No Place Like Home: Edvard Grieg and Musical Nationalism
There are certain classical composers so closely identified with their country that it feels impossible not to talk about the two in the same breath. It might not matter so much with other composers. Frédéric Chopin was born and raised in Poland but worked as a composer in France. Handel was German but wrote some of his masterworks in England. However, Aaron Copland is strongly associated with the United States, especially in works like “Appalachian Spring” and “Rodeo.” His “American sound” became definitive for composers like Leonard Bernstein and film composers like John Williams (for example, in his score for “Saving Private Ryan”).