oth of American culture and of music while he traveled the world.Towards the end of Coplands life, he again changed the way he viewed music. In his fifties, Copland began conducting. He also began to become more interested in a different style of composition. Namely, he began composing in a 12-tone technique. I am not a skilled musician, and I do not completely understand what this means, however, Coplands contemporaries found it to be a confusing and difficult style. He composed a number of works in this format. In 1962 he composed Connotations, and in 1967, he composed Inscape. These two pieces are representative of his more mature style. Copland states in the second book that he did not like being called a twelve tone composer, and felt that he was a little bit misunderstood. He seems to have always felt that just because he chose to explore a certain type of music, he should not be criticized for his curiosity or his change of pace. This theme is concurrent through both of the texts, and reaffirms Coplands frustration with critics. Although our assignment was only to write reports on the two books by Copland and Perlis, I decided to do a little bit of research about Coplands accomplishments. I found it very interesting that throughout both books, the topic of Coplands frustration and disagreement with music critics kept coming up. After reading the books, it became apparent to me that Copland was a very decorated musician with many awards to his credit. Although not all of these awards are detailed in the book, I still was curious to find out just how critically acclaimed Copland was. I found that he was one of the most honored cultural figures in American history. Throughout his career, Copland won, among other awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Commanders Cross from the Republic of Germany. Copland was also a director or board member of a number of influen...
