Copland, Aaron

US composer. His early works, such as his piano concerto (1926), were in the jazz style but he gradually developed a gentler style with a regional flavour drawn from American folk music. Among his works are the ballet scores Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944; based on a poem by Hart Crane). Among his orchestral works is Inscape (1967).

Born in New York, Copland studied in France with Nadia Boulanger, and taught from 1940 at the Berkshire Music Center, now the Tanglewood Music Center, near Lenox, Massachusetts. He took avant-garde European styles and gave them a distinctive American feel. His eight film scores, including The Heiress (1949), set new standards for Hollywood.