Download or read book Classical Music In America written by Joseph Horowitz and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2005-03-15 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning scholar and leading authority on American symphonic culture argues that classical music in the United States is peculiarly performance-driven, and he traces a musical trajectory rising to its peak at the close of the 19th century and receding after World War I.
Download or read book American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century written by John Spitzer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-04-09 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies of concert life in nineteenth-century America have generally been limited to large orchestras and the programs we are familiar with today. But as this book reveals, audiences of that era enjoyed far more diverse musical experiences than this focus would suggest. To hear an orchestra, people were more likely to head to a beer garden, restaurant, or summer resort than to a concert hall. And what they heard weren’t just symphonic works—programs also included opera excerpts and arrangements, instrumental showpieces, comic numbers, and medleys of patriotic tunes. This book brings together musicologists and historians to investigate the many orchestras and programs that developed in nineteenth-century America. In addition to reflecting on the music that orchestras played and the socioeconomic aspects of building and maintaining orchestras, the book considers a wide range of topics, including audiences, entrepreneurs, concert arrangements, tours, and musicians’ unions. The authors also show that the period saw a massive influx of immigrant performers, the increasing ability of orchestras to travel across the nation, and the rising influence of women as listeners, patrons, and players. Painting a rich and detailed picture of nineteenth-century concert life, this collection will greatly broaden our understanding of America’s musical history.
Download or read book The Great American Symphony Orchestra written by Anthony J. Cirone and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Meredith Music Resource). This book is a must-read for anyone interested in acquiring a "back-stage" tour of symphony life, not included in the price of a box-office ticket! Gain a behind-the-scenes look at the orchestra as a family; its discipline, artistry, and devotion, the overwhelming audition process, and the good and bad about the orchestra musicians' profession. Learn about the love-hate relationship between musicians and conductors as the author shares his experiences performing under conductors Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa, Edo DeWaart, Herbert Blomsted, Michael Tilson Thomas, Eugene Ormandy, Igor Stravinsky, Arron Copland, and Arthur Fiedler. Discover conductors' dictatorial control, interpretative powers, and technical skills, as revealed through quotes from James Levine, John Barbariolli, Gustav Mahler, Daniel Barenboim, and Herbert von Karajan. Examine comments from Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Toscanini, Carl Nielsen, and Lou Harrison that bring a unique awareness to avante-garde music in the chapter titled Cruel and Unmusical. Understand the difference between conducting talent and composing talent and how rare it is to possess both.
Download or read book Dvorak s Prophecy And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music written by Joseph Horowitz and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 A provocative interpretation of why classical music in America "stayed white"—how it got to be that way and what can be done about it. In 1893 the composer Antonín Dvorák prophesied a “great and noble school” of American classical music based on the “negro melodies” he had excitedly discovered since arriving in the United States a year before. But while Black music would foster popular genres known the world over, it never gained a foothold in the concert hall. Black composers found few opportunities to have their works performed, and white composers mainly rejected Dvorák’s lead. Joseph Horowitz ranges throughout American cultural history, from Frederick Douglass and Huckleberry Finn to George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and the work of Ralph Ellison, searching for explanations. Challenging the standard narrative for American classical music fashioned by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, he looks back to literary figures—Emerson, Melville, and Twain—to ponder how American music can connect with a “usable past.” The result is a new paradigm that makes room for Black composers, including Harry Burleigh, Nathaniel Dett, William Levi Dawson, and Florence Price, while giving increased prominence to Charles Ives and George Gershwin. Dvorák’s Prophecy arrives in the midst of an important conversation about race in America—a conversation that is taking place in music schools and concert halls as well as capitols and boardrooms. As George Shirley writes in his foreword to the book, “We have been left unprepared for the current cultural moment. [Joseph Horowitz] explains how we got there [and] proposes a bigger world of American classical music than what we have known before. It is more diverse and more equitable. And it is more truthful.”
Download or read book The American Symphony Orchestra written by John Henry Mueller and published by Bloomington, Ind., Indiana U. P. This book was released on 1951 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a history of what has been termed the monumental orchestra in America. It traces the growth of the symphony orchestra to its roots in European traditions, recounts the crises which it has overcome, and describes the musical repertoires with which it has regaled its audiences during the past century.
Download or read book Dangerous Melodies Classical Music in America from the Great War through the Cold War written by Jonathan Rosenberg and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Juilliard-trained musician and professor of history explores the fascinating entanglement of classical music with American foreign relations. Dangerous Melodies vividly evokes a time when classical music stood at the center of twentieth-century American life, occupying a prominent place in the nation’s culture and politics. The work of renowned conductors, instrumentalists, and singers—and the activities of orchestras and opera companies—were intertwined with momentous international events, especially the two world wars and the long Cold War. Jonathan Rosenberg exposes the politics behind classical music, showing how German musicians were dismissed or imprisoned during World War I, while numerous German compositions were swept from American auditoriums. He writes of the accompanying impassioned protests, some of which verged on riots, by soldiers and ordinary citizens. Yet, during World War II, those same compositions were no longer part of the political discussion, while Russian music, especially Shostakovich’s, was used as a tool to strengthen the US-Soviet alliance. During the Cold War, accusations of communism were leveled against members of the American music community, while the State Department sent symphony orchestras to play around the world, even performing behind the Iron Curtain. Rich with a stunning array of composers and musicians, including Karl Muck, Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Kirsten Flagstad, Aaron Copland, Van Cliburn, and Leonard Bernstein, Dangerous Melodies delves into the volatile intersection of classical music and world politics to reveal a tumultuous history of twentieth-century America.
Download or read book Dwight s Journal of Music written by John Sullivan Dwight and published by . This book was released on 1861 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Pop 4 volumes written by Bob Batchelor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 1703 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pop culture is the heart and soul of America, a unifying bridge across time bringing together generations of diverse backgrounds. Whether looking at the bright lights of the Jazz Age in the 1920s, the sexual and the rock-n-roll revolution of the 1960s, or the thriving social networking websites of today, each period in America's cultural history develops its own unique take on the qualities define our lives.American Pop: Popular Culture Decade by Decade is the most comprehensive reference on American popular culture by decade ever assembled, beginning with the 1900s up through today. The four-volume set examines the fascinating trends across decades and eras by shedding light on the experiences of Americans young and old, rich and poor, along with the influences of arts, entertainment, sports, and other cultural forces. Whether a pop culture aficionado or a student new to the topic, American Pop provides readers with an engaging look at American culture broken down into discrete segments, as well as analysis that gives insight into societal movements, trends, fads, and events that propelled the era and the nation. In-depth chapters trace the evolution of pop culture in 11 key categories: Key Events in American Life, Advertising, Architecture, Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Comics, Entertainment, Fashion, Food, Music, Sports and Leisure Activities, Travel, and Visual Arts. Coverage includes: How Others See Us, Controversies and scandals, Social and cultural movements, Trends and fads, Key icons, and Classroom resources. Designed to meet the high demand for resources that help students study American history and culture by the decade, this one-stop reference provides readers with a broad and interdisciplinary overview of the numerous aspects of popular culture in our country. Thoughtful examination of our rich and often tumultuous popular history, illustrated with hundreds of historical and contemporary photos, makes this the ideal source to turn to for ready reference or research.
Download or read book Orchestral Music written by David Daniels and published by Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Familiar to conductors, orchestra managers, and music librarians, this compact sourcebook provides information necessary to plan orchestral programs and organize rehearsals. The third edition features 4500 compositions that cover the standard repertoire for American orchestras (a 30% increase over the second edition), clearer entries, and a more useful system of appendixes.
Download or read book George Szell written by Michael Charry and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first full biography of George Szell, one of the greatest orchestra and opera conductors of the twentieth century. From child prodigy pianist and composer to world-renowned conductor, Szell's career spanned seven decades, and he led most of the great orchestras and opera companies of the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the NBC and Chicago Symphonies, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and Opera, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. A protégé of composer-conductor Richard Strauss at the Berlin State Opera, his crowning achievement was his twenty-four-year tenure as musical director of the Cleveland Orchestra, transforming it into one of the world's greatest ensembles, touring triumphantly in the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, South Korea, and Japan. Michael Charry, a conductor who worked with Szell and interviewed him, his family, and his associates over several decades, draws on this first-hand material and correspondence, orchestra records, reviews, and other archival sources to construct a lively and balanced portrait of Szell's life and work from his birth in 1897 in Budapest to his death in 1970 in Cleveland. Readers will follow Szell from his career in Europe, Great Britain, and Australia to his guest conducting at the New York Philharmonic and his distinguished tenure at the Metropolitan Opera and Cleveland Orchestra. Charry details Szell's personal and musical qualities, his recordings and broadcast concerts, his approach to the great works of the orchestral repertoire, and his famous orchestrational changes and interpretation of the symphonies of Robert Schumann. The book also lists Szell's conducting repertoire and includes a comprehensive discography. In highlighting Szell's legacy as a teacher and mentor as well as his contributions to orchestral and opera history, this biography will be of lasting interest to concert-goers, music lovers, conductors, musicians inspired by Szell's many great performances, and new generations who will come to know those performances through Szell's recorded legacy.
Download or read book Our American Music written by John Tasker Howard and published by New York : T. Y. Crowell Company. This book was released on 1965 with total page 1024 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the development of American music in folk song, national airs, the concert stage and musical composition.
Download or read book American Music in the Twentieth Century written by Kyle Gann and published by Schirmer. This book was released on 1997 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Music in the Twentieth Century surveys the art music written in the United States during the last 100 years from the groundbreaking experiments of Charles Ives to the present day. Writing for the general reader, Kyle Gann describes the characteristic sounds of the diverse movements that have sprung up in this eventful period, while at the same time he sketches the changing social and cultural contexts for American concert music, and provides concise biographies of key figures.
Download or read book Grand Canyon Suite written by Ferde Grofé and published by Alfred Music. This book was released on 1932 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Titles: * Grand Canyon Suite: Sunrise * Painted Desert * On the Trail * Sunset * Cloudburst
Download or read book The Rest Is Noise written by Alex Ross and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-10-16 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.
Download or read book The American Symphony written by Neil Butterworth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1998, this volume is the first book to focus on the American symphony. Neil Butterworth surveys the development of the symphony in the United States from early European influences in the last century to the present day, and asks why American composers have shown such allegiance to a musical form which their European contemporaries appear to have discarded. An overview of the growth of musical societies in America during the eighteenth century and the establishment of the first professional orchestras during the early part of the nineteenth century is followed by chronological analyses of the works of those composers who have played important parts in the progress of symphony in the United States, from Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, to contemporary figures such as William Bolcom and John Harbison. Complete with a comprehensive catalogue of symphonies and an extensive discography, this book is an indispensable reference work.
Download or read book Musical Landscapes in Color written by Bill Banfield and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sequel to the award-winning The Black Composer Speaks (Scarecrow Press, 1978), this exploration of the creative world of African American composers traces the lives and careers of 40 talented individuals and, in their own words, provides perspectives on a world that has been slow to recognize their remarkable contributions to classical music. The discussion places the music of these composers within the greater context of Western art music, but analyzes it through the lenses of sociology, Western concepts of art and taste, and vernacular musical forms, including spirituals, blues, jazz, and contemporary popular music. Each chapter is devoted to an individual composer, who discusses his or her musical training, compositional techniques and style, and the composer's personal philosophy as reflected in his or her music. A selected list of compositions for each composer is included, as well as a photo and sample of the composer's "hand." Banfield offers unprecedented insight into the history and influence of the African American composer with this documentary, which will appeal to everyone from the music scholar to the general reader.
Download or read book Listen to This written by Alex Ross and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-09-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The Telegraph's Best Music Books 2011 Alex Ross's award-winning international bestseller, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, has become a contemporary classic, establishing Ross as one of our most popular and acclaimed cultural historians. Listen to This, which takes its title from a beloved 2004 essay in which Ross describes his late-blooming discovery of pop music, showcases the best of his writing from more than a decade at The New Yorker. These pieces, dedicated to classical and popular artists alike, are at once erudite and lively. In a previously unpublished essay, Ross brilliantly retells hundreds of years of music history—from Renaissance dances to Led Zeppelin—through a few iconic bass lines of celebration and lament. He vibrantly sketches canonical composers such as Schubert, Verdi, and Brahms; gives us in-depth interviews with modern pop masters such as Björk and Radiohead; and introduces us to music students at a Newark high school and indie-rock hipsters in Beijing. Whether his subject is Mozart or Bob Dylan, Ross shows how music expresses the full complexity of the human condition. Witty, passionate, and brimming with insight, Listen to This teaches us how to listen more closely.
