Frontier Figures (eBook)

American Music and the Mythology of the American West

Beth E. Levy (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2012
470 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-95202-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Frontier Figures is a tour-de-force exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and Arthur Farwell, Beth E. Levy addresses questions of regionalism, race, and representation as well as changing relationships to the natural world to highlight the intersections between classical music and the diverse worlds of Indians, pioneers, and cowboys. Levy draws from an array of genres to show how different brands of western Americana were absorbed into American culture by way of sheet music, radio, lecture recitals, the concert hall, and film. Frontier Figures is a comprehensive illumination of what the West meant and still means to composers living and writing long after the close of the frontier.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Introduction: The Course of Empire

Chapter 1. The Wa-Wan and the West
Chapter 2. Western Democracy, Western Landscapes, Western Music

Part Two. Western Encounters: Charles Wakefield Cadman and Others
Chapter 3. Encountering Indians
Chapter 4. Staging the West

Part Three. American Pastorals
Chapter 5. West of Eden
Chapter 6. Power in the Land
Chapter 7. Harvest Home

Part Four. Roy Harris: Provincial Cowboy, White Hope
Chapter 8. How Roy Harris Became Western
Chapter 9. Manifest Destiny
Chapter 10. The Composer as Folk Singer

Part Five. Aaron Copland: From Orient to Occident
Chapter 11. The Saga of the Prairies
Chapter 12. Communal Song, Cosmopolitan Song
Chapter 13. Copland and the Cinematic West

Conclusion: On the Trail

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.4.2012
• Reihe/Serie: California Studies in 20th-Century Music
• Reihe/Serie: California Studies in 20th-Century Music
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Klassik / Oper / Musical
• Schlagworte: Aaron Copland • American Culture • book club books • books about music composers • books for music lovers • books for reluctant readers • Career • culture and music • discussion books • easy to read • engaging • evolution of american music • gifts for friends • History • how to become a musician • how was music created • learning about american music history • Music Books • music evolution • Page Turner • performing arts • politics in the music world • Theater • The Wild West • vacation reads • what was the wild west
• ISBN-10: 0-520-95202-2 / 0520952022
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-95202-7 / 9780520952027