Aaron Copland How We Listen To Music Analysis

For example, most people listen on the sensuous plane by just losing his or herself in the mellifluous sound and rhythm of a music. Instead, Copland argues that people should also listen on an “expressive” and “musical” plane as well. The “expressive plane” of listening to music is where people begin to propose their own opinions of what they think a music really means; in Copland’s opinion, he believes that the “expressive plane” is a controversial ground where the meanings of a music are always shifting for everyone. As for the “musical plane” of listening, this is the last step where Copland suggest people to listen to the harmon and tone color of a music; this step allows people to listen for and learn about musical forms and such. Overall, all these steps lead back to Copland’s purpose of helping people enrich his or her’s musical experience.

Writer and composer, Aaron Copland, in his book, “How We Listen,” divides listening into three planes: the sensuous, the expressive and the sheerly musical. Copland argues throughout the work that “[listeners] can deepen [their] understanding of music only by being a more conscious and aware listener.” (Copland, 15) Copland’s strategy of breaking the text up with the three planes of listening helps the reader understand his message in a more complete way.

Aaron Copland was one of the foremost composers in the twentieth century. Copland was born on November 14,1900 in Brooklyn,New York. On December 2,1990 at age 90 he past away in New York city. His parents were jewish and european descendants and he was the youngest of five children. At the age eleven he developed an interest for the piano. one of his older sisters taught him to play for a while then a neighborhood teacher began giving him lessons. “Copland later studied under Rubin Goldmark in manhattan and regularly attended classical music performances. He decided he wanted to be a composer at the age of fifteen. He began studying music theory while in high school in 1917.

In October 1958, Aaron Copland made his television debut on the BBC program Monitor, marking the start of a successful new sideline for a composer whose career was already well established. Alongside ever more frequent conducting appointments, Copland's appearances in television documentaries and interviews provided a new outlet for his talents, particularly as his compositional inspiration began to wane.' With his distinctive facial profile, affable and straightforwardly articulate manner, and high standing in the music world, Copland must have seemed to television's early producers a guaranteed audience winner. His natural ability in front of the camera was evident from the outset, and he brought to the burgeoning medium decades of experience in lecturing, teaching, and speech making.

Aaron Copland was one of the most respected American classical composers of the twentieth century (American Masters). Today, his compositions are still very known and they have inspired many composers and piano performers worldwide.

In his essay “How we listen “, Aaron Copland discuss the three ways (plane) people listen to music. Those four ways are sensuous plane, expressive plane and the sheerly musical plane. The sensuous Plane is when we listen to music for our own pleasure of the sound. For example, when one turns on the radio while doing something, or while reading a book in a room, one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room. In this plane people use music as an escape and to take them into a dream world.

Aaron Copland is a twentieth century American composer, teacher, and conductor. Schuman (1980), refers to Copland as the “Dean of American Composers”, which he attributes to his stylistic contributions to American culture including film. His works includes songs, chamber music, ballets, theater, symphony orchestra, solos, and chorus. Copland’s approach to composing included twelve-tone, a basic exhibition of serialism. Crawford & Hamberlin (2013), describe this style as organizing twelve pitches of the chromatic scale into a unique pattern. This method expressed a way of organizing notes freely, without focusing on a key center. To non-musical ears, the atonality heard is interpreted as strange, exotic, or in some cases esthetically pleasing. Copland’s musical influence includes his time in Paris during the 1920’s with Stravinsky, a Russian Nationalist. Stravinsky’s style was inclusive of traditional Russian folk music, evident in his ballet Petrushka (Navarro 2011).

Aaron Copland is arguably one of the most important 20th century American composers. His uses of texture and tonal settings have contributed greatly to the way people think about film scoring and orchestral composition. During his life, he was at the forefront of his style, and his legacy is quite immense, including the founding of not only the AMC but also, with his passing, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. He was at times a critic, mentor, and above all, a chief organizer of what was and still is “America’s music”. Copland was born November 14, 1900, in New York. The son of Jewish immigrants, his cultural background, as well as his early childhood, contributed greatly to his musical and business dealings.

In the first grade, I picked up a clarinet. It was my sister’s, collecting dust while waiting for me to play it. From the moment I produced my first sound, an ear-piercing squeal that frightened my dog, the path of my life took a turn for the better. I began teaching myself for the following three years, along with learning from my sister how to properly play the beautiful instrument. The music pushed me out of my comfort zone: concerts that forced me onstage, tests that made me play difficult songs, and teachers that pushed me to be an exceptional player. From the shy elementary school student I used to be to the outgoing band member I take joy in being today, music has shaped my everyday life.

What is the purpose of music? Music is created to bring happiness to the world. In “How We Listen”, Aaron Copland mentions “The simplest way of listening to music is to listen for the sheer pleasure of the musical sound itself.” (“Copland”) Music is defined as “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.”

Learning music was not a challenge for me, especially since I grew up in musically gifted families. Honestly math came easy for me, mostly because I was taught to keep up with the tempo of the music. Thankfully playing in the band came naturally for me and I liked the challenge in trying to learn an instrument. My school performed at a couple of competitions and a few concerts as well. I continued playing until my sophomore year in high school, I lost interest in high school; it seemed like it was more of a chore rather something to enjoy and the students made it difficult for me to perform so, I forced myself to leave. Before I quit the band in my sophomore year I joined the culinary arts club and the art society. I always loved making food, I started cooking around 6 to 7 years old under supervision of course. Slowly my parents had me help-out in the kitchen, then they let me practice making baked goods and later, they started to let cook by myself. I watched cooking shows too, and I would just read the cooking books for hours just to know if we had the ingredients

"The selections by Copland, taken from his 1957 book What to Listen for in Music, express his belief that one listens to music on several planes-the sensuous, the expressive, and the sheerly musical. After a brief discussion of what constitues each of these planes, he admits that rarely does one listen on only one plane, but rather the astute listener is constantly moving from one plane to another as the musical work unfolds," (Pitman)

A bit close to a decade ago, I confessed to a friend and fellow reviewer, Julian Grant, who graced these Amazon pages with his own informative and thought-provoking reviews I took the pleasure in reading, of how dissatisfied I was in music programmes particularly in America's concert halls. I was ranting about how too little we were exposed to the great composers like Glazunov, Atterberg, Nielsen, Popov, Myaskovsky, and others and the need to rectify that in part by not overplaying the familiar Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Beethoven, et al. in these halls. But Julian Grant put the matter into perspective in reminding me that repeated listening is a complex ingredient in music appreciation. It is indeed amazing, now that I am thinking about it, of how

Music is one of the greatest human creations (DeNora, 2000). It plays an integral role in human society worldwide irrelevant of race, gender, age, wealth or well-being (Kemper & Danhauer, 2005). Indeed according to Batt-Rawden (2010), playing different music in diverse situations can introduce listeners to the desired and relevant atmosphere. In most circumstances, music is played to entertain people, but it can also form part of an accompaniment in sad situations. Music is often the fulcrum that influences the listener by creating a unique ambience and atmosphere (Bernatzky, Presh, Anderson, & Panksepp, 2011). Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, (2007) adds that music can be a medium to enhance communication,

In my house, we have always had a piano, but none of my family members knew how to play it. My mom taught me a very basic understanding including how to read the notes on the staff and how the notes correspond to each key on the piano, but that was all that she knew. In time, I grew to love the feeling of playing music from the heart. In continuing to play, I taught myself to play complex pieces because it made me feel satisfied and content. Now, I am able to play a vast variety of songs including jolly Christmas music, playful video game soundtracks, and beautiful melodies by Yiruma and Chopin. Throughout the years, music has evolved into an incredible stress reliever and source of enjoyment in my daily life.