I'm not an apologist for Aaron Copland. I just passed on part of an e-mail from Mosaic Records because I read it as something interesting and thought provoking. To call something "bullshit" and self serving just because it doesn't correspond exactly to your mode of listening strikes me as very odd. The quote I passed on is obviously a very small portion of Copland's book and I doubt he intended it as "THE answer", as you put in a later post.
I'm not a musician and I find that if I listen more carefully and more openly, I experience music more completely. And I should say that I listen to music in different ways at different times - often in different ways at the same time. I'm sure you listen to music as more than "as an expression of a time and place." If I'm wrong about that, you're missing out on a lot.