PART 6: Video Intro

 

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds" -----Mark Twain

Nothing sums up the American spirit better than humor.  There could be no bigger contrast with the dismal atmosphere of German society after World War I than the high-spirits of America. In the 20th century Americans not only led the way in many artistic movements, but actually invented them as well-- jazz is an example of one of America's greatest creations.

We'll be looking at jazz a bit later in the semester.  In this lecture we'll take a whirlwind tour of a few representative American musical leaders from the first half of the 20th century.  Don't expect to find a "unified" American approach, or one American style.  There wasn't one.  America was the experimental laboratory of pluralism-- socially, culturally, and artistically-- and this will be evident from the composers we look at.

CHARLES IVES

One of the greatest American musical geniuses was an insurance salesman named Charles Ives (1874-1954).  Ives led the most astounding "double life" working daily at his New York company, and even distinguished himself by writing insurance manuals that became standards in the industry.  But once he returned to his Connecticut home each night he immersed himself in some of the most boldly imaginative musical experiments of  the time.

Ives continually credited his father George (a band leader, pianist, organist, arranger and teacher) with setting him on the path of musical risk-taking.  As a child, Ives recalled later, his father had trained him to sing a tune in one key while being accompanied in another! He grew up with the sound of military marches, minstrel shows, country fairs, and Puritan hymns, all of which he dearly loved and used in his music-- but always filtered through his own quirky, humorous, personal style. Ives did not foster a "school" of musical composition, but he could not have-- his music was too idiosyncratic to be imitated.  There is only one Charles Ives.

I would dearly love to post The Unanswered Question of Ives on this site-- but to do a 30-second excerpt would be meaningless and would never give you a sense of the whole piece.  Suffice it to say that not only is this my favorite Ives work, but it is one of my favorite pieces altogether.  It is hauntingly beautiful and totally original. How's that for an endorsement?!  Listen to it--and let me know what you think!

One of Ives' most beloved works is his Symphony: Holidays, in which each of the movements represents an American holiday: Washington's Birthday, Decoration Day, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving.  Of the movement, Fourth of July, Ives wrote, "It is a boy's 4th...starting quietly but growing rowdy...with the skyrocket over the church steeple, just after the annual explosion sets the Town Hall on fire." This work depicts a small town on the 4th of July, with a huge parade and the wonderful miasma of sound that a parade generates.  Ives does a hysterical recreation of a July 4th parade, complete with two different groups playing two different pieces. At one point on the parade route the groups seem to cross paths, with the resulting musical chaos. This little excerpt, with its attempt to simulate chaos, is actually so complicated that it requires two conductors to finesse.  In the space of just 5 measures Ives uses 13 different rhythmic patterns and the strings are divided into 24 parts-- and everyone is playing at ffff!

AARON COPLAND

In a music class once I remember playing a recording of Ma Vlast, a famous work of the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana.  The performance was particularly rousing and the class asked the identity of the orchestra.  When I answered that the performance was by the Czech Philharmonic one student said, "Oh, of course... only the Czechs would know how to interpret that music so perfectly."

I've often thought back to that conversation .  The implications of it are quite complicated. On the one hand, it does seem that people who have experienced a particular culture from within are more convincing and expressive in their interpretations of it.  For example, many people believe that jazz is the particular province of Americans, who often seem to be its best exponents.  And I have personally heard European orchestras performing a playful Ives movement with deadpan earnestness, completely missing the mark because they didn't understand his brand of irony.

But ultimately I personally feel uncomfortable with the idea that a native of a culture expresses that culture best.  Why? Because it diminishes the fundamental concept of empathy in the arts. And the examples of artistic empathy are just too enormous to ignore.  I'm a native American who has devoted myself to the music of an 18th century organist from Leipzig, Germany, Johann Sebastian Bach.  Many other Americans have done the same.  Our empathic sense, our artistic understanding, bridges the gap between centuries, between cultures, and between languages. In fact, the entire world has embraced the music of that humble organist-- a tribute to the universality of his work.

Why am I bringing up this question in a section devoted to Aaron Copland?  Because Copland is a fine example of just that empathic side of the arts.  He was born in 1900 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants.  In the 1920s he went abroad and studied composition in Paris, as every promising American composer did then.  But by the time he returned to New York, he had formulated a clear mission for himself: to create an intrinsically American style. Copland drew upon cowboy songs and country ballads, New England hymns and Shaker tunes, Mexican melodies and urban jazz.  All these influences Copland integrated into his work with such naturalness and conviction that his music became synonymous with American style.  By the time of his death in 1990 Aaron Copland was an American icon.

At the same time, there is a large body of Copland pieces-- call them his "abstract" works-- which are not overtly American, but which cross his personal style with European influences. This only testifies further to the versatility of a composer who can write so convincingly in so many idioms.  Among the great works in this style are his Piano Fantasy and Sextet.

Try Copland's Organ Concerto, Music for the Theater, or Rodeo.  And of course, his Number One Popular Hit, Appalachian Spring,  which was the basis of a classic choreography by Martha Graham.

 

SAMUEL BARBER

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) is sometimes referred to as a Neo-Romantic.  Pinning style names on composers is an activity that makes most composers chafe.  There is definitely more to Barber's music than Romanticism, but the appellation is not wholly wrong, particularly considering his conservative harmonies and forms, his long, lyrical melodic lines, and his plainly emotive style.

But setting aside the question of what kind of style he used, Barber's music is simply some of the most beautiful of the 20th century.  You will probably recognize his most famous work, the Adagio for Strings.  The work has been called America's official Mourning Music because it is consistently used at public funerals and memorial services. Barber wrote the piece as a young man in his 20s, originally scoring it for string quartet, and later making it into a string orchestra piece.

Barber's Violin Concerto, a searingly beautiful work, was originally regarded as impossibly difficult to play by the person who was to have premiered it.  For many years the piece was left unplayed.  It's astounding difficulties have indeed been surmounted, however, and now it is a ready part of the violin repertoire which even students (very good students) play.  The Violin Concerto (first movement excerpt) and Piano Concerto both are well worth listening to-- they are gorgeous, lyrical works.

GEORGE GERSHWIN

If you recognize the tune Swanee (1919), you know the first big hit of George Gershwin (1898-1937). It was popularized by the singer Al Jolson.  Gershwin wrote many musicals which became standards of the Broadway stage, and wrote scores for films such as Shall We Dance with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Fascinatin' Rhythm, The Man I Love, I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise, I Got Rhythm-- these are just a few of the classics of the songwriter/lyricist team of George and Ira Gershwin.  Among the important works in Gershwin's career were the musical Of Thee I Sing (1931), which won a Pulitzer Prize, the first musical to be accorded that honor; Porgy and Bess, commonly referred to as a "folk opera," which was written for black singers; and Rhapsody in Blue, premiered in 1924, a piano concerto which was the first fusion of jazz and classical elements in one piece.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was one of the most versatile composers America ever produced. Aside from composing he is known for his pioneering "Young People's Concerts", narrated concerts given with the New York Philharmonic. Many prominent musicians have said that these highly influential televised concerts were the most important musical influence of their childhood. Bernstein was a charismatic speaker with a flair for making scholarly musicological ideas clear to lay audiences.  His Norton Lectures, delivered at Harvard University, have been made available on disc, video, and in book form, and are very much recommended! His book, The Joy of Music, is also a well-known text for music appreciation. Bernstein also had an active career as a virtuoso pianist, flamboyant conductor with worldwide engagements, and Music Director of the New York Philharmonic.

The Unanswered Question is a compilation of Bernstein's Norton Lectures, delivered at Harvard University.  They are very eloquently written.

As if all this were not enough, however, Bernstein was a composer of successful musicals (West Side Story, Candide, Fancy Free) and concert music (Chichester Psalms, Jeremiah Symphony, Mass). Unquestionably, one of Bernstein's best works is the Serenade, a concerto for violin and small orchestra. The Serenade is based on Plato's Symposium, with each of the five movements representing a separate character of the drama.  If you like your contemporary music on the lyrical, accessible side you'll love this work.  Here's just a short excerpt of the opening movement.

	The medium of film is wonderfully tied into a huge variety of musics. Movie music ranges from scores commissioned for a particular movie,  to pre-existing pieces chosen to enhance a movie. Americans have been leaders in the field of film music. Here are some examples of movies with scores by classical music composers (American and otherwise!)
	Copland: The Red Pony  Barber: Platoon Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story  Handel: Barry Lyndon Mahler: Death in Venice Mozart: Elvira Madigan Vivaldi: Kramer vs. Kramer Bach: Dangerous Liaisons Strauss: 2001: A Space Odyssey Corigliano: Altered States, and The Red Violin Mozart: JFK Shostakovich: Rollerball Pachelbel: Ordinary People

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