COPLAND

How a child of Russian immigrants set out to write music that sounded like his new country.

“This is a story about music,” writes Mang, repeating the line often enough that it becomes a refrain. Within a subtly rhythmic account of how Aaron Copland became one of this country’s most acclaimed and successful composers, the author describes how he learned to incorporate street sounds from his Brooklyn childhood, strains of jazz heard in Harlem, symphonic techniques learned in Paris in the 1920s, and, later on, melodies from Appalachian and Mexican folk traditions into orchestral and ballet music that profoundly “sounds like America.” Both in the main section and the lengthy afterword, Mang beautifully captures her subject’s thinking and process: “Symphonies are decadent with layers and layers of sound. Aaron seeks something new. ‘What if we make space for new things to grow?’” Some of his “smashing, crashing” compositions did confuse many listeners, and in the backmatter, she frankly acknowledges that thanks to being Jewish, gay, and deeply engaged in leftist social causes, he sometimes ran into difficulties, particularly during the McCarthy era. Still, few American instrumental compositions are played more to this day. In her joyfully, effervescent illustrations, multiracial, multicultural groups sing, dance, and march on the way to a final display of modern young music lovers who are the most diverse of all. “What do you hear? What song will you write?” she asks them.

A triumphant fanfare for a great American composer.