. Copland researched Russian folk songs and cultural influences when working on his score. The score from this movie received much critical acclaim and even won Copland an Academy Award. Again, Copland had proven that he was a master at expressing the culture of a country through works of musical accomplishment. In 1944, Coplands ballet, Appalachian Spring, debuted. This ballet was one of Coplands most celebrated works. The New York Times called Copland a "natural" (pp. 46). Appalachian Spring even won Copland a Pulitzer Prize. The ballet was written for a specific ballet dancer of the time period. Appalachian Spring was about pioneers in Pennsylvania celebrating the building of a new farmhouse. The work was another testimony to Coplands ability to project every day American life into art. Around this same time period, Copland began lecturing at Harvard. In 1951, he became the Norton Professor of Poetics at Harvard University. His lectures were published as a work of poems. Around this time, Coplands mother passed away. In the book, Copland discusses how he took his mothers death and the way that her passing influenced his music. As earlier discussed, Copland came from a very close family, and news about a members death was bound to be taken hard. Between 1946 and 1954, Copland produced a number of his greatest works. The Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson and Coplands Third Symphony were both called Coplands greatest individual work by a number of Coplands contemporaries. At this time in Coplands life, he traveled the world very much. After reading of all of the places he had been, I began to wonder whether he viewed himself as an anthropologist as well as a composer. In addition to composing Mexican and Russian pieces during his life, Copland also traveled to Italy, Paris, and Israel, learning about cultures and teaching people about music. Copland performed and gave speeches while in foreign lands. He spoke b...
