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/9780520225411.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the interpretation of popular music. It considers the issues of authorship, the relationship of text to context, musical ...
More
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the interpretation of popular music. It considers the issues of authorship, the relationship of text to context, musical codes and audiences. It argues that there is not necessarily one way of interpreting popular music but that different types of popular music use different types of rhetoric, call for different sorts of interpretation, refer to different arguments about musical complexity and familiarity and draw upon different senses of history and tradition.Less
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the interpretation of popular music. It considers the issues of authorship, the relationship of text to context, musical codes and audiences. It argues that there is not necessarily one way of interpreting popular music but that different types of popular music use different types of rhetoric, call for different sorts of interpretation, refer to different arguments about musical complexity and familiarity and draw upon different senses of history and tradition.
Kyle Gann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252040856
- eISBN:
- 9780252099366
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040856.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music ...
More
In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music the recipients had seen before, the piece was subtitled “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,” and the four sonata movements were named for American authors: “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” “Thoreau.” Ridiculed in the press at first, the Concord Sonata gained admirers (including composers like Copland and Gershwin and writers like Henry Bellamann), and when finally given its complete world premiere by John Kirkpatrick in 1939, it was hailed as “the greatest music composed by an American.” The piece is so complex that it has never been fully analyzed before, and this book is the first to explore and detail its methods on every page. Likewise, Ives wrote a book to accompany the sonata, titled Essays Before a Sonata, purporting to explain his aesthetic thinking, and no one has ever before seriously examined Ives’s aesthetic through-argument.Less
In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music the recipients had seen before, the piece was subtitled “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,” and the four sonata movements were named for American authors: “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” “Thoreau.” Ridiculed in the press at first, the Concord Sonata gained admirers (including composers like Copland and Gershwin and writers like Henry Bellamann), and when finally given its complete world premiere by John Kirkpatrick in 1939, it was hailed as “the greatest music composed by an American.” The piece is so complex that it has never been fully analyzed before, and this book is the first to explore and detail its methods on every page. Likewise, Ives wrote a book to accompany the sonata, titled Essays Before a Sonata, purporting to explain his aesthetic thinking, and no one has ever before seriously examined Ives’s aesthetic through-argument.
