The MTT Files - Program 3: What Does America Sound Like? (Part 2)

As a part of Aaron Copland’s move from modernism to populism, he created musical landscapes that were abstractions of the sounds he’d heard all his life—folk tunes, Jewish music, the blues, and jazz. Copland’s populist music was so successful that we now associate it with the sound of America—with prairies, cowboys, and the heartland.

In this program, MTT explains Copland’s musical transformation, and the political and artistic sentiments behind it. Included is a recorded rehearsal of the composer’s greatest modernist work, the Symphonic Ode, with MTT conducting the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy.

This is the 3rd episode in The MTT Files radio series.