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America’s Musical Landscape�8th edition

Part 6:

Tradition and Innovation in Concert Music

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Chapter 21: Early Twentieth-Century Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution

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Part 6: Tradition and Innovation in Concert Music Chapter 20: Experimental Music: Revolution

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Early Twentieth-Century Mainstream Concert Music: Evolution

Unlike their more experimentally-minded colleagues, many twentieth-century composers took an evolutionary approach

    • Some found source material for their compositions in American subjects or tunes
    • Europeans may have recognized jazz as a source for concert music before Americans

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George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue confused critics

    • Was it jazz or concert music?

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The Parisian Scene

France became the international center of artistic creativity after World War I

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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

    • Taught several generations of composers without attempting to influence her students’ style

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Aaron Copland�(1900-1990), 1

A New York composer; the first American to study with Nadia Boulanger

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Found inspiration in jazz, cowboy songs, American hymns, and Mexican folk and popular music

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Depression years: Copland worked with composer Roger Sessions to promote the works of American composers

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Aaron Copland�(1900-1990), 2

Important works:

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    • Piano Variations
    • Lincoln Portrait
    • Fanfare for the Common Man

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Listening Example 73

Fanfare for the Common Man

By Aaron Copland

Listening guide page 380

    • Timbres: Brass and percussion, characteristic of a fanfare, which is intended to be a dramatic musical statement. The instruments include horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani (tuned drums), bass drum, and a large gong called a tam-tam.
    • Key: Starts in B major, moves through key changes to D major
    • Tempo: “Very deliberate” (from the score)

Copland reused the

Fanfare in the finale of his

Symphony no. 3. The rock

group Queen incorporated

some features of the

Fanfare into their hit “We

Will Rock You” (1977)

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Copland’s Music for Dance

Classical ballet: a formal, �stylized dance

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Copland’s ballets featured �modern dance

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Rodeo (1942): Copland’s famous ballet commissioned by choreographer Agnes de Mille; inspired by American country music and dance

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Listening Example 74

Hoedown (from Rodeo)

By Aaron Copland

Listening guide page 382

    • Meter: Duple
    • Form: Three-part (A-B-A)
    • Timbre: Symphony orchestra
    • Texture: Homophonic

This melody is based on

two old-time fiddle-tunes:

“Bonyparte” and “McLeod’s

Reel”

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Aaron Copland: Later Works, 1

1950s: Copland wrote two sets of Old American Songs and an opera

Experimented with 12-tone techniques

Large body of work including:

    • Film scores
    • Choral pieces
    • Chamber music and orchestral works
    • Opera, ballet, and dance scores

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Aaron Copland: Later Works, 2

1950s: Copland wrote two sets of Old American Songs and an opera

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Experimented with 12-tone techniques

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Aaron Copland: Later Works, 4

Large body of work including:

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    • Film scores
    • Choral pieces
    • Chamber music and orchestral works
    • Opera, ballet, and dance scores

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Samuel Barber�(1910-1981)

Neo-romantic composer (new romantic)

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Attracted to song and the singing voice

Even his instrumental compositions are lyrical

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Adagio for Strings (1936)

    • One of his most famous works
    • Inspired by a poem by Virgil, from the Georgics

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Listening Example 75

Adagio for Strings

By Samuel Barber

Listening guide page 385

    • Timbre: String orchestra
    • Harmony: Tense dissonances alternate with harmonic resolutions
    • Form: Arch form, gently rounded to end much like it begins
    • Tempo: Molto adagio (very slow)

Listen for the lovely main

theme winding gently

through the piece –

long and irregular,

unbounded by conventional

concepts of balance or

symmetry.

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Harlem Renaissance, 1

Movement of the 1920s

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African-American artists sought to “promote racial advancement through artistic creativity”

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Treated as a literary movement, but also featured visual art and music

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Harlem Renaissance, 2

Musicians involved included Duke Ellington and Fats Waller

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Musicians developed concert music from African-American folk material

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William Grant Still�(1895-1978)

First Black composer to have a symphony played by a major orchestra

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Composed ballets, songs, opera, choral pieces, and film scores

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Declared his purpose was to “elevate Negro musical idioms to a position of dignity and effectiveness in the field of symphonic and operatic music”

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Listening Example 76

Afro-American Symphony, third movement

(“Humor”)

By William Grant Still

Listening guide page 388

    • Timbre: Symphony orchestra, with the unusual addition of a solo banjo
    • Texture: Homophonic
    • Meter: Quadruple
    • Form: Three-part (aba)

Timbre: Symphony orchestra, with the unusual addition of a solo banjo

Texture: Homophonic

Meter: Quadruple

Form: Three-part (aba)

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