Copland: The North Star Suite, Main Title

Composer Aaron Copland wrote music for a number of films, beginning in 1939 with The City. This documentary film was shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair, presenting the ideal city of the not-too-distant future. Other film scores included Our Town , a film version of Thornton Wilder's famous play, and The Red Pony, based on Steinbeck's novel. Copland also wrote music for North Star , a 1943 Wartime film portraying Russian heroism in the face of Nazi attacks. This film, along with Copland's known leftist sympathies, landed the composer on the witness stand during the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s. Copland's last film score was to the tense 1961 psychodrama titled Something Wild.