Download or read book Making Music Modern written by Carol J. Oja and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2000 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book recreates an exciting and productive period in which creative artists felt they were witnessing the birth of a new age. Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, George Gershwin, Roy Harris, and Virgil Thomson all began their careers then, as did many of their less widely recognized compatriots. While the literature and painting of the 1920's have been amply chronicled, music has not received such treatment. Carol Oja's book sets the growth of American musical composition against parallel developments in American culture, provides a guide for the understanding of the music, and explores how the notion of the concert tradition, as inherited from Western Europe, was challenged and revitalized through contact with American popular song, jazz, and non-Western musics.
Download or read book Our New Music written by Aaron Copland and published by New York : McGraw-Hill. This book was released on 1941 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Stravinsky written by Gayle Murchison and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: divdivThe first study to show Copland's style development from his early works through his first widely accessible ballet/DIV/DIV
Download or read book Roger Sessions written by Andrea Olmstead and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recognized as the primary American symphonist of the 20th century, Roger Sessions (1896-1985) is one of the leading representatives of high modernism. His stature among American composers rivals Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter. Sessions was awarded two Pulitzer prizes, election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, winning the Brandeis Creative Arts Award, the Gold Medal of the American Academy, and a MacDowell Medal, in addition to 14 honorary doctorates. Roger Sessions: A Biography brings together considerable previously unpublished archival material, such as letters, lectures, interviews, and articles, to shed light on the life and music of this major American composer. Andrea Olmstead, a teaching colleague of Sessions at Juilliard and the leading scholar on his music, has written a complete biography charting five touchstone areas through Sessions’s eighty-eight years: music, religion, politics, money, and sexuality.
Download or read book Aaron Copland and His World written by Carol J. Oja and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aaron Copland and His World reassesses the legacy of one of America's best-loved composers at a pivotal moment--as his life and work shift from the realm of personal memory to that of history. This collection of seventeen essays by distinguished scholars of American music explores the stages of cultural change on which Copland's long life (1900 to 1990) unfolded: from the modernist experiments of the 1920s, through the progressive populism of the Great Depression and the urgencies of World War II, to postwar political backlash and the rise of serialism in the 1950s and the cultural turbulence of the 1960s. Continually responding to an ever-changing political and cultural panorama, Copland kept a firm focus on both his private muse and the public he served. No self-absorbed recluse, he was very much a public figure who devoted his career to building support systems to help composers function productively in America. This book critiques Copland's work in these shifting contexts. The topics include Copland's role in shaping an American school of modern dance; his relationship with Leonard Bernstein; his homosexuality, especially as influenced by the writings of André Gide; and explorations of cultural nationalism. Copland's rich correspondence with the composer and critic Arthur Berger, who helped set the parameters of Copland's reception, is published here in its entirety, edited by Wayne Shirley. The contributors include Emily Abrams, Paul Anderson, Elliott Antokoletz, Leon Botstein, Martin Brody, Elizabeth Crist, Morris Dickstein, Lynn Garafola, Melissa de Graaf, Neil Lerner, Gail Levin, Beth Levy, Vivian Perlis, Howard Pollack, and Larry Starr.
Download or read book What to Listen For in Music written by Aaron Copland and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in trade paperback: “The definitive guide to musical enjoyment” (Forum). In this fascinating analysis of how to listen to both contemporary and classical music analytically, eminent American composer Aaron Copland offers provocative suggestions that will bring readers a deeper appreciation of the most viscerally rewarding of all art forms.
Download or read book Roger Sessions written by Frederik Prausnitz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-22 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than half of his long life, composer Roger Sessions was a commanding figure on the American musical scene. He enjoyed the solid respect of his peers, and as a teacher of a generation of composers and author of compelling writings on his craft, his influence on musical thought remains profound. Yet, even in his lifetime, his music endured vastly disrespectful neglect. He was a "difficult" composer. Sessions was well aware of it. In a New York Times article, he wrote, "I have sometimes been told that my music is 'difficult' for the listener. There are those who consider this as praise, those who consider it a reproach. For my part I regard it as, in itself, neither one or the other...it is the way the music comes, the way it has to come." The way Sessions's music "had to come" is a recurrent focus of this biography. As the story is told, often in the composer's own words, the complex picture emerges of a remarkable man who, gradually and not very willingly, learned to accept his unexpected lot as a "difficult" composer. Frederik Prausnitz, an acquaintance of Sessions and conductor of his work, combines personal and musical insights to present this fascinating portrait of an influential, yet often overlooked, modernist composer.
Download or read book Aaron Copland written by Howard Pollack and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A candid and fascinating portrait of the American composer. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Aaron Copland (1900-1990) became one of America's most beloved and esteemed composers. His work, which includes Fanfare for the Common Man, A Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring, has been honored by a huge following of devoted listeners. But the full richness of Copland's life and accomplishments has never, until now, been documented or understood. Howard Pollack's meticulously researched and engrossing biography explores the symphony of Copland's life: his childhood in Brooklyn; his homosexuality; Paris in the early 1920s; the Alfred Stieglitz circle; his experimentation with jazz; the communist witch trials; Hollywood in the forties; public disappointment with his later, intellectual work; and his struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, Pollack presents informed discussions of Copland's music, explaining and clarifying its newness and originality, its aesthetic and social aspects, its distinctive and enduring personality. "Not only a success in its own right, but a valuable model of what biography can and probably should be. " - Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book Music Musique written by Barbara Meister and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2006-08-16 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music Musique is a study of American and French composers active in the late 19th through early 20th centuries and the influence of jazz on their compositional styles. Starting with a look at the formation of American and French styles of composition, Meister discusses the jazz influence on American composers such as Ives, Copland, and Seeger, and their reception in France. She then takes a parallel look at the jazz influence on prominent French composers such as Ravel, Milhaud, and Messiaen, with a conclusion that briefly outlines post--World War II musical developments. Considerable attention is paid to the social and political worlds in which these artists lived and created. Of particular interest is the community of Afro-American jazz musicians who settled in Paris after World War I, and their influence on the likes of Ravel, Milhaud, Satie, and other artists with New Orleans--based styles. Meister also discusses the more famous coteries of American writers who lived and worked in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The stories of these two groups of Americans in Paris form a fascinating background to the main topic of the book. Music Musique is intended for amateurs and experts alike; it provides ideas about repertoire as well as information about compositions that are likely to be heard in performance. The emphasis of the text is always on the piano solo literature or other piano music -- song accompaniments, piano duets, or internal orchestral piano parts.
Download or read book Music in American Life 4 volumes written by Jacqueline Edmondson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-10-03 with total page 1470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of the relationship between American culture and music as defined by musicians, scholars, and critics from around the world. Music has been the cornerstone of popular culture in the United States since the beginning of our nation's history. From early immigrants sharing the sounds of their native lands to contemporary artists performing benefit concerts for social causes, our country's musical expressions reflect where we, as a people, have been, as well as our hope for the future. This four-volume encyclopedia examines music's influence on contemporary American life, tracing historical connections over time. Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between this art form and our society. Entries include singers, composers, lyricists, songs, musical genres, places, instruments, technologies, music in films, music in political realms, and music shows on television.
Download or read book The Selected Correspondence of Aaron Copland written by Aaron Copland and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book devoted to the correspondence of composer Aaron Copland, covering his life from age eight to eighty-seven. The chronologically arranged collection includes letters to many significant figures in American twentieth-century music as well as Copland’s friends, family, teachers, and colleagues. Selected for readability, interest, and the light they cast upon the composer’s thoughts and career, the letters are carefully annotated and each published in its entirety. Copland was a gifted and natural letter writer who revealed much more about himself in his letters than in formal writings in which he was conscious of his position as spokesman for modern music. The collected letters offer insights into his music, personality, and ideas, along with fascinating glimpses into the lives of such other well-known musicians as Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Chávez, William Schuman, and Virgil Thomson.
Download or read book Aaron Copland written by Marta Robertson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-08-27 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is generally considered the most popular and well-known composer of American art music, and yet little scholarly attention has been paid to Copland since the 1950s. This volume begins with a portrait of the composer and an evaluation of significant research trends which is intended to fill a void and to suggest directions for further research. The guide also provides a section discussing Copland's interdisciplinary interests, such as ballet and film work, as well as a comprehensive bibliography of writings about Copland and his music.
Download or read book Virgil Thomson written by Anthony Tommasini and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1997 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written with exclusive access to Virgil Thomson's papers, this first full-scale account of Thomson's experiences as a composer, influential critic, and gay man chronicles his relationships with Gertrude Stein, Aaron Copeland, and others in 1920's Paris. Photos.
Download or read book Copland Connotations written by Peter Dickinson and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mine of information for both general and specialist readers about the life and work of one of America's greatest composers.
Download or read book Reports of the Secretary and of the Treasurer written by John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes: biographies of fellows appointed; reappointments; publications of fellows; musical compositions of fellows; academic appointments of fellows; index of fellows.
Download or read book Dictionary of American Classical Composers written by Neil Butterworth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 1359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dictionary of American Classical Composers covers over 650 composers active from the 18th century to today. Covering all classical styles, it offers the most comprehensive overview of key composers in the United States available. Entries include basic biographical information and critical analysis of each composer's key works and ideas. Entries also include worklists and bibliographic information. Whenever possible, the entries will have been checked by the composers themselves to assure greatest possible accuracy. This new edition, completely updated and expanded from the 1984 edition, also includes over 200 historic photographs.
Download or read book Unsettled Scores written by Sally Bick and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hollywood careers of Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler brought the composers and their high art sensibility into direct conflict with the premier producer of America's potent mass culture. Drawn by Hollywood's potential to reach—and edify—the public, Copland and Eisler expertly wove sophisticated musical ideas into Hollywood and, each in their own distinctive way, left an indelible mark on movie history. Sally Bick's dual study of Copland and Eisler pairs interpretations of their writings on film composing with a close examination of their first Hollywood projects: Copland's music for Of Mice and Men and Eisler's score for Hangmen Also Die! Bick illuminates the different ways the composers treated a film score as means of expressing their political ideas on society, capitalism, and the human condition. She also delves into Copland's and Eisler's often conflicted attempts to adapt their music to fit Hollywood's commercial demands, an enterprise that took place even as they wrote hostile critiques of the film industry.
