A leading figure in the world of art music throughout much of the twentieth century, composer Aaron Copland (1900–1990) invested himself early in his career in discovering the highly soughtafter, but ever-elusive, “American sound.” He began this exploration by using jazz rhythms and harmonies, first in his work “Jazzy,” the third piece in a set of piano works titled Moods for Piano (1920–22), and then with greater vigor following three years of composition study in Paris with his teacher and mentor Nadia Boulanger. In fact, it was Copland's time abroad that piqued his interest in creating an American sound. He explained, “The relation of French music to the life around me became increasingly manifest. Gradually, the idea that my personal expression in music ought somehow be related to my own back-home environment took hold of me.” With jazz widely recognized as a uniquely American idiom, Copland believed incorporating jazz elements would be “an easy way to be American in musical terms.” Using complex polyrhythms and blues-infused harmonies upon his return to the United States, Copland composed such jazz-inspired works as Music for the Theater (1925) and Piano Concerto (1926). Despite the growing popularity of jazz among both composers and listeners, however, Copland's symphonic jazz phase was short-lived.4 As Judith Tick explained, Copland's jazz compositions received mixed reactions from audiences and critics alike, and by 1928 he had largely moved on to other compositional approaches, with works including Vitebsk (1928), Symphonic Ode (1927–29), and Piano Variations (1930). Reflecting later on this shift in style, Copland explained, “I had done all I could with the idiom.” He was ready for something new.

After the onset of the Great Depression, his new direction grew increasingly clear. As patronage for the arts plummeted alongside America's economic state, Copland feared he and his colleagues were “composing in a vacuum.” He wrote, “I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer.” Copland set about reaching a broader audience by composing in a style he (later regretfully) called “imposed simplicity.”