Mavericks and Other Traditions in American MusicFrom colonial times to the present, American composers have lived on the fringes of society and defined themselves in large part as outsiders. In this stimulating book Michael Broyles considers the tradition of maverick composers and explores what these mavericks reveal about American attitudes toward the arts and about American society itself. Broyles starts by examining the careers of three notably unconventional composers: William Billings in the eighteenth century, Anthony Philip Heinrich in the nineteenth, and Charles Ives in the twentieth. All three had unusual lives, wrote music that many considered incomprehensible, and are now recognized as key figures in the development of American music. Broyles goes on to investigate the proliferation of eccentric individualism in all types of American music—classical, popular, and jazz—and how it has come to dominate the image of diverse creative artists from John Cage to Frank Zappa. The history of the maverick tradition, Broyles shows, has much to tell us about the role of music in American culture and the tension between individualism and community in the American consciousness. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 47
... theater if one was active , and possibly in church . He would teach several instruments , organize singing schools ... theaters provided employment for musicians , and in some denominations church music . underwent significant reform ...
... theaters, a ban that lasted until 1792. The notion of music as art was incomprehensible. Puritans saw music performed outside the church as pure amusement or diversion, not to be taken seriously. In 1661 the Reverend Leonard Hoar wrote ...
... Theater was finally allowed in Boston in 1792, and music was integral, even if the play was not musical. The orchestra often performed for an hour before curtain time, and passions about what the orchestra should play ran so high that ...
... theater orchestra; he had arranged a concert as soon as he arrived in Lexington. But this is not just a story about Heinrich. It is about antebel- lum America. Rebirth occurs in the nurturing bosom of nature. The Arcadia of America ...
... theater. It was essentially the same company that had been at the Chestnut Street Theatre, which had been destroyed by fire in 1820. Heinrich had theatrical connections in Philadelphia from his previous stay, and at least one actor, a ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
69 | |
PART 3 After the War | 151 |
PART 4 The Legacy of the Mavericks | 269 |
Notes | 337 |
Bibliography | 363 |
Index | 377 |