, he regularly attended performances of the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Symphony. Here he learned the standard musical works. (Remember, this was before radio and the easy availability of sound recording. Live performances were the best way to hear music.)

    He later studied in Paris, and returned to the United States in 1925 with the intention of becoming a full-time composer. It was not until the late 1930s and early 1940s that he wrote some of the works for which he is best known today.

    "Billy the Kid" (1938), "Rodeo" (1942), and "Appalachian Spring" (1944) were ballets, though they are often performed today without choreography. "Billy the Kid" uses American folk songs and cowboy songs. "Rodeo" has five sections with titles like "Buckaroo Holiday" and "Hoe-Down." ("Buckaroo" is a word meaning "cowboy;" a "hoe-down" is a country-style dance event.) "Appalachian Spring" uses songs from the traditions of the Shakers--a religious group--and includes use of the classic "Simple Gifts."

    Some of Copland's other works, like "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "A Lincoln Portrait" (both 1942), were meant to encourage Americans during World War II. "A Lincoln Portrait" uses words from that president's writings, including the "Gettysburg Address."

    Copland wrote little after the 1960s, saying he was seldom inspired: "It was exactly as if someone had simply turned off a faucet." He spent his later years conducting orchestras and doing recordings, and died at age 90.

    Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. person who moves into a country 2. dance planning 3. having good ideas 4. of a mountainous area in the eastern U.S. 5. a formal kind of dancing

    ANSWERS: 1. immigrant 2. choreography 3. inspired 4. Appalachian 5. ballet