The great American symphony
Subtitle: music, the depression, and war
By: Nicholas Tawa.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Bloomington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
ISBN-13: 9780253353054
Subjects: Symphony -- United States -- 20th century; World War, 1939-1945 -- Music and the war
Description: From the Publisher: The years of the Great Depression, World War II, and their aftermath brought a sea change in American music. This period of economic, social, and political adversity can truly be considered a musical golden age. In the realm of classical music, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Howard Hanson, Virgil Thompson, and Leonard Bernstein-among others-produced symphonic works of great power and lasting beauty during these troubled years. It was during this critical decade and a half that contemporary writers on American culture began to speculate about "the Great American Symphony" and looked to these composers for music that would embody the spirit of the nation. In this volume, Nicholas Tawa concludes that they succeeded, at the very least, in producing music that belongs in the cultural memory of every American. Tawa introduces the symphonists and their major works from the romanticism of Barber and the "all-American" Roy Harris through the theatrics of Bernstein and Marc Blitzstein to the broad-shouldered appeal of Thompson and Copland. Tawa's musical descriptions are vivid and personal, and invite music lovers and trained musicians alike to turn again to the marvelous and lasting music of this time.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preliminaries. Attitudes ; The times ; Symphonism ascendant ; The symphony's public role; title: Symphonies of the mid- to late thirties. The romantic symphony : Barber ; The spiritual symphony : Hanson ; The all-American symphony : Harris ; The muscular symphony : Schuman ; The civil symphony : Carpenter ;  Afterthought : Thomson and Cowell; title: Symphonies of the war years. The commemorative symphony : Antheil ; The aesthetic symphony : Diamond ; The dramatic symphony : Bernstein ; The masterly symphony : Piston ; The ambivalent symphony : Barber ; The theatrical symphony : Blitzstein; title: Symphonies of the immediate postwar years. The conservatorial symphony : Moore ; The dynamic symphony : Mennin ; The plain-spoken symphony : Thompson ; The August symphony : Copland ;  The self-reliant symphony : Creston ; The knotty symphony : Sessions; title: American symphonies after 1950. The symphony in the leanest years ; The symphony after 1990.