# "Hi! I'm Aaron Copland, American Genius and Master of One Tune!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 3, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033 "2016-07-03T22:49:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/41 "2016-07-05T20:03:02Z")
He had another tune, but he stole it. One and done.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/42 "2016-07-05T20:09:05Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> I wish they’d let me Czech out some Martinu, Smetana, Mahler, and Janacek. Skip Dvorak; aside from the Slavonic Dances, I can’t stand him.
Do any of those names start with B or end in Mozart? Welcome to WFMT, where it’s always Pledge Drive.
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### Author:  [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/43 "2016-07-05T22:04:32Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> Are you an alien?
>
> Fuck off. We’re bitching here. 😉
> Chicagoan here. I heard something that was rather nice but by someone I never heard of that he conducted.
>
> The night WFMU changed from classical to classic rock the DJ played that. Kept an open mike as he explained to callers that it was supposed to be like that. FMT plays the big Bs. FMU rocked. Um, before it rocked.
When did FMU go classic rock?
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/44 "2016-07-05T23:52:10Z")
Copland’s music is mostly garbage, but he’s still a better composer than Bernstein. I can tolerate Bernstein as a conductor, although I can’t think of any of his recordings that are standouts.
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### Author:  [@El\_Famous\_Burrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Famous_Burrito)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/45 "2016-07-05T23:54:40Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> Over the past months when I’ve had to be here, I’ve kept the radio tuned to WFMT, the classical station, which has kept me entertained in a fine fashion, playing lots of the more obscure music that I love, and FAR fewer warhorses than New York classical stations play.
You’ve made a good choice with that radio dial. I think WFMT is one of the finest stations in the country.
I’ve got to respectfully disagree on the Copland, however. Yes, his stuff is recognizable. Yes, it is rigidly tonal with all those easy-listening open fourths and fifths. But I don’t think his tunes are any more similar to each than Hayden or Handel. And if I’m wrong – if they **are** all the same – than I guess I’m OK with it because I find that tune so much fun to listen to.
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> “So, Aaron, did you know that in the future, the American Beef Council is going to use “Fanfare for the Common Man” as its theme song?”
At first I thought you made this error on purpose. Like, you knew that the “beef” song was from _Rodeo_ and were making a point that it doesn’t really matter because, hey, it’s all the same song anyway!
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> I am posting merely to say that I once had dinner with Aaron Copland (with maybe a dozen other students at the same table), around 1970 when he came to visit my college.
Care to share any more from that experience?
The first CD I ever owned was a Copland CD, given to me for Christmas in 1990 by my grandfather. Upon discovering Copland (with that gift), I simultaneously learned that Copland had died just a few weeks earlier. (And Bernstein a couple months before that – Q4 1990 was not a good one for American composers!)
It was a little sad learning that I had been alive at the same time as this fellow but only realized it after he was dead. (I was just a kid – so there’s nothing I could have done about it – but it still somehow felt like a missed opportunity to meet/see/hear him in person.) You having dinner with Copland vicariously makes up for my missed opportunity in some odd cosmic sense, I feel.
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> Kidding…I love Vaughan Williams, especially the Third, Sixth, and Seventh symphonies.
I’ll give a shout out to Vaughan Williams’ Second symphony (“The London”), one of my all-time favorites.
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Out of curiosity did they play any John Williams?
Yes, WFMT played John Williams yesterday. Now, that was part of a live concert the station was broadcasting, so the real question might be, “did they _program_ any John Williams?”
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> All I’ll say about Copland is that he apparently hated basses. We did one of his pieces in band once, and the tuba part consisted of about 63 measures of rest, then four notes, then another 44 measures of rest.
Hey, don’t look back here to the percussion section for much sympathy.
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> …You know you ELSE I’ve just realized I hate? Stephen Foster. Really, really hate Stephen Foster.
But if you knew Stephen Foster was born on the fourth of July, you could have won this morning’s music quiz (and a $30 gift certificate to [Tre Kronor](http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/ct-blackhawks-swedish-christmas-spt-1225-20151224-column.html))!
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### Author:  [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/46 "2016-07-06T01:16:30Z")
Yeah, my music teacher back in high school played us about 5 minutes of Rodeo once. “This is Copeland,” he said, “American composer, well thought of.” He picked up the needle on the record. “The other side has another of his big hits, I forget whether it’s Appalachian Spring or Billy the Kid,” he added, reaching for another record, “but it doesn’t really matter because it sounds exactly the same as this one.”
How right he was.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/47 "2016-07-06T02:47:10Z")
> [@El\_Famous\_Burrito](#):
>
> But if you knew Stephen Foster was born on the fourth of July, you could have won this morning’s music quiz (and a $30 gift certificate to [Tre Kronor](http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/ct-blackhawks-swedish-christmas-spt-1225-20151224-column.html))!
Yeah, I heard that. “American song writer born in the 1820s,” I figured, it’s Stephen Foster, who else could it be? “Hymie Zuckermann, blacksmith in Bucksport, Maine, famous for humming his own compositions as he nailed shoes onto horses” ?
I don’t phone into radio stations for prizes short of one million dollars. Hockey tickets aren’t even in it.
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### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/48 "2016-07-06T02:57:25Z")
OK, its late and we’ve been discussing this for a while.
Would anyone like a [snack…?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tviyAIS9c_U)
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/49 "2016-07-06T03:05:01Z")
“Fanfare for the Common Man!” My fave!
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/50 "2016-07-06T03:47:26Z")
Narrated by James Earl Jones!
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### Author:  [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hi-im-aaron-copland-american-genius-and-master-of-one-tune/759033/51 "2016-07-06T04:30:14Z")
Eh, De Niro did his shout and repeat thing once too often, but Stallone wasn’t terrible in it, and I’ll always watch Ray Liotta and Harvey Keitel play bent cops.
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