Besides other awards, he was given a special Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress in 1986-87. Copland left an endowment from his estate to a Fund for Composers, which gives $600,000/annum to promote new compositions and performances (Congressional Gold Medial Receipients; Trudeau; Pollack, 548; Rockwell).

Musical Examples

Copland was an active composer of numerous genres from 1925 to the mid-1960s. His works expressed a new semblance of Americana so easily identifiable that even when performed by foreign orchestras there is a sense of the pioneer days, of American patriotism, and even retelling of American mythology. A few seminal examples of this are:

Fanfare for the Common Man was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and was inspired by a speech by Vice-President Henry Wallace called the era the "Centruy of the Common Man." The piece was part of a program supoprting the American entry into World...
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