On Apr 12, 2005, at 3:21 PM, Eden - Lawrence D. wrote:
And all this time I thought that Copland was Jewish. How do you know he was an atheist?
He was a Commie, for crying out loud--or at least a fellow-traveller! There is, to the best of my recollection, no mention of religious observance anywhere in his two-volume semi-autobiography.
Also, the percentage of atheists among American Jews born betw. 1880 and 1945 was *very* high--so high that you should assume that any American Jewish composer of that period was an atheist unless you have definite proof to the contrary (and no, composing a religious piece is proof of nothing but a commission.)
Even today, Jews provide a portion of American atheists far in excess of their (Jews) representation in the general population. You don't see this discussed much partly because it is still not entirely safe to identify oneself (or one's historically persecuted ethnic group) as atheist, and also because any discussion of the question would raise the miserably contentious issue of just who is a Jew and who isn't.
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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