Music and Politics in San Francisco: From the 1906 Quake to the Second World War“Leta Miller’s long-awaited study is a tightly woven, fast-paced, and luminous chronicle of San Francisco’s musical coming of age. Her keen insights into Chinese opera, night club jazz, and two international expositions go far to rekindle the era’s spirited mix of talent, taste, patronage, and politics. The groundbreaking work of an accomplished music and social historian, Music and Politics in San Francisco is a most welcome companion to Catherine Parsons Smith’s Making Music in Los Angeles.” —Jonathan Elkus, Lecturer in Music Emeritus, UC Davis “From three disastrous days in April 1906 through the onset of an even greater disaster in 1941, from the San Francisco Conservatory through the performances of the Chinese Opera, Leta Miller traces the musico-political history of ‘the Paris of the West’ in meticulous detail. This important book adds immeasurably to our knowledge of West Coast American music, whilst simultaneously challenging a number of historiographical shibboleths.” —David Nicholls, contributing editor of The Cambridge History of American Music "Leta Miller’s San Francisco’s Musical Life is a pure pleasure to read. Miller manages that rare feat of digesting what must have been many years of digging through newspapers and archives into a fun, lively, highly readable narrative. Each chapter strikes a comfortable balance among factual exposition, colorful anecdote, and historical analysis. Miller brings equal depth and insight to each of her disparate subjects, she writes with charm and clarity throughout, and the whole is arranged in a way that is clear and logical, never monotonous." —Mary Ann Smart, author of Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera |
Contents
The San Francisco Symphony the Peoples | 31 |
Chinatown Forbidden and Alluring | 63 |
The Unions the Clubs and Theaters | 92 |
Ada Clement Ernest Bloch and the | 106 |
The Peoples Music or a Diversion for the Rich? | 131 |
The Despair of the Depression and the Clash of Race | 167 |
Federal Music Project | 214 |
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Common terms and phrases
African American Alfred hertz Angeles artistic audience Auditorium Bacon band Barbary Coast Bay Area became began Cage California Chicago Chinatown Chinese opera choral chorus Chronicle city’s Clement Club composers composition concert conducted conductor Conservatory Court Cowell’s critics cultural dance director Elkus ensemble Ernest Bloch Examiner example fair featured Federal Music Project Frankenstein GGIE Golden Gate Grand Opera Hadley Hadley's hall Henry Cowell henry hadley hired instruments international Exposition jazz Jervis labor later LeProtti let my peo-ple lou harrison Luisa Tetrazzini Mason melody Menuhin Merola Metzger Mikado musicians Oakland offered opera house orchestra organization PCMR People’s percussion performance Philharmonic pianist piano played players political PPiE premiere president quake recital reported San Francisco Opera San Francisco Symphony season singers Sokoloff solo Spokesman Swing Swing Mikado Tetrazzini theater thousand tion took tour union violin wrote York