Editing Aaron Copland (section)

=== Influences ===
While Copland's earliest musical inclinations as a teenager ran toward [[Chopin]], [[Debussy]], [[Verdi]] and the Russian composers, Copland's teacher and mentor Nadia Boulanger became his most important influence.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=49}} Copland especially admired Boulanger's total grasp of all classical music, and he was encouraged to experiment and develop a "clarity of conception and elegance in proportion". Following her model, he studied all periods of classical music and all forms—from madrigals to symphonies. This breadth of vision led Copland to compose music for numerous settings—orchestra, opera, solo piano, small ensemble, art song, ballet, theater and film. Boulanger particularly emphasized "la grande ligne" (the long line), "a sense of forward motion&nbsp;... the feeling for inevitability, for the creating of an entire piece that could be thought of as a functioning entity".{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=49}}

During his studies with Boulanger in Paris, Copland was excited to be so close to the new post-Impressionistic French music of [[Ravel]], [[Albert Roussel|Roussel]], and [[Satie]], as well as [[Les Six]], a group that included [[Milhaud]], [[Poulenc]], and [[Honegger]]. [[Webern]], [[Alban Berg|Berg]], and [[Bartók]] also impressed him. Copland was "insatiable" in seeking out the newest European music, whether in concerts, score reading or heated debate. These "moderns" were discarding the old laws of composition and experimenting with new forms, harmonies and rhythms, and including the use of jazz and quarter-tone music.{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=39}} Milhaud was Copland's inspiration for some of his earlier "jazzy" works. He was also exposed to [[Schoenberg]] and admired his earlier atonal pieces, thinking Schoenberg's ''[[Pierrot lunaire]]'' above all others.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=65}} Copland named [[Igor Stravinsky]] as his "hero" and his favorite 20th-century composer.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=65}} Copland especially admired Stravinsky's "jagged and uncouth rhythmic effects", "bold use of dissonance", and "hard, dry, crackling sonority".{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=65}}

Another inspiration for much of Copland's music was [[jazz]]. Although familiar with jazz back in America—having listened to it and also played it in bands—he fully realized its potential while traveling in Austria: "The impression of jazz one receives in a foreign country is totally unlike the impression of such music heard in one's own country&nbsp;... when I heard jazz played in Vienna, it was like hearing it for the first time."{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=60}} He also found that the distance from his native country helped him see the United States more clearly. Beginning in 1923, he employed "jazzy elements" in his classical music, but by the late 1930s, he moved on to Latin and American folk tunes in his more successful pieces.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=120}} Although his early focus of jazz gave way to other influences, Copland continued to make use of jazz in more subtle ways in later works.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=120}} Copland's work from the late 1940s onward included experimentation with Schoenberg's [[twelve-tone]] system, resulting in two major works, the Piano Quartet (1950) and the Piano Fantasy (1957).{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=481}}