Aaron Copland (1900–1990) needs no introduction as a leading figure in American music from the late 1920s until his death. Along with Gershwin and Bernstein, he has exemplified American music on the international scene for over half a century. He lacked Gershwin's spectacular appeal based on popular song and musical theater, and he could not compete with Bernstein's extravagant public career as conductor, composer, and pianist. But Copland, who took up conducting after Koussevitsky's death in 1951, became a much-loved figure on the podium, with an international following. He wrote for films and reached a wide audience through television.

Unlike Barber, he was adept at musical politics. He knew how to get things done through patrons and organizations and worked hard to support colleagues. His writings were designed to inform listeners and to put forth the case for American music.

Copland stopped composing in the early 1970s but continued his conducting career for another decade. His last European trip was in 1980. He gave a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on December 2, and the next day he was interviewed by Anthony Burton at the United States Embassy. When he said three times that he had never heard of Nadia Boulanger before he went to Paris, it was clear that Alzheimer's disease was starting to impact his final years. There is some evidence of this in the interview that follows, which has been compressed to avoid repetition, although the points he made have characteristic authority. During the 1980s Copland wound down slowly at home, receiving many honors and supported by friends. He collaborated with Vivian Perlis on his memoirs, an essential portrayal of the life and work of a unique man and musician.

In Music and Imagination, Copland's Harvard lectures delivered in 1951–52, his chapter “Musical Imagination in the Americas” argues for a distinctively American music of the kind that brought him to a wide public in the 1930s, but he generously recognizes that there is another side to the question: “Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Samuel Barber are composers whose works are not strikingly American … and yet a full summary of the American imagination at work in music … would naturally stress the import of their work.