American Pioneers: Ives to Cage and BeyondAmerican Pioneers presents a survey of that peculiarly American innovatory spirit as manifest in the nation's music. On the east coast, early in the twentieth century, this spirit was captured by Charles Ives (whose music lay virtually ignored and unperformed until the world caught up with him, forty years later). On the west coast, Henry Cowell and John Cage encountered similar critical resistance. Their pioneering flair was an act of defiance: Americans throwing off the shackles of European tradition and inventing a new language, seeking to redefine what could or could not be embraced by the term 'music'. No single book to date has concentrated on this particularly rebellious trend in American music. American Pioneers investigates the life and work of the major American innovators - including Carl Ruggles, Edgard Varese, Harry Partch, Colin McPhee, Lou Harrison and members of America's youngest composing generation - revealing the colourful and often idiosyncratic nature of these characters, and focusing on the peculiarly American quality of their artistic motivation. |
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American composers American music Amériques Angeles artistic arts audience Balinese band became BOLT Boston Cage's California career Carl Ruggles century Charles Ives chorus Christian Wolff Colin McPhee collage composition concert Concord conductor Cowell's created creative critic Danbury Debussy early Edgard Varèse electronic music ensemble essays European Europeras four Fourth Symphony fp New York gamelan George Guild harmony Harry Partch Henry Cowell Hyperprism included Indonesian innovative inspired instruments Ionisation Ives's music John Cage La Monte Young later lectures Leopold Stokowski Lou Harrison major March Merce Cunningham Monte Young Morton Feldman movement musicians new-music Nicolas Slonimsky opera Paris percussion performance pianist pieces Pierre Boulez played players première prepared piano produced programme radio recorded Rhythmicon rhythms Salzedo San Francisco Schoenberg score SCREW seemed Silence Slonimsky's solo Sonata songs soprano sounds spirit Stravinsky String Quartet Symphony Orchestra tape Theremin Thoreau tone traditional tuned University Varèse's violin Western wrote York's