| Contents |
Prelude. The elements of musical sound. Rhythm. Meter -- Melody. Scales ; Further characteristics of melody -- Harmony. Consonant and dissonant sounds ; Tonal harmony -- Timbre ; Texture ; Form ; Musical notation ; Elements of an American sound ; How to improve your listening skills -- Part 1. Music in early North America. The early years: historical and cultural perspective ; The beginnings of music in America. Native Americans ; European emigrants ; Puritan society ; The African experience in early America ; Revolution, in Classical style ; Painting in eighteenth-century America -- North American Indian music. Songs. Texts -- Sioux grass dance ; Sound instruments ; Contemporary Indian song -- Folk music. British traditions. Folk ballads -- American ballads ; African traditions. Work songs ; The first African Americans ; What of African music survives today? -- The colonial, revolutionary, and the federal periods. Music at the Spanish missions. Spanish songs -- New England psalm tunes. Psalters -- Early efforts at musical reform. The singing school movement ; William Billings (1746-1800) -- Canons ; Fuging tunes ; Protestant hymnody. German-speaking protestant sects ; Moravians -- Secular music ; Prestigious American musical amateurs ; Professional composers ; Early American theater -- Part 2. The nineteenth century. Romanticism in America: historical and cultural perspective ; The emergence of characteristically American art ; Fusion of the arts ; The Civil War era ; Music -- Populist music of the nineteenth century. Reform movements. Populist hymns ; Lowell Mason (1792-1872) ; Spiritual songs -- Secular music. Minstrelsy -- Stephen Foster (1826-1864). Patriotic songs ; Civil War songs ; Singing families ; Band music ; Concert Bands ; John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) ; Marches -- Early concert music. Romantic virtuosos. The Swedish nightingale ; Ole Bull ; Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) ; The piano ; Gottschalk's piano music -- Rise of nationalism in music. Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861) -- Orchestral music ; A growing awareness. William Henry Fry (1813-1864) ; George Bristow (1825-1898) ; Theodore Thomas (1835-1905) -- American concert music comes of age. The second New England school. John Knowles Paine (1839-1906) ; Fugue ; Other members of the school ; Amy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) ; Edward MacDowell (1860-1908) -- Arthur Farwell and the Wa-Wan press -- Part 3. The growth of vernacular traditions. Music in the vernacular: historical and cultural perspectice. Vernacular art and literature ; Vernacular music ; Recent decades -- The rise of popular culture. Ragtime. Scott Joplin (1868-1917) ; Influence of ragtime -- Tin Pan Alley. The songs ; Irving Berlin (1888-1989) ; Jerome Kern (1885-1945) ; Cole Porter (1892-1964) ; George Gershwin (1898-1937) ; Decline of Tin Pan Alley -- Country-western and urban folk music. From country to city. Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933) ; The Carter Family -- Styles of country music. American folk ballads ; Bluegrass ; Cajun music ; Zydeco ; Nashville sound -- Country goes western. Western swing ; Honky-tonk ; Cowboy songs -- Country pop. Urban folk music ; Woody Guthrie (1914-1967) ; Bob Dylan (1941-) -- Women in Country -- The jazz age. Blues. Form ; Melodic characteristics ; Blues harmony ; Improvisation ; Classic blues ; Billie Holiday (1915-1959) ; Urban blues -- New Orleans jazz ; Louis Armstrong (1900-1971) -- Chicago jazz ; Jazz piano. Boogie-woogie ; Stride -- Sweet jazz ; Symphonic jazz -- Jazz 1930-1960. Big band swing. Art of arranging ; Benny Goodman (1909-1986) ; Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974) -- Women in Jazz. Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) -- Reactions against big band music. Bebop. Charlie "Bird" Parker (1920-1955) ; John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917-1993) -- Jazz as concert music. Jazz composition -- Progressive jazz ; Cool jazz ; Hard bop (funky, soul) -- Jazz since 1960. Charles Mingus (1922-1979) ; Free jazz ; Third stream. Gunther Schuller (1925-) -- The seventies. Fusion (jazz-rock) ; Integration of foreign sounds -- The eighties. Crossover music ; Traditionalism -- The nineties and beyond. Henry Threadgill (1944-) ; Anthony Braxton (1945-) ; Anthony Davis (1951-) ; Wynton Marsalis (1961-) -- Jazz today and tomorrow -- Latin popular musics. The Caribbean. A popular religion: Santeria ; Bomba ; Rumba ; Cu-bop ; Mambo ; Salsa ; Reggae -- Brazil. Samba and Bassa Nova -- Mexico. Conjuntos ; Mariachis -- Latin music today -- Rock and roll. The generation gap ; Gospel ; Rhythm and blues. Country music meets R [and] B -- Birth of rock and roll. Bill Haley (1925-1981) ; Elvis Presley (1935-1977) ; Early characteristics ; End of the fist era -- Surfing music ; Motown ; The British invasion. The Beatles ; Post-Beatles English rock -- Back to black rock. Soul -- From rock and roll to rock. Folk rock ; Acid rock ; Psychedelic blues ; Heavy metal -- A future unassured -- Popular music since 1970. The Rolling Stones ; Art rock ; Funk ; Disco ; Punk ; New Wave ; A multiplicity of styles ; Rap ; Contemporary black gospel ; A promising futue -- Part 4. Music for theater and film. Music and theater: historical and cultural perspective. Music theater in America -- Musical theater. Variety shows. Vaudeville ; Burlesque ; Revues -- Operetta. Gilbert and Sullivan ; Viennese operettas ; American operettas -- Musical comedies. George M. Cohan -- Black musical theater ; Jerome Karn's Show Boat ; Golden age of Broadway musicals (1930-1955). Rodgers and Hart ; Rodgers and Hammerstein -- Expansion of the Broadway musical. Lerner and Loewe ; Leonard Bernstein -- The music of musicals ; Stephen Sondheim (1930-) ; Current trends -- Music for films. Functions of music in film ; Source versus functional music ; History of music in films. Silent films ; Early sound films ; The Hollywood sound ; Pop scores ; Electronic music -- Current trends ; The composer's perspective. Techniques -- Film score performances and recordings -- American opera. Opera. Solo and ensemble singing -- Opera in America. Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) ; George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess ; Gian-Carlo Menotti (1911-) -- The trend toward realism ; Opera or musical: which is it? ; American opera today -- Part 5. Tradition and innovation in concert music. Music for the concert hall: historical and cultural perspective. Interaction between the arts ; The value of chance ; American concert music -- Experimental music: revolution. Charles Ives (1874-1954). Philosophy of music ; Instrumental compositions ; Songs ; Other characteristics of Ives's music ; Ives's place in history -- Henry Cowell (1897-1965). Early compositions ; Piano experiments ; Sources of inspiration ; Writings -- Edgard Varese (1883-1965). Philosophy of music ; Early compositions ; A career interrupted -- Concrete music ; Twelve-tone technique ; John Cage (1912-1992). Gamelan music ; Prepared piano -- Mainstream concert music: evolution. The Paris scene ; Aaron Copland (1900-1990). Depression and war years ; Music for dance ; Later works -- Samuel Barber (1910-1981) ; Harlem Renaissance ; William Grant Still (1895-1978) -- The avant-garde after 1950. Rhythm and timbre ; Tape music and electronic synthesizer ; Milton Babbitt (1916-) ; Chance music. Silence -- Other composers of chance music ; Notation ; Pauline Oliveros (1932-) -- American concert music since 1950. William Schuman (1910-1992) ; Elliot Carter (1908-) ; New concepts of form ; Minimalism. Terry Riley (1935-) ; Philip Glass (1937-) ; Steve Reich (1936-) -- Women in music ; A promise of new sounds. |
| Abstract |
This book is an engaging survey of the growth and development of the arts in America that follows the chronological thread of American music as its guide. For readers unfamiliar with the technical elements of music, the text also offers an elegant and readable introduction to the fundamentals of music and a unique overview of the African and European influences on the development of American music. |
| Local note | Little-343650--305131050029T |
| General note | Three compact discs containing all the listening examples are available for purchase. |
| Bibliography note | Includes discographies and index. |
| LCCN | 2001034506 |
| ISBN | 007241426X (acid-free paper) |
