Making music for modern dance
Subtitle: collaboration in the formative years of a new American art
By: source readings compiled and edited by Katherine Teck
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 366
ISBN-13: 9780199743209; 9780199743216
Subjects: Modern dance; Modern dance music; History and criticism; History
Description: Making Music for Modern Dance traces the collaborative approaches, working procedures, and aesthetic views of the artists who forged a new and distinctly American art form during the first half of the 20th century. The book offers riveting first-hand accounts from innovative artists in the throes of their creative careers and provides a cross-section of the challenges faced by modern choreographers and composers in America. These articles are complemented by excerpts from astute observers of the music and dance scene as well as by retrospective evaluations of past collaborative practices. Beginning with the careers of pioneers Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn, and continuing through the avant-garde work of John Cage for Merce Cunningham, the book offers insights into the development of modern dance in relation to its music. Editor Katherine Teck's introductions and afterword offer historical context and tie the artists' essays in with collaborative practices in our own time. The substantive notes suggest further materials of interest to students, practicing dance artists and musicians, dance and music history scholars, and to all who appreciate dance [Publisher description].
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [357]-359) and index.
Table of contents: title: pt. 1. Musical collaboration for a new era in dance. Overview : the question of using old music for new dance. How to revive dancing : music and the dancer / Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. Dancing to Beethoven's Seventh symphony / Isadora Duncan. Music for Isadora Duncan's dance / Baird Hastings. The dance poems of Michio Ito : The white peacock, to music by Griffes / Helen Caldwell. The Denishawn aesthetic : America and the dance, music visualization / Denishawn program. On dancing to Bach : Humphrey-Weidman programs / Norman Cazden. American music and composers : what dancers need / Ted Shawn; title: pt. 2. Creative procedures and ingredients. Overview : some challenges of collaboration, and composers debate about what works. Music and dance : the new generation's change in methods / Louis Horst. Louis Horst / Henry Gilfond. A quiet genius himself : a dance teacher's tribute to Louis Horst / Gertrude Lippincott. Synthesizing music and the dance / Wallingford Riegger. Sensing the dancer's impulse : a dancer talks about the art of composer-accompanists / Ernestine Stodelle. My scores for modern dance : tragedy and comedy / Vivian Fine. The race of life : my side of the story : the relationship of music and dance / Doris Humphrey. Under way : composing for Martha Graham : details of contemporary collaboration / Lehman Engel. Relating music and concert dance : an idea for elastic form / Henry Cowell. Sound-companion for dance : Henry Cowell's music / Norman Lloyd. Composing for the dance : an overview of procedures, personal experiences, and advice to collaborators / Norman Lloyd; title: pt. 3. Toward new "American" styles. Overview : defining what makes music "American" and common musical concerns of ballet and modern dance. The cosmopolitan scene of the 1920s and '30s : avant-garde experiments, jazz, and symphonic ballet scores / Verna Arvey. The theatrical Thirties / Virgil Thomson. Virgil Thomson's later reflections / Katherine Teck. Editorial : Dance and American composers / Dance observer [magazine]. Overview : Drawing upon folk music and wartime patriotism. People dancing / Woody Guthrie. Sophie Maslow and Woody / Nora Guthrie. Music for Martha / Agnes de Mille. The commission for Appalachian spring / Aaron Copland. Aaron Copland's America / Gail Levin. Appalachian spring : an appreciation fifty-four years later / Richard Philp. Overview : Building on the Horton experience. Lester Horton : of money, music, and motivation / Larry Warren and others who knew him. Kenneth Klauss : musician for California dancers / Katherine Teck. Carmen de Lavallade : dancing to many musical styles / Katherine Teck. Instructions : how to play the drums / Alvin Ailey. Alvin Ailey's Revelations / Jennifer Dunning. How Revelations came to be / Alvin Ailey, with A. Peter Bailey; title: pt. 4. Instruments, technology, and the avant-garde. Overview : Expanding timbre possibilities with percussion : vocalization, electronic instruments, and the sounds around us. Percussion music and its relation to the modern dance / Franziska Boas. East Indian tala music / Henry Cowell. Choric sound for the dance / Lehman Engel. Goal : new music, new dance / John Cage. Electronic music for Doris Humphrey's Theatre piece no. 2 / Otto Luening. My total theater concept / Alwin Nikolais. Experimental music / John Cage. Communication / John Cage. Dancing with the avant-garde / Carolyn Brown; title: pt. 5. Wellsprings of creative collaboration. Overview : Diverse methods and aesthetic ideas. "Fun" in music and the dance / Leonard Bernstein. Why I make dances / Paul Taylor. My intention to serve Spanish ballet serves American modern dancers instead / Carlos Surinach. Music for the modern dance : meditations on melodies, modes, emotion, and creation / Lou Harrison. Notes on new music for the dance : choices open to collaborators at midcentury / Lucia Dlugoszewski; title: pt. 6. Dance artists speak to future generations. Overview : Postwar trends, and music in the training of dancers. My love affair with music / Erick Hawkins. Finding your own voice / Bessie Schönberg. Music and dancing / Paul Draper. Dancers are musicians are dancers / José Limón; title: Afterword : Creativity in one's own time.