A History of American Classical Music With Audio CD
By Scherer
This richly detailed narrative tells the stories of America’s classical composers, set against significant events in American history.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #333998 in Books
- Published on: 2007-08-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
From the Inside Flap
Think “American Classical Music” and what names come to mind? Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein? Joplin, Foster, Sousa? These all deserve their popularity, but America’s classical legacy includes riches unfamiliar to even the most educated music lovers.
A History of American Classical Music celebrates this legacy, from colonial times to today. In these pages you’ll meet American Romantics like Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Edward MacDowell, modernists like Charles Ives and John Cage, and figures from today’s cutting edge like John Adams, Philip Glass, and Michael Torke.
This multimedia history includes:
• 1 CD of music spanning more than a century of American classical music
Barrymore Laurence Scherer is a music critic for The Wall Street Journal, a contributing editor of Art & Auction magazine, and has been a commentator for NPR’s “Performance Today.” Named a Speaker in the Humanities by the New York Council for the Humanities, he has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, and as an independent scholar he has lectured extensively on opera, classical music, and the fine arts at the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and museums and related venues around the country. Mr. Scherer is also the author of the critically acclaimed book Bravo! A Guide to Opera for the Perplexed.
From the Back Cover
A History of American Classical Music
Experience American classical music through great compositions on an audio CD.
This richly detailed narrative tells the stories of America’s classical composers and celebrates a legacy built up from Colonial times to the present, containing riches unfamiliar even to sophisticated music lovers. This development, tracked largely by key composers, is set against significant events in American history, putting neatly into context the achievements of the time.
Distinguished music writer Barrymore Laurence Scherer unfolds an enthralling history, illustrating the importance of not only renowned names, such as Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein, Joplin and Sousa, but also those in the shadows, such as William Henry Fry and John Knowles Paine. Broadway, opera, musicals, bandstands, marching bands, and piano players all get their place. Woven throughout the book are links to carefully chosen selections on the accompanying CD and website that bring these composers and musical movements to life.
Includes more than an hour of music
Engaging and Comprehensive Review of American Classical Music
I originally got this book because I wanted to learn more about Scott Joplin's opera _Treemonisha_. I appreciated that Mr. Scherer took the time to contextualize the breadth of Joplin's work when I could find few other resources that did. That attention to the forgotten and underappreciated contributors to American music is one of the strengths and joys of the book. I have learned a great deal about composers and musicians of whom I knew little. As well, Mr. Scherer nicely explains the political, social and cultural background that helped to shape them and their music. (Surprisingly, it acted as a nice history review, reminding me of key events like the War of 1812 and showing how they were linked to other events during that time period.)
Mr. Scherer's writing style is engaging. While he clearly has a scholarly understanding of his subject, he speaks in laymen's terms with a passion for the material that cannot help but elicit an enthusiastic response. I plan to incorporate some of the music into my high school American Lit classes. I'd like to give my students a broader understanding of the periods that we study. Overall, this is a great resource, and I'm glad that it's a part of my library.
