John C. Tibbetts
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106749
- eISBN:
- 9780300128031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106749.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter focuses on Yankee Doodle Dandy, the Warner Bros. movie about George M. Cohan's life. It is but one of dozens of Hollywood biopics purporting to tell the story of the great American ...
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This chapter focuses on Yankee Doodle Dandy, the Warner Bros. movie about George M. Cohan's life. It is but one of dozens of Hollywood biopics purporting to tell the story of the great American popular songwriters, from Stephen Foster to the tunesmiths of Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway musical show. Filmmakers, sometimes assisted by the composers themselves, could recast them into any desired shape and construct a weave of fact and fiction, sacrificing biographical detail to the glory of the music itself. From the 1930s to the late 1950s, these pictures came in a flood, boasting big budgets, glossy production values, lots of music, and major stars. If the prestige of the classical pantheon had been and continued to be a factor in its marketability, the allure of the Tin Pan Alley composers—success and money—was even more potent.Less
This chapter focuses on Yankee Doodle Dandy, the Warner Bros. movie about George M. Cohan's life. It is but one of dozens of Hollywood biopics purporting to tell the story of the great American popular songwriters, from Stephen Foster to the tunesmiths of Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway musical show. Filmmakers, sometimes assisted by the composers themselves, could recast them into any desired shape and construct a weave of fact and fiction, sacrificing biographical detail to the glory of the music itself. From the 1930s to the late 1950s, these pictures came in a flood, boasting big budgets, glossy production values, lots of music, and major stars. If the prestige of the classical pantheon had been and continued to be a factor in its marketability, the allure of the Tin Pan Alley composers—success and money—was even more potent.
John C. Tibbetts
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106749
- eISBN:
- 9780300128031
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106749.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This book is about composer biographies in the likes of Amadeus, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Swanee River, and Rhapsody in Blue. Even before movies had sound, filmmakers dramatized the lives of composers. ...
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This book is about composer biographies in the likes of Amadeus, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Swanee River, and Rhapsody in Blue. Even before movies had sound, filmmakers dramatized the lives of composers. Movie biographies—or biopics—have depicted composers as diverse as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George M. Cohan, Stephen Foster, and George Gershwin. This book surveys different styles and periods from the Hollywood of the 1920s and 1930s to the international cinema of today, exploring the role that film biographies play in our understanding of history and culture. It delves into such questions as: How historically accurate are composer biopics? How and why have inaccuracies and distortions been perpetrated? What strategies have been used to represent visually the creative process? The book examines the films in several contexts and considers their role in commodifying and popularizing music.Less
This book is about composer biographies in the likes of Amadeus, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Swanee River, and Rhapsody in Blue. Even before movies had sound, filmmakers dramatized the lives of composers. Movie biographies—or biopics—have depicted composers as diverse as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George M. Cohan, Stephen Foster, and George Gershwin. This book surveys different styles and periods from the Hollywood of the 1920s and 1930s to the international cinema of today, exploring the role that film biographies play in our understanding of history and culture. It delves into such questions as: How historically accurate are composer biopics? How and why have inaccuracies and distortions been perpetrated? What strategies have been used to represent visually the creative process? The book examines the films in several contexts and considers their role in commodifying and popularizing music.
Brian Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226451503
- eISBN:
- 9780226451787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226451787.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter reexamines the Five Points Riot as an example of “love crime” racism. That is, the rioters embraced blackface and Jim Crow even during the riot, while engaging in violent attacks against ...
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This chapter reexamines the Five Points Riot as an example of “love crime” racism. That is, the rioters embraced blackface and Jim Crow even during the riot, while engaging in violent attacks against actual African Americans and white abolitionists. Blackface, as it emerged in the 1830s, was an expression of the new aggressive and masculine working class culture. Its characters embraced bodily self-expression, vulgarity, violence and anti-intellectualism, against a rising middle class culture of reform, uplift and humanitarianism. The rioters targeted both African Americans and middle-class whites who supported African American uplift and the abolition of slavery: those were not conforming to their expectations about black people, or those who appeared to be conspiring to “ruin” the authenticity of blacks. Middle class white men, however, were not willing to cede all masculinity and authenticity to the working class. By the 1840s and 1850s, songwriters like Stephen Foster blended the genre’s original impulses with nostalgia, sentiment and deep emotionalism, and increasingly focused on the character of the sentimental slave. Thus, by embracing blackface, the middle class was able to contain the threat of working class culture by consuming its rebellious style of anger, softening it with sentiment.Less
This chapter reexamines the Five Points Riot as an example of “love crime” racism. That is, the rioters embraced blackface and Jim Crow even during the riot, while engaging in violent attacks against actual African Americans and white abolitionists. Blackface, as it emerged in the 1830s, was an expression of the new aggressive and masculine working class culture. Its characters embraced bodily self-expression, vulgarity, violence and anti-intellectualism, against a rising middle class culture of reform, uplift and humanitarianism. The rioters targeted both African Americans and middle-class whites who supported African American uplift and the abolition of slavery: those were not conforming to their expectations about black people, or those who appeared to be conspiring to “ruin” the authenticity of blacks. Middle class white men, however, were not willing to cede all masculinity and authenticity to the working class. By the 1840s and 1850s, songwriters like Stephen Foster blended the genre’s original impulses with nostalgia, sentiment and deep emotionalism, and increasingly focused on the character of the sentimental slave. Thus, by embracing blackface, the middle class was able to contain the threat of working class culture by consuming its rebellious style of anger, softening it with sentiment.
Kyle Gann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252040856
- eISBN:
- 9780252099366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040856.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Ives’s “Thoreau” music takes its cue from several passages in Thoreau’s Walden, including a musical depiction of three walking tours that basically circumnavigate Walden Pond from Thoreau’s cabin. ...
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Ives’s “Thoreau” music takes its cue from several passages in Thoreau’s Walden, including a musical depiction of three walking tours that basically circumnavigate Walden Pond from Thoreau’s cabin. Quotations from the Stephen Foster song “Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground” create a political quandary, but the music devolves into a calm ostinato that reflects nature’s unhurried pace. A flute that enters at the end refers to Thoreau’s habit of playing the flute from his boat in Walden Pond.Less
Ives’s “Thoreau” music takes its cue from several passages in Thoreau’s Walden, including a musical depiction of three walking tours that basically circumnavigate Walden Pond from Thoreau’s cabin. Quotations from the Stephen Foster song “Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground” create a political quandary, but the music devolves into a calm ostinato that reflects nature’s unhurried pace. A flute that enters at the end refers to Thoreau’s habit of playing the flute from his boat in Walden Pond.
Sharon Ammen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040658
- eISBN:
- 9780252099090
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040658.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter explores the origination of the coon song, a ragtime melody mixing jazz and march music and replete with degrading racial stereotypes. May Irwin was the most prominent white female coon ...
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This chapter explores the origination of the coon song, a ragtime melody mixing jazz and march music and replete with degrading racial stereotypes. May Irwin was the most prominent white female coon shouter. Songs by Stephen Foster and those performed by William Walker and Bert Williams are discussed, as is the nationwide dissemination of sheet music from Tin Pan Alley. The author examines abolitionism and Radical Reconstruction in African American history and the increase of lynchings of African Americans in Jim Crow America. She then looks at the “Greedy Gal” and the “Idealized” and “Pathetic” coon stereotypes of black life.Less
This chapter explores the origination of the coon song, a ragtime melody mixing jazz and march music and replete with degrading racial stereotypes. May Irwin was the most prominent white female coon shouter. Songs by Stephen Foster and those performed by William Walker and Bert Williams are discussed, as is the nationwide dissemination of sheet music from Tin Pan Alley. The author examines abolitionism and Radical Reconstruction in African American history and the increase of lynchings of African Americans in Jim Crow America. She then looks at the “Greedy Gal” and the “Idealized” and “Pathetic” coon stereotypes of black life.
