Transcript Towson University Part 6 Tradition and Innovation in Concert Music

America’s Musical Landscape
5th edition
PowerPoint by Brenda Leach
Towson University
Part 6
Tradition and Innovation in Concert Music
Chapter 22: Early Twentieth-Century Mainstream Concert
Music: Evolution
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Evolutionary Approach to
New Music

Composers drew upon already existing
American subjects and tunes including jazz
and popular music
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The Paris scene attracted young
composers in the 1920s and 1930s
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Nadia Boulanger – brilliant teacher,
organist and composer
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert
Music
Chapter 22: Early TwentiethCentury Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution
2
Aaron Copland
(1900-1990)

A New York composer and the first American to study with
Nadia Boulanger

Found inspiration in jazz, cowboy songs, American hymns,
and Mexican folk and popular music

Depression years – Copland worked with Roger Sessions to
develop American music

Important works:
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Lincoln Portrait
Fanfare for the Common Man
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert
Music
Chapter 22: Early TwentiethCentury Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution
3
Copland’s Music for Dance

Classical Ballet – a formal,
stylized dance

Modern Dance –
Copland’s ballets are
an example of modern dance

Rodeo (1942) – Copland’s
famous ballet commissioned
by choreographer, Agnes de Mille;
inspired by American country music and dance
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert
Music
Chapter 22: Early TwentiethCentury Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution
4
Samuel Barber
(1910-1981)

A neo-romantic composer (new romantic)

Attracted to song

Adagio for Strings (1936)
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One of his most famous works
Linked to a poem of Virgil from the Georgics
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert
Music
Chapter 22: Early TwentiethCentury Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution
5
Harlem Renaissance

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Movement of the 1920s
African American artists sought to “promote racial
advancement through artistic creativity.”
Treated as a literary movement, but was
supported by visual art and music
Musicians involved included Duke Ellington and
“Fats Waller”
Musicians developed concert music from folk
materials of the black cultural heritage
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert
Music
Chapter 22: Early TwentiethCentury Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution
6
William Grant Still
(1895-1978)
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First black composer to have a symphony
played by a major orchestra
Composed ballets, songs, opera, choral
pieces and film scores
His purpose was to “elevate Negro musical
idioms to a position of dignity and
effectiveness in the field of symphonic and
operatic music”
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert
Music
Chapter 22: Early TwentiethCentury Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution
7