Aaron Copland, who died on Sunday at age 90, filled his music with the essence of America-its frontier spirit, its independent soul, its ebullient jazz and folk rhythms, the evocation of a new land and a new people. His works helped free serious American music from its staid European traditions and led succeeding generations of composers to draw on uniquely American themes and inspirations.
Performing Copland`s ``Fanfare for the Common Man`` and his ``Lincoln Portrait`` are traditions in many community July 4 celebrations. His ballets, ``Billy the Kid`` and ``Rodeo,`` still resound with fresh, American exuberance. ``Appalachian Spring`` won Copland a Pulitzer Prize for composition and a lasting reputation as an American composer who made serious music accessible to popular audiences.
In all Copland wrote two operas, three symphonies, six ballets and the scores for eight films. When he needed new challenges, he began composing in an avant-garde 12-tone system. These inventive, complex works never achieved the popularity of his earlier music, although some critics expect them to be increasingly influential even after the composer`s death. When Leonard Bernstein asked him why he had taken the new direction, Copland replied:
``Because I need more chords. I`ve run out of chords.``
The son of Eastern European immigrants who grew up in a poor section of Brooklyn with little access to music, Copland also won renown as a pianist, a conductor, an author of books about music and an educator. The later years of his life were marked by many honors and awards-to which should be added the nation`s thanks for portraying it-and us-so well in such unforgettable music.