American Nationalism

Question 1

Who was William Grant Still?

Answer 1

1895-1978
First African American composer to have a major orchestra play one of his compositions
Went through a period of writing experimentalist, modernist music
Afterwards he wrote in a simpler, more melodic style, drawing on sources including spirituals and jazz
Many of his works reflect his concerns about the positions of African Americans in society.

Question 2

What was the ‘Afro-American symphony?’

Answer 2

1930 symphony by William Grant Still
First symphony by a black American composer to be played by a leading orchestra
Combines traditional symphonic forms with blues-inspired melodies and chord progressions and rhythms from popular African-American music
Quotes from four dialect poems by early 20th century African-American poet Dunbar as epigraphs for each movement.
Still uses a traditional tonal idiom (not modernist)

Question 3

What are William Grant Still’s key works?

Answer 3

Afro-American Symphony (1930)
And they lynched him on a tree (1940) - choral ballad on the subject of racial intolerance and the brotherhood of man
Sahdji (1930) - choral ballet based on an African tribal subject

Question 4

Who was Charles Ives?

Answer 4

1874-1954
One of the first American composers of world renown
One of the fathers of American nationalism through his pursuit of modernism (especially bitonality) but also his use of traditional American materials

Question 5

What is ‘The unanswered question’?

Answer 5

1908 piece by Ives for string ensemble, solo trumpet and woodwind quartet
Bitonal - strings in conventional harmony with slow triads with atonal winds - trumpet plays a theme that suggests the perennial question of existence
Unusual spacing of orchestral parts far away from each other

Question 6

What is ‘Central Park in the Dark’?

Answer 6

1908 piece by Ives (published as a pair with ‘the unanswered question)
Scored for winds, strings and piano all spatially separated
Polytonal layers, cluster chords
Syncopated ragtime piano
Quotes the tune ‘Hello Ma Baby’ and the ‘Washington Posr March’ within a street band.

Question 7

What is ‘Thanksgiving and Forefather’s Day’?

Answer 7

4th movement of Ives’ symphony ‘New England Holidays’
Uses the tunes of ‘The Shining Shore’ (played by flute with chromatic/modernist style accompaniment) and ‘Duke Street’ (sung by choir above thick dissonant string accompaniment) - two American revivalist hymns.

Question 8

What is ‘Three Places in New England’?

Answer 8

1914 (revised 1929) piece by Ives
Quotes Yankee Doodle - the melody is broken up and passed from trumpet to flute to strings with chromatic harmony
Quotes the American marching song, ‘The British Grenadiers’
In the last 2 bars of the second movement the national anthem resolves to an unexpected dissonant chord.

Question 9

What are Ives’ key works?

Answer 9

The unanswered question
Central Park in the Dark
Thanksgiving and Forefather’s Day (from ‘New England Holidays’)
Three Places in New England

Question 10

Who was Henry Cowell?

Answer 10

1897-1965
Experimentalist Composer
No formal musical education but began composing as a teenager
Imprisoned in 1936 for sexual misconduct and after this his music became more reserved and less radical

Question 11

What were features of Henry Cowell’s music?

Answer 11

Explorations of atonality, polytonality and non-Western modes
Tone cluster technique (Bartok asked to use this in his music)
Developed (what he called) ‘string piano’ - pianist plucks/sweeps at piano strings - this led to Cage’s development of prepared piano
John Cage (his pupil) called him the ‘open sesame for music in America’
Established American experimentalist music as avant garde

Question 12

Give some examples of Henry Cowell’s works

Answer 12

The Tides of Manaunan (1917) - uses cluster chords to accompany RH melody
The Tiger (1928) - requires both arms to play the piano, covering much of the keyboard
The Aeolian Harp (1923) - emulates the sound of a harp, plucking/sweeping the strings - mostly tonal
The Banshee (1925) - pianist sweeps the strings, causing an atonal resonance

Question 13

Who was John Cage?

Answer 13

1912-1992
Blurred distinction between sound and music
Gave America a new musical identity
Wrote aleatoric music
Studied Indian philosophy and Buddhism (influenced his aleatoric/indeterminate music)

Question 14

Give some examples of Cage’s works

Answer 14

Sonata X for prepared piano (1948) - placed screws, pieces of plastic and rubber on the strings for a more percussive sound.
Child of Tree (1975) - performer improvises with instruments made entirely of plant matter - uses stopwatch to clarify time structure.
Imaginary Landscape No.4 for 12 radios - uses 12 radios at different frequencies - different sounding performance every time
4,33 - silence - audience’s reaction is different every time

Question 15

Who was Harry Partch?

Answer 15

1901-1974
Self-taught American experimentalist composer
Took an anti-traditional approach
Devised a scale based on microtones (genesis scale) with 43 steps per octave (most instruments can only play subsets of scale)
Several works refer to ancient or oriental philosophies and to the theatre/ritual

Question 16

Give some examples of Harry Partch’s works

Answer 16

The Bewitched (1955) - Dance satire based on Japanese Kabuki theatre - placed instruments and different height, some of his own invention, but all playing subsets of the microtonal scale. 
The Delusion of Fury (1966) - Used singers who had to create a 'sound from the throat, meaningless in English'
Ballet Mécanique (1924) - involves player pianos, propellers and a siren along with more traditional instruments. Radical, repetitive style. Premiere caused a riot - perhaps because of militaristic aspects of work (sirens, propellers against sections of silence - reaction to WWI)

Question 17

Who was Morton Feldman?

Answer 17

1926-1987
Wrote graphic scores, the first of their kind
Added to the increasingly established field of American experimentalism
Notational innovations led to the development of a characteristic sound with free rhythms, slowly evolving music and rhythmic symmetry

Question 18

Give an example of Morton Feldman’s work

Answer 18

Projection 1 (1950) - uses a ‘graph’ composition in which space represents time and boxes specify the other features such as instrumentation and register.

Question 19

Who was Milton Babbitt?

Answer 19

1916-2011
First composer to write for synthesiser/first ventures into fully synthesised sound
Pioneer in furthering 12 tone technique

Question 20

Give some examples of Milton Babbitt’s work

Answer 20

Composition for synthesiser (1961)
Ensembles for synthesiser (1964) - also uses 12 tone technique
Philomel (1964) - scored for soprano and synthesiser

Question 21

Who was Aaron Copland? What was his style before the 1930s?

Answer 21

1900-1990
Studied with Nadia Boulanger and admired her broad/eclectic taste in music
Early music was highly dissonant and rooted in modernist style e.g. ‘Symphony for Organ and Orchestra’ - uses ocatatonic and whole tone scales, polyrhythms and dissonant counterpoint

Question 22

Why did Copland change his style?

Answer 22

His early compositions reflected the modernist attitude that prevailed among intellectuals and were only accessible to the elite.
This proved to be financially unviable after the Great Depression and he wanted to write for utilitarian purposes with a wide appeal/write accessible music

Question 23

What are the features of Copland’s vernacular style?

Answer 23

Open harmonies - voicing in 4ths and 5ths
1) Brass and percussion - fanfares
2) Inclusion of American folk/dance music
3) Slow, expansive string writing
Slow-changing harmonies
Major tonality
Ascending melodic lines
Relentlessly triadic harmony
Pandiatonicism (tonal, but tonal centre not indicated by
functional harmony)
Extremely long melodic lines which postpone resolution
4) Use of American writings/subjects/programmatic

Question 24

What are some key works of Copland’s vernacular/nationalist style?

Answer 24

El Salon Mexico (1936) - Ballet using local dance tunes/rhythms and drum/percussion
Prairie Journal (1937) - Conveys the landscape of the American West (although originally called ‘piece for Radio) - expansive woodwind melodies and slow-changing harmonies come to represent American landscape
Billy the Kid (1938) + Billy the Kid Suite - painted a portrait of the Wild West - American subject matter
Fanfare for the common man (1942) - inspired by a famous speech by Vice President Wallace who talked of the ‘century of the common man’ - heavy use of brass and percussion and movement in 5ths .
Lincoln Portrait (1942) - scored for speaker and orchestra - uses text from Lincoln’s speeches; music includes quotations from American minstrel song, Camptown races .

Question 25

What features of the ‘Billy the Kid’ Suite are vernacular?

Answer 25

Mvt 1. The Open Prairie - broad melodic lines which postpone resolution, slow tempo evoke landscape
Mvt 2. Street Scene - woodwind layering
Mvt 3. Mexican Dance - dance rhythms/Mexican dance tunes - offbeats accented
Mvt 4. Gun Battle - percussion, drum rolls, brass/trumpet repeated figure echoes rapid gunfire - all military instruments

Question 26

What did Copland say about his switch to vernacular style?

Answer 26

“The composer who is frightened of losing his artistic integrity through contact with a mass audience is no longer aware of the meaning of the word ‘art.’”