{"id":8118,"date":"2023-11-01T18:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T23:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=8118"},"modified":"2023-11-01T18:00:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T23:00:28","slug":"copland-the-writer-on-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2023\/11\/01\/copland-the-writer-on-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Copland, the Writer, On Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Copland was not just a prolific composer, but also wrote extensively about both his own works and his contemporaries. In a preface to a collection of his writing, he\u2019s described as having \u201cepitomized the ideal of the composer-writer\u201d in his career.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a> He also wrote about trends and occurrences in music, particularly American music. One example of this is a short essay from 1927 titled \u201cJazz Structure and Influence.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the essay, Copland aims to contribute to analytical and critical writing about jazz, a field of study which had just begun to emerge. The essay\u2019s general thesis argues that jazz\u2019s main contribution to music as a whole is its rhythmic innovations. He begins by consulting a few different sources for a definition of jazz, including composer Virgil Thomson and music critic Henry O. Osgood\u2019s book, <\/span>So This Is Jazz. <\/span><\/i>Both of the definitions emphasize rhythm, and the central function of \u201c\u2018a counterpoint of regular against irregular beats.\u2019\u201d<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Copland continues to build on these assertions by pinpointing a particular type of syncopation that is unique to jazz. He traces the development of this jazz rhythm through spirituals, ragtime, and the foxtrot. He asserts that \u201cModern jazz began with the fox trot,\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a> and identifies a specific rhythmic motif, pictured below. By putting it over four quarter notes, \u201cthe play of two independent rhythms\u2026\u201d creates \u201ca molecule of jazz.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a> He clarifies later that polyrhythms themselves were not invented by jazz, but that \u201cthe polyrhythms of jazz are different in quality and effect\u2026 The peculiar excitement they produce by clashing two definitely and regularly marked rhythms is unprecedented in occidental music.\u201d5<\/sup><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The “molecule of jazz” pictured in Copland’s essay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Copland then moves into an analysis of the ways in which this identifying aspect of jazz has \u201cachieved a new synthesis in music.\u201d<\/span>6 <\/sup><\/a>This is also where his rhetoric begins to feel problematic for a modern day reader. Copland posits several times that jazz is \u201cso difficult for ordinary ears\u201d that these polyrhythms only appear a few measures at a time in contemporary music, and goes on to credit Gershwin as having written the \u201cmost original jazz song yet composed.\u201d<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a> These statements indirectly communicate a belief that jazz\u2019s rhythmic complexity places it above music \u201cdeveloped among primitive races.\u201d<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a> Also, he places a white man at the pinnacle of achievement in a genre that he even describes as having Black (specifically African-American) origins. He provides some nuance when he argues that European composers have \u201cexploited it as an exotic novelty.\u201d<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a> However, his concluding statements describing jazz as \u201cindigenous, music an American has heard as a child,\u201d and encouraging American composers to draw on it as a musical resource, are ignorant of the actual Indigenous music of the Americas, as well as the institutional racism in America that complicates the use of jazz by white composers as inspiration and source material.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

1<\/a> Kostelanetz, Richard. \u201cPreface.\u201d In Aaron Copland: A Reader\u202f: Selected Writings 1923-1972<\/i>, by Aaron Copland. New York: Routledge, 2004.<\/p>\n

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2<\/a> Copland, Aaron. \u201cJazz Structure and Influence.\u201d In Aaron Copland: A Reader\u202f: Selected Writings 1923-1972<\/i>. New York: Routledge, 2004, 83.<\/p>\n

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3<\/a> Ibid, 84.<\/p>\n

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4<\/a> Ibid, 85.<\/p>\n

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5<\/a> Ibid, 87.<\/p>\n

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6<\/a> Ibid, 85.<\/p>\n

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7<\/a> Ibid, 86.<\/p>\n

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8<\/a> Ibid, 86.<\/p>\n

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9<\/a> Ibid, 87.<\/p>\n

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10<\/a> Ibid, 87.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Copland was not just a prolific composer, but also wrote extensively about both his own works and his contemporaries. In a preface to a collection of his writing, he\u2019s described as having \u201cepitomized the ideal of the composer-writer\u201d in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1397],"tags":[308,581,958,135,865,292,1362,35,245,171],"class_list":["post-8118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2023-mus-345-b","tag-aaron-copland","tag-african-american","tag-african-american-music","tag-america","tag-american-art-music","tag-american-music","tag-art-music","tag-jazz","tag-music","tag-ragtime"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-26W","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8120,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8118\/revisions\/8120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}