“This is a story about music,” begins this lively biography of composer Aaron Copland, “and it’s also a story about a first-generation American.” The book takes us from Copland’s birth in Brooklyn in 1900, through his childhood where immigrant families “are helping Brooklyn sing a new song,” and his choice to become a musician and study in Paris, where other new ideas and attitudes are flourishing.
We see him then return to New York, where people aren’t sure what to make of his risky new music, and where the Great Depression soon increases people’s demand for change. “What is an artist’s role in times of struggle?” Aaron wonders, before deciding it is to “bear witness.” He then seeks to write music “that sounds like America.” But America is a young country. What exactly does it sound like? Copland considers various musical influences and styles from the varied people of America, and decides they are all part of the answer, as is room for something new.
From the streets to concert halls, people are excited about his music, although there are some detractors. Still, “The people he loves remind him to keep going”—and here we see the image of another man with his arm around Copland, by a piano at home. (In the backmatter, we learn that Copland knew he was gay from a young age, “lived quite openly for his time,” and that fellow musician and photographer Victor Kraft was his “longtime partner.”)
An evocative section then explains how Copland’s composition for ballet “tells a story,” as the music “runs like a pony” and “skips like a child.” But this is also a story about change, the book asserts, and about how Copland’s music invites us to dream of a better future.
Author/illustrator Veronica Mang’s text skillfully captures the spirit of Copland’s music and its significance, while offering a broader look at the role of art in creating a better world. (Readers and their adults who love Leo Lionni’s 1967 Caldecott winner Frederick, about a poet mouse, should love this title, too.) Her illustrations balance a folksy charm with a bright vibrancy and occasional touches of whimsy, as when Copland’s piano keys morph across a spread into the buildings of a city street. All told, it’s a highly recommended title that offers a lyrical and immersive look at it subject.
Backmatter includes further details about Copland’s life, an Author’s Note, a Selected Bibliography, Suggested Listening for Kids, and Further Reading for Kids.
