| Contents |
Music making as popular practice -- Music for the "people". "The largest and most enthusiastic audience that ever has assembled in the city": the National Opera Company of 1887 ; "A precarious means of living": early working musicians and some of their jobs ; "Popular prices will prevail": competing and cooperating impresarios ; Amateurs, professionals, and symphonies: Harley Hamilton and Edna Foy ; "Our awe struck vision": a prominent impresario reconsidered -- Progressive-era musical idealism. The "true temple of art": Philharmonic Auditorium and progressive ideology ; "Something of good for the future": the People's Orchestra of 1912-1913 ; Producing Fairyland, 1915 ; Founding the Hollywood Bowl -- From progressive to ultramodern. Old competitors, new opera companies in 1925 ; The new negro movement in Los Angeles ; Welcoming the ultramodern ; Second thoughts ; Calling the tune: the Los Angeles Federal Music Project. |
| Abstract |
In this fascinating social history of music in Los Angeles from the 1880s to 1940, this book ventures into an often neglected period to discover that during America's Progressive Era, Los Angeles was a center for making music long before it became a major metropolis. The author describes the thriving music scene over some sixty years, including opera, concert giving and promotion, and the struggles of individuals who pursued music as an ideal, a career, a trade, a business--or all those things at once. She demonstrates that music making was closely tied to broader Progressive Era issues, including political and economic developments, the new roles played by women, and issues of race, ethnicity, and class. |
| General note | Roth Family Foundation music in America imprint. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-344) and index. |
| LCCN | 2006036207 |
| ISBN | 9780520251397 (cloth : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 0520251393 (cloth : alk. paper) |
