Note: a version of this piece originally appeared in the Traverse City Record-Eagle as part of the "Tuning In" series.
It's July 4, so you’ll undoubtedly be hearing music composed by Aaron Copland today.
His music is indelibly associated with the sound of “America.” If you can’t think of his music off the top of your head, recall the “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner,” campaign of the early 1990s.
The 1998 Spike Lee film “He Got Game,” about a high school basketball star, has a soundtrack of almost all music by Copland.
Copland’s setting of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” is omnipresent at Thanksgiving, and his “Fanfare for the Common Man,” “Lincoln Portrait” and “Appalachian Spring” are just a few of his pieces in regular rotation on Classical IPR.
Hardly a weekend goes by without a listener asking Copland’s music on Music by Request - last weekend, in fact, had multiple Copland pieces on the show.
I find it fascinating that Copland’s music is hailed as quintessentially American because so many aspects of Copland’s life were considered “un-American” in his lifetime.
Not only was he considered “un-American” in his lifetime, but several parts of his life would likely be considered as such in 2025, too.
Aaron Copland was the youngest son of immigrants. His father left Lithuania in the 1870s to avoid military conscription, and his mother was brought from the Lithuania-Russia border by her parents as a child. The documentation and legality of their respective immigrations is unknown.
As a young man, Aaron Copland studied music composition in France with teacher Nadia Boulanger, where he first learned German and other European principles.
He learned about how to write American-sounding music in part because of his friendship with Mexican composer Carlos Chavez. His first “hit” piece, “El Salón México” was about Mexico and based on dance hall music Copland heard in Mexico City.
Copland was gay, and although he was not “out” in the same way that many people are in 2025, he did live and travel openly with his male partners at a time when that was quite unusual.
He also collaborated with his partners artistically. His partner Erik Johns, for example, wrote the text of Copland’s opera “The Tender Land.”
Although Copland never registered with any political party, he openly held progressive views and admired anti-capitalist thinkers and writers. During the period of the Popular Front, he was close to several Communist thinkers and activists. He supported Henry Wallace, the Progressive candidate, in the 1948 Presidential election.
How do we know Copland was considered “un-American” in his lifetime?
In 1949, Life Magazine included him in a list of "Communist dupes" along with Dorothy Parker, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller and dozens of others.
In 1950, he was investigated by the FBI, listed as a Communist sympathizer and blacklisted.
In 1953, Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” was removed from a scheduled performance during the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Other pieces by Copland were banned from performance at American embassies and events of international cultural sponsorship.
The same year, Copland was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and interrogated by Sen. Joe McCarthy.
Subsequently, Copland’s passport was revoked, and his music scores were banned from libraries that the American government sponsored in other countries.
Although McCarthy’s investigations into Copland stopped by 1955, they weren’t officially closed until 1975.
Copland's passport was eventually reinstated, as was the presence of his music in American government-sponsored events abroad.
For decades, there was explicit tension between the quintessential American sound of Copland’s music and the accusations from the FBI, McCarthy and others that Copland was "un-American."
How exactly do we determine what makes someone “American” or “un-American”? Is it where they (or their parents) were born or where they were educated? Is it what they believe and what their friends believe? Is it who they love and live with? Or is it what they create in their art and their work?
On this July 4, it’s worth thinking about how we define one’s “Americanness” and just why we use those particular definitions.
