Jennifer C. Lena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150765
- eISBN:
- 9781400840458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150765.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter explores the trajectories of musical styles across genre forms by engaging in what are called “parallel comparisons,” in order to show how several musical styles follow (or do not) the ...
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This chapter explores the trajectories of musical styles across genre forms by engaging in what are called “parallel comparisons,” in order to show how several musical styles follow (or do not) the same patterns. It describes two primary trajectories taken by musical styles across the four genre types. The first trajectory is shared by the three styles explored in Chapter 2 (bluegrass, bebop, and rap). The second trajectory, abbreviated IST, describes the transit of nine musics that started as industry-based genres, then inspired a scene-based genre form, and acquired a traditionalist following. The chapter first identifies these two trajectories and illustrates them with examples from several musical styles. It then explores the three mechanisms of inertia that produced incomplete musical trajectories across genre forms.Less
This chapter explores the trajectories of musical styles across genre forms by engaging in what are called “parallel comparisons,” in order to show how several musical styles follow (or do not) the same patterns. It describes two primary trajectories taken by musical styles across the four genre types. The first trajectory is shared by the three styles explored in Chapter 2 (bluegrass, bebop, and rap). The second trajectory, abbreviated IST, describes the transit of nine musics that started as industry-based genres, then inspired a scene-based genre form, and acquired a traditionalist following. The chapter first identifies these two trajectories and illustrates them with examples from several musical styles. It then explores the three mechanisms of inertia that produced incomplete musical trajectories across genre forms.
Jennifer C. Lena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150765
- eISBN:
- 9781400840458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150765.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter examines the progression of three musics through the four genre types, focusing on the hanging mix of the resources they use. These resources include organizational form, scale, and ...
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This chapter examines the progression of three musics through the four genre types, focusing on the hanging mix of the resources they use. These resources include organizational form, scale, and locus; the sources of income and press coverage for artists; the codification of genre ideal, performance, and technological conventions; boundary work; styles of dress, adornment, drugs, politics, and argot; and the invention of a name for the style. In order to focus on the attributes that characterize genre forms, the chapter selectively presents examples from three musical styles: bluegrass, old school rap, and bebop jazz. It hopes that focusing on examples from a sample of musics will highlight the features of genre types and their attributes without producing unnecessary confusion.Less
This chapter examines the progression of three musics through the four genre types, focusing on the hanging mix of the resources they use. These resources include organizational form, scale, and locus; the sources of income and press coverage for artists; the codification of genre ideal, performance, and technological conventions; boundary work; styles of dress, adornment, drugs, politics, and argot; and the invention of a name for the style. In order to focus on the attributes that characterize genre forms, the chapter selectively presents examples from three musical styles: bluegrass, old school rap, and bebop jazz. It hopes that focusing on examples from a sample of musics will highlight the features of genre types and their attributes without producing unnecessary confusion.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
The Ivy‐League pedigrees of many of the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) composers seems to contradict their anarchic‐Marxist musical activities in Rome during the late 1960s. Influenced by the ...
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The Ivy‐League pedigrees of many of the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) composers seems to contradict their anarchic‐Marxist musical activities in Rome during the late 1960s. Influenced by the live‐electronic improvisations of John Cage and David Tudor, the Italian network of avant‐garde composers, and the intense collective work of The Living Theater, these self‐exiled Americans (including Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, and Jon Phetteplace) developed a radical approach to free improvisation during a time of political and social turmoil in Europe. Joining forces in Rome in 1966, they performed throughout Europe during the late 1960s and gained influence as an intensely politicized underground model for musical action. MEV soon made the journey from performing compositions to provoking free sonic rituals where artists and audiences made music with any means available.Less
The Ivy‐League pedigrees of many of the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) composers seems to contradict their anarchic‐Marxist musical activities in Rome during the late 1960s. Influenced by the live‐electronic improvisations of John Cage and David Tudor, the Italian network of avant‐garde composers, and the intense collective work of The Living Theater, these self‐exiled Americans (including Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, and Jon Phetteplace) developed a radical approach to free improvisation during a time of political and social turmoil in Europe. Joining forces in Rome in 1966, they performed throughout Europe during the late 1960s and gained influence as an intensely politicized underground model for musical action. MEV soon made the journey from performing compositions to provoking free sonic rituals where artists and audiences made music with any means available.
Jennifer C. Lena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150765
- eISBN:
- 9781400840458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150765.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter first sets out book's purpose, which is to study the ideological, social, organizational, and symbolic attributes of twentieth-century American music. Three questions guide the ...
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This chapter first sets out book's purpose, which is to study the ideological, social, organizational, and symbolic attributes of twentieth-century American music. Three questions guide the investigation: (1) What are the common economic, organizational, ideological, and aesthetic traits among contemporary music genres? (2) Do music genres follow any patterns in their development, and if so, what explains their similarities and differences? and (3) Using contemporary American musical genres as a point of reference, how can we discover new genre forms and trajectories? It explores these questions in music in order to offer a comprehensive view into both classificatory schema employed to organize sound and sociocultural classification systems in general. The remainder of the chapter discusses the formal characteristics of twelve attributes found across styles of music. These organizational, economic, interpersonal, and aesthetic attributes are used to differentiate one musical style from another, and a given style from one moment in time to the next. Drawing from an inductive coding of histories of sixty American market-based musical forms from the twentieth century, it demonstrates patterns of attributes.Less
This chapter first sets out book's purpose, which is to study the ideological, social, organizational, and symbolic attributes of twentieth-century American music. Three questions guide the investigation: (1) What are the common economic, organizational, ideological, and aesthetic traits among contemporary music genres? (2) Do music genres follow any patterns in their development, and if so, what explains their similarities and differences? and (3) Using contemporary American musical genres as a point of reference, how can we discover new genre forms and trajectories? It explores these questions in music in order to offer a comprehensive view into both classificatory schema employed to organize sound and sociocultural classification systems in general. The remainder of the chapter discusses the formal characteristics of twelve attributes found across styles of music. These organizational, economic, interpersonal, and aesthetic attributes are used to differentiate one musical style from another, and a given style from one moment in time to the next. Drawing from an inductive coding of histories of sixty American market-based musical forms from the twentieth century, it demonstrates patterns of attributes.
Maurice Peress
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195098228
- eISBN:
- 9780199869817
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195098228.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Drawing upon a mix of research and the personal experience of a career devoted to the music about which Dvorák so presciently spoke, this book's narrative goes behind the scenes of the burgeoning ...
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Drawing upon a mix of research and the personal experience of a career devoted to the music about which Dvorák so presciently spoke, this book's narrative goes behind the scenes of the burgeoning American school of music and beyond. The book begins with Dvorák's three year residency as Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York (1892-5), and his students, in particular Will Marion Cook and Rubin Goldmark, who would in turn become the teachers of Ellington, Gershwin, and Copland. The book follows Dvorák to the famed Chicago World's Fair of 1893, where the book brings to light the little known African American presence at the Fair: the piano professors, about-to-be ragtimers; and the gifted young artists Paul Dunbar, Harry T. Burleigh, and Cook, who gathered at the Haitian Pavilion with its director, Frederick Douglass, to organize their own gala concert for Colored Persons Day. The author of this book, a distinguished conductor, is himself a part of this story; working with Duke Ellington on the “Suite from Black, Brown and Beige” and his “opera comique”, Queenie Pie; conducting the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass; and reconstructing landmark American concerts at which George Antheil's Ballet Mècanique, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, James Reese Europe's Clef Club (the first all-black concert at Carnegie Hall), and Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige, were first presented. The book concludes with a look at Ellington and his music.Less
Drawing upon a mix of research and the personal experience of a career devoted to the music about which Dvorák so presciently spoke, this book's narrative goes behind the scenes of the burgeoning American school of music and beyond. The book begins with Dvorák's three year residency as Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York (1892-5), and his students, in particular Will Marion Cook and Rubin Goldmark, who would in turn become the teachers of Ellington, Gershwin, and Copland. The book follows Dvorák to the famed Chicago World's Fair of 1893, where the book brings to light the little known African American presence at the Fair: the piano professors, about-to-be ragtimers; and the gifted young artists Paul Dunbar, Harry T. Burleigh, and Cook, who gathered at the Haitian Pavilion with its director, Frederick Douglass, to organize their own gala concert for Colored Persons Day. The author of this book, a distinguished conductor, is himself a part of this story; working with Duke Ellington on the “Suite from Black, Brown and Beige” and his “opera comique”, Queenie Pie; conducting the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass; and reconstructing landmark American concerts at which George Antheil's Ballet Mècanique, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, James Reese Europe's Clef Club (the first all-black concert at Carnegie Hall), and Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige, were first presented. The book concludes with a look at Ellington and his music.
Steve Swayne
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195388527
- eISBN:
- 9780199894345
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195388527.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, History, Western
The musical landscape of New York City and the United States of America would look quite different had it not been for William Schuman. This book, the first objective and comprehensive biography of ...
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The musical landscape of New York City and the United States of America would look quite different had it not been for William Schuman. This book, the first objective and comprehensive biography of Schuman, portrays a man who had a profound influence upon the artistic and political institutions of his day and beyond. The book draws heavily upon Schuman's letters, writings, and manuscripts as well as unprecedented access to archival recordings and previously unknown correspondence. The winner of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music, Schuman composed music that is rhythmically febrile, harmonically pungent, melodically long-breathed, and timbrally brilliant, and the book offers an astute analysis of his work, including many unpublished music scores. Swayne also describes Schuman's role as president of the Juilliard School of Music and of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, tracing how he both expanded the boundaries of music education and championed the performing arts. Filled with new discoveries and revisions of the received historical narrative and published in Schuman's centenary year, Orpheus in Manhattan confirms Schuman as a major figure in America's musical life.Less
The musical landscape of New York City and the United States of America would look quite different had it not been for William Schuman. This book, the first objective and comprehensive biography of Schuman, portrays a man who had a profound influence upon the artistic and political institutions of his day and beyond. The book draws heavily upon Schuman's letters, writings, and manuscripts as well as unprecedented access to archival recordings and previously unknown correspondence. The winner of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music, Schuman composed music that is rhythmically febrile, harmonically pungent, melodically long-breathed, and timbrally brilliant, and the book offers an astute analysis of his work, including many unpublished music scores. Swayne also describes Schuman's role as president of the Juilliard School of Music and of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, tracing how he both expanded the boundaries of music education and championed the performing arts. Filled with new discoveries and revisions of the received historical narrative and published in Schuman's centenary year, Orpheus in Manhattan confirms Schuman as a major figure in America's musical life.
Maurice Peress
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195098228
- eISBN:
- 9780199869817
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195098228.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter details Gershwin's early contacts with African American music and musicians. His Blue Monday Blues of 1922, a failed attempt at writing an operatic scene about Negro characters, is sung ...
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This chapter details Gershwin's early contacts with African American music and musicians. His Blue Monday Blues of 1922, a failed attempt at writing an operatic scene about Negro characters, is sung by whites in blackface. The chapter also discusses his thoughts on Jewish artists and African American music. Fifteen years later, Gershwin's masterpiece, a folk opera, Porgy and Bess, comes to Broadway and receives mixed reviews. The orchestration question is resolved at the end of the chapter.Less
This chapter details Gershwin's early contacts with African American music and musicians. His Blue Monday Blues of 1922, a failed attempt at writing an operatic scene about Negro characters, is sung by whites in blackface. The chapter also discusses his thoughts on Jewish artists and African American music. Fifteen years later, Gershwin's masterpiece, a folk opera, Porgy and Bess, comes to Broadway and receives mixed reviews. The orchestration question is resolved at the end of the chapter.
Jennifer C. Lena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150765
- eISBN:
- 9781400840458
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150765.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Why do some music styles gain mass popularity while others thrive in small niches? This book explores this question and reveals the attributes that together explain the growth of twentieth-century ...
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Why do some music styles gain mass popularity while others thrive in small niches? This book explores this question and reveals the attributes that together explain the growth of twentieth-century American popular music. Drawing on a vast array of examples from sixty musical styles—ranging from rap and bluegrass to death metal and South Texas polka, and including several created outside the United States—the book uncovers the shared grammar that allows us to understand the cultural language and evolution of popular music. The book discovers four dominant forms—avant-garde, scene-based, industry-based, and traditionalist—and two dominant trajectories that describe how American pop music genres develop. Outside the United States there exists a fifth form: the government-purposed genre, which the book examines in the music of China, Serbia, Nigeria, and Chile. Offering a rare analysis of how music communities operate, the book looks at the shared obstacles and opportunities creative people face and reveals the ways in which people collaborate around ideas, artworks, individuals, and organizations that support their work.Less
Why do some music styles gain mass popularity while others thrive in small niches? This book explores this question and reveals the attributes that together explain the growth of twentieth-century American popular music. Drawing on a vast array of examples from sixty musical styles—ranging from rap and bluegrass to death metal and South Texas polka, and including several created outside the United States—the book uncovers the shared grammar that allows us to understand the cultural language and evolution of popular music. The book discovers four dominant forms—avant-garde, scene-based, industry-based, and traditionalist—and two dominant trajectories that describe how American pop music genres develop. Outside the United States there exists a fifth form: the government-purposed genre, which the book examines in the music of China, Serbia, Nigeria, and Chile. Offering a rare analysis of how music communities operate, the book looks at the shared obstacles and opportunities creative people face and reveals the ways in which people collaborate around ideas, artworks, individuals, and organizations that support their work.
Beth Levy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267763
- eISBN:
- 9780520952027
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267763.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This is an exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, ...
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This is an exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and Arthur Farwell, it addresses questions of regionalism, race, and representation, as well as changing relationships to the natural world, to highlight the intersections between classical music and the diverse worlds of Indians, pioneers, and cowboys. The author draws from an array of genres to show how different brands of western Americana were absorbed into American culture by way of sheet music, radio, lecture recitals, the concert hall, and film. The book is a comprehensive illumination of what the West meant and still means to composers living and writing long after the close of the frontier.Less
This is an exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and Arthur Farwell, it addresses questions of regionalism, race, and representation, as well as changing relationships to the natural world, to highlight the intersections between classical music and the diverse worlds of Indians, pioneers, and cowboys. The author draws from an array of genres to show how different brands of western Americana were absorbed into American culture by way of sheet music, radio, lecture recitals, the concert hall, and film. The book is a comprehensive illumination of what the West meant and still means to composers living and writing long after the close of the frontier.
Britta Sweers
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195174786
- eISBN:
- 9780199864348
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174786.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
In order to discuss modern revival and fusion processes from a broader perspective, this chapter presents the case study of the New St. George, an American English electric folk band. The interview ...
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In order to discuss modern revival and fusion processes from a broader perspective, this chapter presents the case study of the New St. George, an American English electric folk band. The interview with band leader Jennifer Cutting adds a relativizing angle to the specific situation of a hybrid music band, such as the musical selection process, the performance situation, and the business side. As the specifically marginal situation of American English bands reveals, hybrid bands often have to work with compromises much stronger than the dominant “Celtic” scenes, which can fall back on a much broader local and global network. While thus appearing as a highly specific genre, English electric folk is nevertheless also being revealed as a highly influential genre — be it with regard to the more successful “Celtic” branch — yet also with regard to folk rock approaches in neighboring countries like Scandinavia.Less
In order to discuss modern revival and fusion processes from a broader perspective, this chapter presents the case study of the New St. George, an American English electric folk band. The interview with band leader Jennifer Cutting adds a relativizing angle to the specific situation of a hybrid music band, such as the musical selection process, the performance situation, and the business side. As the specifically marginal situation of American English bands reveals, hybrid bands often have to work with compromises much stronger than the dominant “Celtic” scenes, which can fall back on a much broader local and global network. While thus appearing as a highly specific genre, English electric folk is nevertheless also being revealed as a highly influential genre — be it with regard to the more successful “Celtic” branch — yet also with regard to folk rock approaches in neighboring countries like Scandinavia.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter surveys American music's role during the initial period of occupation and reconstruction up to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the official division of East and ...
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This chapter surveys American music's role during the initial period of occupation and reconstruction up to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the official division of East and West Germany. It mentions American composers who contributed to the presence of American music on the European continent, paying particular attention to Henry Cowell who was the one of the most adventurous composers of his generation. It explains that while mainstream contemporary American music received little or no attention at new music festivals during the period, tentative awareness of something radical began to spread on the radio and at other music venues.Less
This chapter surveys American music's role during the initial period of occupation and reconstruction up to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the official division of East and West Germany. It mentions American composers who contributed to the presence of American music on the European continent, paying particular attention to Henry Cowell who was the one of the most adventurous composers of his generation. It explains that while mainstream contemporary American music received little or no attention at new music festivals during the period, tentative awareness of something radical began to spread on the radio and at other music venues.
Carol J. Oja
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195058499
- eISBN:
- 9780199865031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195058499.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
American composers not only explored new compositional byways during the 1920s but also sought ways to bring their work before the public. They were good at it, often finding others willing to invest ...
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American composers not only explored new compositional byways during the 1920s but also sought ways to bring their work before the public. They were good at it, often finding others willing to invest time and money in devising opportunities for performance and publication. As a result, a string of new music organizations appeared in New York City, including the International Composers' Guild, the League of Composers, the Pan American Association of Composers, and the Copland-Sessions Concerts. These followed parallel ventures in the visual arts. During the first two decades of the century, Alfred Stieglitz's Gallery 291 exhibited new European and American art, while selected dealers such as Stephan Bourgeois began featuring modernist painting. This chapter looks at the legacy of composers Marion Bauer, Frederick Jacobi, Emerson Whithorne, and Louis Gruenberg in the field of modernist music in New York.Less
American composers not only explored new compositional byways during the 1920s but also sought ways to bring their work before the public. They were good at it, often finding others willing to invest time and money in devising opportunities for performance and publication. As a result, a string of new music organizations appeared in New York City, including the International Composers' Guild, the League of Composers, the Pan American Association of Composers, and the Copland-Sessions Concerts. These followed parallel ventures in the visual arts. During the first two decades of the century, Alfred Stieglitz's Gallery 291 exhibited new European and American art, while selected dealers such as Stephan Bourgeois began featuring modernist painting. This chapter looks at the legacy of composers Marion Bauer, Frederick Jacobi, Emerson Whithorne, and Louis Gruenberg in the field of modernist music in New York.
Jeffrey Magee
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195398267
- eISBN:
- 9780199933358
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398267.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Popular
“The mob is always right” was the idea that charged Irving Berlin’s career in American popular music. Taking off from that claim, this book represents a wide-ranging exploration of America’s greatest ...
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“The mob is always right” was the idea that charged Irving Berlin’s career in American popular music. Taking off from that claim, this book represents a wide-ranging exploration of America’s greatest songwriter and his role in creating twentieth-century musical theater. Drawing on past scholarly efforts and a vast store of recently released archival material, the book strives to break new ground in focusing on Irving Berlin’s half-century of work for the Broadway stage—a career that tracks the development of American musical theater itself. The book traces a fundamental paradigm shift from early twentieth-century values of variety entertainment, manifested in Berlin’s revues and revue-like comedies, to an increasing emphasis on coherent, well-crafted scripts for musical comedy, in which songs were more thoroughly integrated into the plot. Throughout, Berlin maintained a unique balance by fitting musical numbers tightly to their show contexts, and addressing their historical moment, while preserving their integrity as individual songs that could have their own lives in the musical marketplace as jazz and cabaret standards, and as popular classics whose sheet music enjoyed pride of place in the piano benches of American homes. Like Berlin’s songs and shows, the book is designed for a wide readership of musical theater aficionados as well as serious students of music, drama, and popular culture—and anyone interested in the story of a poor immigrant boy whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.Less
“The mob is always right” was the idea that charged Irving Berlin’s career in American popular music. Taking off from that claim, this book represents a wide-ranging exploration of America’s greatest songwriter and his role in creating twentieth-century musical theater. Drawing on past scholarly efforts and a vast store of recently released archival material, the book strives to break new ground in focusing on Irving Berlin’s half-century of work for the Broadway stage—a career that tracks the development of American musical theater itself. The book traces a fundamental paradigm shift from early twentieth-century values of variety entertainment, manifested in Berlin’s revues and revue-like comedies, to an increasing emphasis on coherent, well-crafted scripts for musical comedy, in which songs were more thoroughly integrated into the plot. Throughout, Berlin maintained a unique balance by fitting musical numbers tightly to their show contexts, and addressing their historical moment, while preserving their integrity as individual songs that could have their own lives in the musical marketplace as jazz and cabaret standards, and as popular classics whose sheet music enjoyed pride of place in the piano benches of American homes. Like Berlin’s songs and shows, the book is designed for a wide readership of musical theater aficionados as well as serious students of music, drama, and popular culture—and anyone interested in the story of a poor immigrant boy whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.
Catherine Parsons Smith
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520215429
- eISBN:
- 9780520921573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520215429.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter describes the relationship between Still's work and the Harlem Renaissance. It studies three style periods of Still's concert music, namely “Ultra-Modern”, “racial”, and “universal.” ...
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This chapter describes the relationship between Still's work and the Harlem Renaissance. It studies three style periods of Still's concert music, namely “Ultra-Modern”, “racial”, and “universal.” This chapter uses the connection between the Harlem Renaissance and modernism to explain Still's position in American music.Less
This chapter describes the relationship between Still's work and the Harlem Renaissance. It studies three style periods of Still's concert music, namely “Ultra-Modern”, “racial”, and “universal.” This chapter uses the connection between the Harlem Renaissance and modernism to explain Still's position in American music.
Thomas O Beebee
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195339383
- eISBN:
- 9780199867097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195339383.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature
No other recording artist has tapped into the reimagined roots of the old, millennial America to the extent Bob Dylan (1941- ) has. He represents something unique: a millionaire purveyor of ...
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No other recording artist has tapped into the reimagined roots of the old, millennial America to the extent Bob Dylan (1941- ) has. He represents something unique: a millionaire purveyor of technologized, capitalist popular culture whose work projects a consistent though often subliminal message of the end of the world. Dylan’s songs are also a prime example of the hybridity of American apocalyptic thought. Dylan has invoked millennium throughout his career, including times when he was seen as a nihilistic radical of the counter-culture. Furthermore, the technologies of recording, radio, television, and other media has meant a broader diffusion of this imagery among the general public than at any previous time in history. This chapter shows that each musical idiom that Dylan has chosen to deliver his message, together with his tendency to mix popular culture imagery with that drawn from the Bible, has deflected and obscured this eschatogical message. The very eclecticism of Dylan’s sources acts to distance him from any single tradition, and his career has seen every possible take on the theme of millennium, from postmodern pastiche to sincere gospel.Less
No other recording artist has tapped into the reimagined roots of the old, millennial America to the extent Bob Dylan (1941- ) has. He represents something unique: a millionaire purveyor of technologized, capitalist popular culture whose work projects a consistent though often subliminal message of the end of the world. Dylan’s songs are also a prime example of the hybridity of American apocalyptic thought. Dylan has invoked millennium throughout his career, including times when he was seen as a nihilistic radical of the counter-culture. Furthermore, the technologies of recording, radio, television, and other media has meant a broader diffusion of this imagery among the general public than at any previous time in history. This chapter shows that each musical idiom that Dylan has chosen to deliver his message, together with his tendency to mix popular culture imagery with that drawn from the Bible, has deflected and obscured this eschatogical message. The very eclecticism of Dylan’s sources acts to distance him from any single tradition, and his career has seen every possible take on the theme of millennium, from postmodern pastiche to sincere gospel.
William Howland Kenney
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195171778
- eISBN:
- 9780199849789
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171778.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Commercial recordings of music made by African Americans, discs designed by record companies to sell to African Americans, finally emerged in the 1920s as a further extension of earlier ethnic music ...
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Commercial recordings of music made by African Americans, discs designed by record companies to sell to African Americans, finally emerged in the 1920s as a further extension of earlier ethnic music recording programs. The phonograph's mediation of the musical experience for both performers and listeners emerges clearly enough in ethnic records, but all the more so in those marketed to African Americans. Just as the recording industry had created its spinning encapsulations of ethnicity, so too it now turned to making engravings of the sounds of race. From 1920 to 1945, the race record era, many different companies made recordings of African American music, but four major record labels—Okeh, Paramount, Brunswick/Vocalion, and Columbia—took control of the field. Race records, however, present a dilemma: several Black musicians and singers claimed that despite the rich eclectic variety of Black popular music, they were allowed to record only blues.Less
Commercial recordings of music made by African Americans, discs designed by record companies to sell to African Americans, finally emerged in the 1920s as a further extension of earlier ethnic music recording programs. The phonograph's mediation of the musical experience for both performers and listeners emerges clearly enough in ethnic records, but all the more so in those marketed to African Americans. Just as the recording industry had created its spinning encapsulations of ethnicity, so too it now turned to making engravings of the sounds of race. From 1920 to 1945, the race record era, many different companies made recordings of African American music, but four major record labels—Okeh, Paramount, Brunswick/Vocalion, and Columbia—took control of the field. Race records, however, present a dilemma: several Black musicians and singers claimed that despite the rich eclectic variety of Black popular music, they were allowed to record only blues.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter examines how new American music became entangled in an ideological search for music that reflected and encouraged social interaction and global concerns during the volatile years of the ...
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This chapter examines how new American music became entangled in an ideological search for music that reflected and encouraged social interaction and global concerns during the volatile years of the Vietnam War. It explains that this period witnessed the explosion of multimedia and boundary-crossing festivals that contributed to the breakdown in stylistic purity in new composition. In addition, free jazz, rock music, live electronics, minimalism and world music cultures, intermingled and attracted an untapped audience base.Less
This chapter examines how new American music became entangled in an ideological search for music that reflected and encouraged social interaction and global concerns during the volatile years of the Vietnam War. It explains that this period witnessed the explosion of multimedia and boundary-crossing festivals that contributed to the breakdown in stylistic purity in new composition. In addition, free jazz, rock music, live electronics, minimalism and world music cultures, intermingled and attracted an untapped audience base.
David Brackett
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520225411
- eISBN:
- 9780520925700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520225411.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter explores the discursive space in which the concepts of “blackness” and African American music have been produced and analyzes how these concepts function in James Brown's 1970 recording ...
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This chapter explores the discursive space in which the concepts of “blackness” and African American music have been produced and analyzes how these concepts function in James Brown's 1970 recording Superbad. It examines African American music as a historical discourse based on anecdotal accounts and surviving musical practices, which are seen as implying a layer of transhistorical musical features. It summarizes some aspects of the discourses that have circulated about African-American music, including those on the status of the black community and its relationship with the white community, on musical aesthetics, on the impact of ethnicity on aesthetics, and on the impact of community on reception.Less
This chapter explores the discursive space in which the concepts of “blackness” and African American music have been produced and analyzes how these concepts function in James Brown's 1970 recording Superbad. It examines African American music as a historical discourse based on anecdotal accounts and surviving musical practices, which are seen as implying a layer of transhistorical musical features. It summarizes some aspects of the discourses that have circulated about African-American music, including those on the status of the black community and its relationship with the white community, on musical aesthetics, on the impact of ethnicity on aesthetics, and on the impact of community on reception.
Samuel A. Floyd
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195109757
- eISBN:
- 9780199853243
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195109757.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This book offers a new way of listening to the music of black America, and of appreciating its profound contribution to all American music. Striving to break down the barriers that remain between ...
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This book offers a new way of listening to the music of black America, and of appreciating its profound contribution to all American music. Striving to break down the barriers that remain between high art and low art, it illuminates the centuries-old linkage between the music, myths, and rituals of Africa and the continuing evolution and enduring vitality of African American music. Inspired by the pioneering work of Sterling Stuckey and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the author advocates a new critical approach grounded in the forms and traditions of the music itself.Less
This book offers a new way of listening to the music of black America, and of appreciating its profound contribution to all American music. Striving to break down the barriers that remain between high art and low art, it illuminates the centuries-old linkage between the music, myths, and rituals of Africa and the continuing evolution and enduring vitality of African American music. Inspired by the pioneering work of Sterling Stuckey and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the author advocates a new critical approach grounded in the forms and traditions of the music itself.
Britta Sweers
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195174786
- eISBN:
- 9780199864348
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174786.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
In the 1960s and 1970s, British musicians rediscovered traditional folk ballads, fusing the old melodies with rock, jazz, and blues styles to create a new genre dubbed “electric folk” or “British ...
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In the 1960s and 1970s, British musicians rediscovered traditional folk ballads, fusing the old melodies with rock, jazz, and blues styles to create a new genre dubbed “electric folk” or “British folk rock.” This revival featured groups such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, and Pentangle, and individual performers like Richard Thompson and Shirley Collins. While working in multiple styles, all were making music based on traditional English song and dance material. After reasonable commercial success, electric folk disappeared from mainstream notice in the late 1970s, yet performers continue to create it today. This multi-layered analysis explores electric folk as a cultural phenomenon, commercial entity, and performance style. Drawing on rare historical sources, contemporary music journalism, and first-hand interviews, the book argues that electric folk resulted from both the American folk revival of the early 1960s and a reaction against the dominance of American pop music abroad. In this process, the musicians turned to traditional musical material as a means of asserting their British cultural identity. Yet, they were less interested in the “purity” of folk ballads than in the music's potential for lively interaction with modern styles, instruments, and media. This book also delves into the impact of the movement on mainstream pop, American rock music, and neighboring European countries.Less
In the 1960s and 1970s, British musicians rediscovered traditional folk ballads, fusing the old melodies with rock, jazz, and blues styles to create a new genre dubbed “electric folk” or “British folk rock.” This revival featured groups such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, and Pentangle, and individual performers like Richard Thompson and Shirley Collins. While working in multiple styles, all were making music based on traditional English song and dance material. After reasonable commercial success, electric folk disappeared from mainstream notice in the late 1970s, yet performers continue to create it today. This multi-layered analysis explores electric folk as a cultural phenomenon, commercial entity, and performance style. Drawing on rare historical sources, contemporary music journalism, and first-hand interviews, the book argues that electric folk resulted from both the American folk revival of the early 1960s and a reaction against the dominance of American pop music abroad. In this process, the musicians turned to traditional musical material as a means of asserting their British cultural identity. Yet, they were less interested in the “purity” of folk ballads than in the music's potential for lively interaction with modern styles, instruments, and media. This book also delves into the impact of the movement on mainstream pop, American rock music, and neighboring European countries.
