Chapter 23: Music in America
1) General
a. Coherent narrative is difficult
b. Four style trends examined
i. Band Music—grew out of military uses; influenced by the widening
gap between classical and popular music,
ii. Popular Song—spanned music published from amateur use and Tin
Pan Alley
iii. African-American Music—drew on oral tradition and developed as
work songs and spirituals
iv. Classical tradition—written by composers who followed European
traditions, who were self-taught, or who were trained in Europe or at
major American universities. These composers eventually
incorporated music from the other three trends, climaxing in the
music of Charles Ives
c. Popular music became more widely known and more profitable
d. Classical music has benefited from and struggled against its European
heritage
e. Popular music has enjoyed greater success in the marketplace
2) Native American Music
a. Not much is known
b. Some European composers, and some 19th century American composers,
drew inspiration from Native American music.
3) Church musicians in the New World drew on their national styles for inspiration
a. Spanish colonies—villancicos and Spanish choral music
b. French territories—Catholic church music
c. British North America—Anglican church music
d. New England—Puritan tradition
e. Pennsylvania and North Carolina—Moravians
4) Colonial Period
a. The earlier Colonial classical music was religious music
b. The earliest colonial publication was Bay Psalm Book
i. First published in 1640, contained no music
ii. Ninth edition in 1689 furnished 13 melodies
5) Colonial composers—First New England School
a. William Billings (1746-1800)
i. Colorful and eccentric personality
ii. Wrote New England Psalm Singer (1770)
iii. Developed a “Yankee” idiom which was typified by a deliberately
rough style which used parallel octaves and fifths, violating
traditional rules of counterpoint
b. Other Colonial composers of the First New England School included
Supply Belcher and Daniel Read
c. Fuging Tunes—structure and development
i. Part 1: Tune introduced in simple four-part writing
ii. Part 2: four entries of a simple tune in imitative counterpoint
iii. Part 3: four-part writing
iv. Supplanted by the “Better Music” movement
v. Fuging Tune style was later used by Henry Cowell
6) Revolutionary War through end of 19th century—people, institutions, and dates
a. Benjamin Franklin
i. Played violin, harp, guitar
ii. Composed a string quartet
iii. Invented the glass harmonica
b. Thomas Jefferson
i. Played violin
c. Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
i. The preeminent Civil War songwriter in the United States
ii. Songs such as Camptown Races, Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,
Beautiful Dreamer, and Oh! Susanna are part of the American
musical vernacular and have formed the basis for, or are quoted in
numerous composers such as Charles Ives, Morton Gould and others
iii. Many of his songs were used in Minstrel shows
iv. Attempted to make a living as a songwriter, but poor copyright
protection prevented him from being financially successful
v. The majority of his popular songs come from 1850-55.
vi. Foster married in 1852 to Jane McDowall.
vii. His fortunes declined after about 1860 when his wife and daughter
left him
viii. He died in poverty in 1864 in Manhattan.
ix. His brother is largely responsible for compiling his work and getting
the music published. “Beautiful Dreamer” was published
posthumously.
d. New York Philharmonic
i. Founded in 1842 by Ureli Corelli
ii. December 7, 1842—performed Beethoven Symphony No. 7
iii. 1893—world premiere of Dvorak’s New World Symphony
iv. Important conductors included Mahler, Toscanini, and Bernstein
v. Probably first orchestra to give a live radio broadcast (1922)
e. Boston Symphony
i. Founded 1881 by Henry Lee Higginson
ii. Notable conductors included Arthur Nikisch, Pierre Monteux and
Serge Koussevitzky
f. New England Conservatory
i. Founded 1867 by Rufus Lidle
ii. Oldest conservatory in the USA
7) Second New England School
a. John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)
i. Trained by a German immigrant
ii. Harvard’s first professor of music
b. George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931)
i. Member of the “New England School”
ii. High school drop-out; sought an education in Europe
iii. Studied music in Munich with Josef Rheinberger and later at the
New England Conservatory
iv. Dean of the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston)
v. Perhaps the most innovative of this group--used American Indian
melodies in his music long before Dvorak’s suggestion
vi. Used psalmody, African-American dances, and pentatonic melodies
in his music
vii. Important works
1. Overture “Rip van Winkle”
2. Symphony No. 2 in B-flat
3. Symphonic Sketches (1895-1904)
a. Jubilee (1895)
b. Noël (1895)
c. Hobgoblin (1904)
d. Vagrom Ballad (1896)
c. Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)
i. Best known for his piano miniatures and piano concertos
ii. Founded the American Academy in Rome and the MacDowell
Colony in the United States. The MacDowell Colony continues to
function today, providing a summer retreat for artists, composers and
authors. It was founded by MacDowell’s wife Marian on donated
funds. Over 5000 artists have been in residence there, winning aver
60 Pulitzer prizes.
iii. Studied at the Paris Conservatory and later in Frankfurt with
Joachim Raff
iv. His music was heard by Liszt
v. Taught at Columbia in New York City
vi. Died of paralysis
vii. He was opposed to “jingoism”, but saw national identity as
important
viii. Important works include a piano concerto and his Second Suite for
Orchestra (Indian), composed 1891-1895
d. Horatio Parker (1863-1919)
i. Studied with Chadwick, later with Rheinberger
ii. Believed that American composers should simply write the best
music they could without following a nationalist agenda
iii. Taught at Yale—teacher of Ives (unsuccessful relationship)
iv. During his lifetime, he was considered the finest composer in the
United States
v. Conservative composer, influenced by Mendelssohn, Brahms, and
later Debussy and Elgar
vi. Important works include his Latin oratorio Hora novissima (1893)
e. Amy Marcy (Cheney) Beach (1867-1944)
i. Published and performed un “Mrs. H.H.A. Beach”
ii. Child prodigy
iii. Professional debut as a piano soloist with the Boston Symphony at
age 16
iv. Married Dr. Henry H.A. Beach—after her husband’s death, she
toured Europe
v. Spent time at the MacDowell Colony
vi. Settled in New York City
vii. Important compositions
1. Gaelic Symphony
2. Piano Concerto
3. over 120 songs
viii. She is the only woman on the granite wall of the Boston
Symphony’s Hatch Shell
8) Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)
a. Born in New Orleans
b. Father was a Jewish businessman, mother of white Haitian/Creole decent
c. He was a wunderkind who gave his piano debut at age 11
d. First American to an international reputation
e. Followed the Lisztian tradition of piano virtuosity
f. Toured Europe, the United States, the Caribbean and South America
g. Returned to New Orleans in the 1860s and established himself as the
foremost pianist in the Americas
h. Supported the Union cause
i. He was involved in a “scandalous” affair with a student from the Oakland
Female Seminary and was forced to leave the United States.
j. Toured South America and died of malaria in Rio de Janerio, Brazil
k. Wrote popular music reflecting his West Indian heritage
l. Important works include Souvenir de Porto Rico
9) Music of African-Americans
a. Involuntary immigrant group
b. Characteristics of music include: call and response, improvisation,
syncopation, repetition of short patterns, multiple layers of rhythm,
bending pitches, vocalizations, banjo
c. Spirituals and work songs typified repertoire
d. Fisk Jubilee Singers were an important group
10) Charles Ives (1874-1954)
a. Regarded as the first American composer of international significance
b. Ives’s music was generally ignored for most of his lifetime
c. Father was a bandmaster—he took a Transcendentalist approach to
musical education and encouraged his son’s experimentation with
polytonality, etc.
d. Ives attended Yale, studying under Parker
e. In 1898, after graduation, Ives began working in the insurance industry as
an actuarial clerk at Mutual Life. In 1907, he and John Myrick founded
f.
g.
h.
i.
the Ives and Myrick Insurance Agency. He pioneered the training of
agents.
In 1908 he married Harmony Twitchell
Ives suffered from ill health. His family termed his episodes “heart
attacks,” however, they were most likely psychological in nature. He
likely suffered from manic depression.
Most of Ives’s important scores were written between 1908-1918. After
1927, he composed nothing.
Important works
i. Variations on America (for organ, 1894, later orchestrated by
William Schuman)
ii. Four symphonies
iii. Three Places in New England
iv. The Unanswered Question
v. Concord Sonata (1904-1915)—the movements are titled “Emerson”,
“Hawthorne”, “The Alcotts”, and “Thoreau”
Other American Composers: North and South of the Border
1. Canada—Claude Champagne
a. 1891-1965
b. Studied in Paris
c. Influenced by Russian composers
d. Important works: Suite canadienne, Dance villageoise
2. Latin American Composers
a. Carlos Chavez
i. 1899-1979
ii. Mexican composer, conductor and teacher
iii. Founded the Mexico Symphony
iv. Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia India) is based uses Yaqui melodies
and instruments
b. Heitor Villa-Lobos
i. Brazilian composer
ii. 1887-1959
iii. Born in Rio de Janerio
iv. Studied cello
v. Made ethno-musicological studies of the Amazon region
vi. Major works: Series of nine “Bachianas Brasileiras” for various
combinations of instruments (1930-45). No. 5 is the most famous
(voice and 8 cellos). Chôros—wrote 14, for various ensembles,
using modernist techniques. 12 symphonies. Ballet scores.
Concertos. String quartets.
c. Silvestre Revueltas
i. Mexican composer
ii. 1899-1940
iii. Most famous work is Sensemayâ, a tone poem influenced by the
Rite of Spring which is based on a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolás
Guillén.
d. Alberto Ginestera
i. 1916-1983
ii. Argentinian composer
iii. Used Argentine musical elements in his music
iv. Music can be divided into a nationalist and expressionist style
periods
v. Important works
vi. Variaciones concertantes (1953)
vii. Harp Concerto (1956)
viii. .Concertos for violin, cello and piano
The United States
1. Ultra-modernists and experimentalists
a. Edgard Varèse
i. French born
ii. 1883-1965
iii. Influenced by Schoenberg
iv. Major works—Amériques, Offrandes, Hyperprism, Octandres,
Ionisation, Ecuatorial
v. Poéme electronique and Déserts are works which incorporated
electronic tape
vi. Used sound-masses, spatial effects, percussion, sirens, etc.
b. Henry Cowell
i. Interested in non-western music, especially Asian
ii. Eclectic
iii. Also wrote works in the style of William Billings
iv. Promoted his own music and the music of others, especially Ives,
in the journal-magazine New Music
c. Ruth Crawford
i. First woman to earn the Pulitzer Prize in Music
ii. Studied with Charles Seeger, who she later married
iii. Active in Chicago, later in New York
iv. Experimented with Total Serialism
v. Most important work—String Quartet (1931)
2. Americanists—fostered by Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. World War I helped
reorient Americans toward France and away from Germany. Many composers
studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and at Fountainbleau, including Elliot
Carter, Virgil Thomson, and Aaron Copland (see below).
3. Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
a. Considered the Dean of American Composers
b. Struck a balance between “modern” music and more populist style
c. Family name was “Kaplan”, which was anglicized by his father
d. Studied in the US with Rubin Goldmark, and then in Paris with Nadia
Boulanger
e. The basic style periods
vi. Modernist—this was a jazz-inspired period in which Copland also
experimented with polytonality, complex rhythms, etc.
1. Ballet Grohg
2. Short Symphony
3. Dance Symphony
4. Piano Variations
5. Piano Concerto (1926)
a. Jazz-style work
b. Written for Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony
c. Large orchestra includes saxophones and much
percussion
d. Copland wrote: “The piano is the main character in
a play, carrying on dialogue with the orchestra and
conversing with the other instruments.”
e. The work was not received well in Boston or later
in New York. It may have been hampered by
Copland’s piano playing
f. Twenty years later the work gained success when
Leonard Bernstein played it
6. Symphonic Ode
a. First large work after Piano Concerto
b. Mahlerian sized orchestra—Copland later rescored
it for conventional sized ensemble.
vii. Americana Period—around 1936, Copland turned away from Jazz
and modernistic techniques toward a more accessible style
1. El Salón Mexico (1932-36)
a. Based on impressions of a popular dance club in
Mexico
b. Premiered--Mexico Symphony under Chavez
c. Used Mexican songs, especially La Jesusita and El
Palo Verde (used as a refrain)
d. Formally unclear—has been analyzed as having
either 2, 3, or 4 parts
2. Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)
a. written for Eugene Gossens and the Cincinnati
Symphony. Goosens had commissioned a series
b. Was premiered on March 12, tax day—Copland
observed that he was honored to have written a
tribute to the common man for tax day
c. Theme was used in the Third Symphony
d. Scored for 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba,
timpani and percussion
e. Later used by Emerson, Lake and Palmer
3. Symphony No. 3 (1944-46)
a. Considered the greatest American symphony
b. Inspired by Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony
c. Cast in three movements: Moderate—Slow—
Scherzo, closing majestically
d. Climaxes Copland’s Americana period
4. Appalachian Spring (1944)
a. Greatest American ballet
b. Composed for Martha Graham
c. Scored for a chamber orchestra of 13 players; later
rescored in a suite for full orchestra
d. Won Pulitzer Prize
e. Uses Shaker tune “Simple Gifts”
f. Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
g. Title from a Hart Crane poem—not related to ballet
story at all. Copland, who wrote the work under
title “Ballet for Martha, was amused when people
told him he had captured the spirit of the
Appalachians in his music.
h. Cast in eight sections
5. Rodeo
6. Lincoln Portrait
7. Clarinet Concerto (for Benny Goodman)—cast in two
movements, slow-fast, separated by a cadenza. First
movement is elegiac, the finale is jazzy.
8. Copland defended the Communist Party in the 1930s and
was investigated during the Red Scare of the 1950s. He
was Jewish, known to have Communist friends, and
homosexual. He testified that he was never a member of
the Party and his friends were outraged at the accusation,
and his reputation was too strong for the Committee to do
anything to him.
viii. Late Period—around 1955, Copland began to feel that he was
regarded as more as Pops composer than a serious composer. He
turned to Serialism and more Modernist gestures, again
1. Connotations for Orchestra
2. Orchestral Variations
3. Inscape
ix. After about 1972, Copland ceased composition almost entirely and
turned to conducting and teaching.
x. Copland was also an important film composer. He composed the
score The Red Pony.
xi. Copland wrote How to Listen to Music, which is a guide for the lay
listener, and a monumental two-volume biography which he coauthored with Vivian Perlis.
4. Virgil Thomson
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
1896-1989
Student of Nadia Boulanger
Between 1925-1940, Thomson lived in Paris
Music critic as well as composer
Film composer
i. The Plow that Broke the Plains
ii. Louisiana Story
f. Operas
i. Four Saints in Three Acts—based on the libretto by Gertrude
Stein. The libretto contains many nonsense features (the work is in
four acts, for example, and has more than four saints). Lines like
“Pigeons on the grass, alas” have hidden meaning (visitation of the
Holy Spirit).
ii. The Mother of Us All—about Susan B. Anthony. Also a
collaboration with Stein
5. William Grant Still
a. 1895-1978
b. Studied with Charles Wakefield Chadwick and Edgard Varése
c. First African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra (LA
Philharmonic in 1936), have a opera produced by a major company
(Troubled Land, produced at New York’s City Center), and other “firsts”
d. Afro-American Symphony, premiered 1931 by the Rochester
Philharmonic. This work incorporated 12-bar blues, call and response,
syncopation, etc.
e. Known as the “Dean of African-American Composers”
6. Roy Harris
a. 1898-1979
b. Studied at UC Berkeley
c. Lessons from Arthur Bliss
d. At least 15 symphonies, some incomplete, of which Symphony No. 3 is
the most popular
7. Howard Hanson
a. 1896-1981
b. Born in Wahoo, Nebraska to Swedish parents
c. Sometimes known as the American Sibelius
d. Attended Northwestern
e. Taught at College of the Pacific, then became Dean of the Conservatory of
Fine Arts, and eventually became Dean of the Eastman School of Music
f. Won the Prix de Rome
g. Studied with Ottorino Respighi
h. Founded the American Composers Orchestral Concerts and the EastmanRochester Symphony Orchestra
i. Became a champion of American music—over 2000 American works
were premiered at Eastman during Hanson’s tenure
j. Important Works:
i. Romantic Symphony
ii. Merry Mount
iii. Mosaics
k. His book Harmonic Materials of Modern Music: Resources of the
Tempered Scale formed the basis of pitch-class theory
8. Leonard Bernstein (discussed here rather than under Broadway composers)
a. 1918-1990. American composer, conductor, pianist and educator
b. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts
c. Father Sam—a businessman—opposed his son’s interest in music
d. Lennie attended Garrison and Boston Latin School. His father refused to
pay for piano lessons, so Lennie taught piano and used the income to pay
for lessons, himself.
e. Later, attended Harvard University and then the Curtis Institute of Music,
where he studied with Fritz Reiner. He was in the first conducting class at
Tanglewood, where he studied with Serge Koussevitsky.
f. According to Burton’s biography, Bernstein had a promiscuous sex life in
New York City until he married Felicia Montealegre Cohn in 1951.
Marriage was to quiet gossip about his sex life to enhance his chances of
obtaining the post of chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Bernstein had three children with Felicia (Jamie, Alexander and Nina).
g. Later, Bernstein left Felicia to live with actor Michael Wager, but he
returned to Felicia when she was diagnosed with lung cancer and
remained with her until her death.
h. Bernstein’s conducting was profoundly effected by his wife’s death.
i. Bernstein made his professional conducting debut in 1943, substituting for
Bruno Walter, who was ill.
j. He conducted the world premiere of the Turangalila-Symphonie by
Olivier Messiaen in 1949
k. He assumed the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in
1958, a post he held until 1969. He was the first American-born
conductor to assume the post of a major American orchestra.
l. From 1970 on, he was associated with the Vienna Philharmonic with
which he re-recorded many works that he had previously recorded with
the NY Philharmonic.
m. In 1989, he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the celebration of
the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
n. Bernstein died five days after retiring. He was a lifelong smoker and
suffered from emphysema. He had a coughing fit during a concert and was
ordered to stop conducting. Some biographers speculate that he committed
suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, which would be fatal to
anyone with impaired breathing.
o. Bernstein won 8 Grammy Awards and a Tony for Best Original score.
p. Important concert works by Bernstein include three symphonies, the Mass
(commissioned for the opening of the Kennedy Center), two operas, and
numerous other works, including a violin Serenade based on Plato’s
symposium, and several song cycles.
q. Bernstein’s Operas and Musicals
i. 1944—On the Town, book and lyrics by Comden and Green,
choreography by Robbins
ii. 1952—Trouble in Tahiti, an autobiographical one-act opera.
iii. 1953—Wonderful Town, lyrics by Comden and Green, based on
the play “My Sister Eileen”, won the Tony for Best Musical
iv. 1956—Candide, lyrics by Wilbur, Hellman, Sondheim, Bernstein,
and others, based on Voltaire. Reworked several times since.
v. 1958—West Side Story, book by Laurents, lyrics by Sondhiem,
choreography by Robbins, was nominated for Best Musical (won
by The Music Man).
vi. 1976—1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, book and lyrics by Alan Jay
Lerner. The show was a legendary failure, running only seven
performances. Bernstein used the music in other works, and also
created a cantata based on some of the music. The Bernstein Estate
has blocked any revivals of the show, except for an Indiana
University production in the 1970s.
vii. 1983—A Quiet Place, designed to be a sequel to Trouble in Tahiti.
i. West Side Story (the musical, film and opera)
ii. book by Arthur Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondhiem
choreography by Jerome Robbins
iii. Revived on Broadway in 1980 and toured 1987, 1995, 1998, 2002
iv. The film is listed on American Film Institute Top 100 Greatest
Films as #41. It Cost $6,000,000 to make and was the second
highest grossing movie of 1961 (beaten by 101 Dalmatians
v. For the film, Robbins and Lehman added to Laurents’s original
book.
vi. Won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the most ever
received by a musical. George Chakiris (who was Riff in the
Broadway production) and Rita Moreno won for Best Supporting
Actor and Actress, Robbins and Wise won for Best Directing,
Chaplin and Green won for Best Musical Score (adaptation), etc.
Chakiris took the Bernardo role for the London production and
later in the film. The music was reworked, reordered and expanded
from the Broadway version.
i. In 1984, Bernstein reworked the score himself, turning it into an
opera. The recording won a Grammy Award.
The American Twentieth Century—Vernacular Styles
1. Musical comedy
a. George M. Cohan inaugurated the genre with Little Johnny Jones (1904).
Songs such as Give My Regards to Broadway and Yankee Doodle Boy
came from this show.
b. The most successful Tin Pan Alley composers—Irving Berlin, Jerome
Kern, and George Gershwin—were equally at home writing songs,
musical theater, and for Hollywood
c. Musicals are complex art forms with different artists working on the book,
lyrics, music, choreography, staging, lighting, sets and costumes. Usually
the orchestrations were done by someone other than the composer.
d. Jerome Kern—Most important show was Show Boat (1927), with book
and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on the book by Edna Ferber. It
exemplified a new direction in Broadway, with an intergrated plot (as
opposed to a revenue-style musical), bringing together many musical
traditions and genre. It also dealt with serious social issues of racism and
miscegenation.
e. Rodgers and Hammerstein II
i. Rodgers collaborated with Hammerstein after a long and
successful partnership with Lorentz Hart.
ii. R&H shows include—Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The
King and I, and The Sound of Music.
iii. After Hammerstein’s death, Rodgers continued to work with other
librettists, and even wrote his own lyrics.
2. Film Music
a. Two types of film music:
i. Diegetic or source music—music which is produced by the
characters themselves or is part of the scene
ii. Nondiegetic music or underscoring—background music which
conveys the mood
b. The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first “talkie”, starring Al Jolson
c. Beginning in 1929, Hollywood produced numerous musicals written
directly for film, instead of being transferred from Broadway, including
Viennese Nights, Delicious, Shall We Dance, Top Hat, Swing Time, Born
to Dance, and Golddiggers of 1933. The Wizard of Oz was a crowning
achievement of this genre.
d. Film scores took on greater importance. Many film composers such as
Max Steiner (King Kong—which established the model for film
composing), Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Dimitri Tiompkin, Franz
Waxman, and others emerged as Hollywood greats. Many composers were
émigrés from Germany who brought the principles of Wagnerian opera to
their film work. Composers also used the language of Debussy, Strauss,
and later Schoenberg and Stravinsky
3. George Gershwin (a.k.a. Jacob Gershowitz)
a. 1898-1937
b. Brother was Ira Gershwin, who was his lyricist. Ira went on to write for
other important composers such as Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Harold
Arlen after George’s death
c. In 1910, George took over the piano which was purchased for Ira
d. Studied with Charles Hambitzer and was befriended by Max Rosenzwieg,
a boyhood friend who later became a violinist in the New York
Philharmonic
e. Later, studied with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell
f. First job at Remick’s Music Company in Tin Pan Alley as a song-plugger
g. Early composition, Rialto Ripples (a ragtime) was successful
h. 1924—collaborated with Ira on Lady Be Good
i. Fascinating Rhythm and The Man I Love, both Gershwin
standards, come from this show
i. Rhapsody in Blue (1924) made Gershwin rich and famous
i. Written for the Paul Whiteman Band
ii. Premiered at Aeolian Hall
iii. Later re-orchestrated by Ferdé Grofé
j. Other shows followed:
i. Oh, Kay
ii. Strike Up the Band
iii. Of Thee I Sing (won the Pulitzer Prize)
k. Other important serious works
i. Concerto in F
ii. American in Paris
iii. Second Rhapsody
iv. Cuban Overture
v. I Got Rhythm Variations
l. Porgy and Bess
i. Folk opera
ii. Based on book by Dubose Heyward
iii. Includes:
a. Summertime
b. I Got Plenty of Nothin’
c. It Ain’t Necessarily So
iv. Gula dialect--studied by George and Ira for authenticity
4. Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
a. Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, DC
b. Son of a White House butler
c. Studied piano, ragtime
d. By 1916, was playing in the clubs around Washington, DC
e. Moved to New York City with his band (the Washingtonians) in 1923 and
began playing at the Cotton Club in Harlem
f. 1930s and 1940s—leading figure in big band and swing
g. 1950s and 1960s—continued to tour with his band, possibly to the
detriment of his development as a composer
h. Won 13 Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor
i. Son Mercer Ellington took over the band at his death
j. Wrote approximately 1300 compositions, including Mood Indigo,
Caravan, Black, Brown and Beige,and Harlem
5. Jazz Age—Jazz is a mixture of ragtime, dance music, and the blues. While
ragtime used essentially straight rhythm and was performed as written by the
composer, even early jazz featured swung rhythm, anticipation of the beat,
enriched harmonies, etc.
a. Ragtime (1900-1918)
1. characterized by “ragged” syncopated rhythm
2. Ragtime is in 2/4 meter. It used the march form with a
series of 16-measure strains
3. Popularized and developed by Scott Joplin
a. 1868-1917
b. Born in Texasarkana, Texas
c. Important rags include Maple Leaf Rag
d. His opera Treemonisha was a posthumous success
e. Died of syphilis
f. Music was popularized by Marvin Hamlisch in the
film “The Sting”
b. Dixieland
i. Started in New Orleans
ii. Spread north to Chicago and then New York City
iii. Combined Brass band marches and Ragtime
iv. Original Dixieland Band founded in 1917 by Armstrong
v. Dixieland Band features: Rhythm section of drum-set, bass, piano
and guitar. Lead instruments such as the trombone, trumpet and
clarinet
c. Blues
i. W. C. Handy—Father of the Blues
ii. 1873-1958
iii. Solidified the 12-bar blues form, with the poetic structure of AAB,
with “A” primarily in tonic, the second “A” moving from IV to I
and the “B” moving from V to I.
iv. Examples: Back Water Blues (1927)
v. Bessie Smith was known as “Empress of the Blues”
d. New Orleans Jazz
i. Leading style of jazz in the post World War I period
ii. Leaders of New Orleans jazz include Joe “King”Oliver”, Louis
Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941)
iii. New Orleans Jazz developed style in Storyville, the red-light
district of New Orleans
e.
f.
g.
h.
iv. Bands included Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Armstrong’s His
Hot Five (also known as Hot Seven). Armstrong took his band to
Chicago
v. The ensemble included a “front line” (trumpet, clarinet, trombone)
and a rhythm section (drums, piano, banjo)
vi. Typical forms included the 12-bar blues (AAB) or the 16-bar strain
(taken over from ragtime) or the 32-bar popular song form
(AABA).
vii. Tunes were presented, establishing the harmonic progression, and
then repeated. Each repetition was called a “chorus” and featured
different instruments in improvisation.
Big Band
i. Began to emerge in the 1920s. By 1930, the typical dance band or
big band was established, driven by the need for bigger bands for
the larger venues in which jazz was played, including supper clubs,
ballrooms, auditoriums and theaters, as opposed to the smaller
clubs in New Orleans or Chicago.
ii. Leaders of the Big Band era include Louis Armstong, Fletcher
Henderson, Duke Ellington, Count Bassie, Paul Whiteman, and
Benny Goodman
iii. While the New Orleans band has two sections, the big band had
three: brass, reeds, rhythm.
iv. Although there still was improvisation by the leaders of each
section, the music was written down by the composer/arranger who
was often the band leader.
v. Jazz composers/arranger began to borrow the four-note chord
sonorities of modern music by Debussy and Ravel, often adding a
7th or a 6th.
Swing
i. Swing developed in the early 30s and was the leading form of jazz
between about 1935-1945. Many historians credit Benny
Goodman’s performance of “hot” jazz at the Palomar Ballroom in
1935 for starting the Swing Jazz craze.
ii. A combination of more adventurous arranging and hard-driving
rhythm led to “Swing”
iii. Linked to the dance craze
iv. Leaders of the Swing era were Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller
v. Duke Ellington and George Gershwin are also associated with
Swing
Bebop
i. After World War II, big bands became too expensive to support.
Smaller Bebop (or Bop) groups formed
ii. Leaders of the Bebop era include Charlie Parker and Dizzy
Gillespie.
After Bebop (Post-Bebop)
i. Parker and Gillespie, along with Miles Davis, expanded the
complexity and vocabulary of Bebop. Dave Brubeck was also a
“cool jazz” leader.
ii. Davis’s Birth of the Cool (1949) was in “cool jazz” style. Classical
techniques like nonchordal dissonance, chromaticism, irregular
phrase structures were employed
iii. Later, his Kind of Blue (1959) was in “modal jazz” style used a
softer style.
i. Free jazz
i. A radical style of jazz which emerged in the 1960s
ii. Leaders of free jazz are Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane
iii. Free jazz moved away from familiar tunes and jazz standards
toward atonality, free form and other avant-garde styles
j. Jazz as classical music—by about 1970, the jazz world had adopted its
own “classic repertoire” which is maintained by recordings. Academics
emerged who study the history of jazz and describe it as a type of classical
music. Jazz ensembles are formed at colleges universities.