What did Aaron Copland mean in this quote?

Question

“To explain the creative musician's basic objective in elementary terms, I would say that a composer writes music to express and communicate and put down in permanent form certain thoughts, emotions, and states of being. These thoughts and emotions are gradually formed by the contact of the composer's personality with the world in which he lives. He expresses these thoughts (musical ones…) in the musical language of his own time. The resultant work of art should speak to men and women of the artist's own time with a directness and immediacy of communicative power that no previous art expression can give.” -Aaron Copland

What "thoughts, emotions,and states of being" do you notice musicians today committing to musical form?

Answer 1

Copeland's music is interesting, though I'm not a huge fan. Composers were really into the music and melodies, you don't see that often any more. There's still some awesome music being written, but you don't see the old style like anthems to planets like Holst, or 'midnight sonata' by Mozart, or Copeland's own "Fanfare for the common man" (excellent song, also excellent version done by ELP). - things that are musical dedications meant to invoke a certain thought with no corresponding lyrics.