Full Description
The essays in this collection reflect the range and depth of musical life in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Contributions consider the rise and triumph of popular forms such as jazz, swing, and blues, as well as the contributions to art music of composers such as Ives, Cage, and Copland, among others. American contributions to music technology and dissemination, and the role of these forms in extending the audience for music, is also a focus.
Contents
Introduction * Boston's French Connection at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Ellen Knight * Tickler's Secrets: Ragtime Performance Practices, 1900-1920-A Bibliographic Essay, Karen Rege * Mapping the Blues Genes: Technological, Economic, and Social Strands-A Spectral Analysis, Raymond D. Dessy * Some American Firms and Their Contributions to the Development of the Reproducing Piano, Kent Holliday * Dances, Frolics, and Orchestra Wars: The Territory Bands and Ballrooms of Kansas City, Missouri, 1925-1935, Marc Rice * Thomas A. Dorsey and the Development and Diffusion of Traditional Black Gospel Piano, Timothy M. Kalil * Western Swing: Working-class Southwestern Jazz of the 1930s and 1940s, Jean A. Boyd * The Art of Noise: John Cage, Lou Harrison, and the West Coast Percussion Ensemble, Leta Miller * Melville Smith: Organist, Educator, Early Music Pioneer, and American Composer, Mark DeVoto * Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra: High, Middle, and Low Culture, 1937-1954, Donald C. Meyer * Cinema Music of Distinction: Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Gail Kubik, Alfred W. Cochran * The New Tin Pan Alley: 1940s Hollywood Looks at American Popular Songwriters, John C. Tibbetts
