Of Mice and Men: Copland, Hollywood, and American Musical Modernism

By Sally Bick

"Here was an American theme, by a great American writer, demanding appropriate music." With these words Aaron Copland expressed the enthusiasm with which he greeted his first Hollywood film project. In 1939 he signed a contract with director Lewis Milestone to compose the music for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The choice to use Copland for a Hollywood film score was daring: he was an outsider to Hollywood, his previous experience had been limited to a single documentary production, and his reputation up until 1939 had been based upon his prestige within the American musical community as a modernist art music composer.