An Analysis And Study On Aaron Copland's 《Clarinet Concerto》

Aaron Copland(1900-1990), as one of the 20th century's most outstanding composers in the United States, was meanwhile regarded as a famous educationist, conductor, pianist and musical critic. Giving the best expression to American musical of idiosyncratic culture, his music was thought the country's representative for that. Copland had been throwing himself into composing for almost his whole lifetime, with a creation of over 100 various music works. He had started giving speeches to different countries and areas since 1940s, with regard to music of his time,especially that in the U.S. After the year of 1959, he gradually appeared in 59 TV programs as respectively compere,pianist or conductor. During that time, he had many important interviews with BBC. Not until 1983 did he close his career as a conductor, in which year he got on stage in New York for the last time, directing (Appalachian Spring),one of his most successful works. There were only 2 concertos in Copland's works. Striving to introduce one of the two concertos ,( Clarinet Concerto),from the points of view of his composing skill ,this thesis analyzes some characteristics elements in the concerto,such as its form,melody, harmony, polyphony, orchestration, and so on. In addition,the author's opinions about Copland's creation are summarized in the thesis.The thesis is divided into 4 chapters :the first chapter is a survey of Copland's full life and all his musical works, explaining how his style of composing came into being so as to make the composer's creating skeleton acquainted. The second chapter has a study on Copland's (Clarinet Concerto),and concludes its creating features as well as its relation to traditional ways of composing. The third chapter raises the author's views about the style of Copland's (Clarinet Concerto). The fourth chapter concentrated in Copland's meaning and status in musical creation.In this great concerto, Copland fully displayed his excellent "writing techniques" as well as the "American Spirit" by the unlimitied employment of all techniques and combination to Jazz music.