DQ for Watkins 443-58 (grad students: please pay close attention to the material on Ruggles/Riegger/Becker, Harris, and Piston/Finney

DQ for Watkins 443-58 (grad students: please also pay close attention to the material on Ruggles/Riegger/Becker (442-43), Harris (449-50), and Piston/Finney (454-55), and be able to relate compositional resources, goals, and strategies to the classroom discussions of Ives, Cowell, and Thomson)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in “Comments” on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: These readings address the experience and reactions of American composers who were the younger contemporaries of Cowell and Ives, who in some cases claimed inspiration from their older “American experimentalist” peers, but whose focus, background, and overall aesthetics were much more strongly based in the Germanophile “great tradition” of European training (Ruggles is something of a special case and his idiosyncratic educational background differs from that of Copland, Barber, Thomson, and the other members of the Parisian “Boulangerie”).

General question(s) for consideration: These American composers (Copland, Harris, Thomson, Piston, Barber, Schuman) shared a number of biographical factors and compositional influences, but certainly two particularly important elements were (a) their “American” nationalist impulses and (b) their formal and compositional indebtedness to European “modernism.” What were the principle Euro-centric influences upon these composers? If they looked to European models, what were those models, and why did these Americans choose them? Conversely, what was these composers’ relationship to the American experimentalist traditions of Ives and Cowell? Are there parallels between and among these composers, in terms of influences, priorities, or goals? Finally, how and in what environments did these American composers influence the post-WWII generation of Americans? What was their impact?

(1) On pp443 and following Watkins discusses Copland’s (social and biographical) background, educational experience, and general artistic orientation during his early maturity as a composer. Where and with whom did he study? What would have been the possible impact(s) upon Copland of this experience? Are these experiences similar to or different from those other American composers of the same generation who are discussed in this chapter?

(2) The 1920s works of Copland discussed on pp444-45, and the various organizations and environments for which these works were produced, are decidedly “Euro-centric” and modernist in both intentions and musical procedures (have a listen via classicalmusic.com to Grohg, the 1925 Piano Concerto, the 1930 Piano Variations, or Music for the Theatre, and be prepared to respond to the following: despite the fact that the latter two works (and others produced in the same period) borrow extensively from “American” sources—especially jazz and the blues—I would suggest that the works are decidedly “European” in their treatment of these sources. In other words, I am suggesting that, though born in New York City, Copland in the ‘20s was treating even American sources in a rather “Parisian” fashion. Why might this be? And, can you relate SHMRG details of what you hear in the above works to the compositions of other 1920s Parisian composers?

(3) Overall, through p447, how would you describe Copland’s 1920s “compositional allegiances”? With what “Isms” is his 1920s music most legitimately associated? (Don’t make a snap conclusion here: this is a subtle and complicated question)

(4) pp447-48, subtitled “A Simpler Language,” describe a change in Copland’s compositional style and goals in the period after 1930, and especially after 1932. What musical, biographical, or historical events drove this change in style and goals? Be prepared to cite specific works, composers, or events, and to relate specific Copland works of the ‘30s and early ‘40s to these factors.

(5) [For grad students only: be prepared to describe Harris’s career, training, compositional emphases, and goals to the balance of the class.]

(6) pp450-54 discuss the biography, early musical influences, compositional training, and (especially important) collaborations with other artists and across media, of Virgil Thomson. How is Thomson’s career parallel to that of Copland? How does it differ? (Hint: pay particular attention to his collaborations, with both literary and film activities) I will have more to say about Four Saints in Three Acts, particularly about the biographical and cross-genre experiences that shaped Thomson’s intentions in this work, but please read this section closely for its excellent explanation of the goals which Thomson and Gertrude Stein shared in this collaboration. It is thought of as a “difficult” work, but in fact makes excellent “sense” if the listener understands what Thomson/Stein were and were not attempting to accomplish. With what earlier composers does Watkins link Four Saints? With what other “experimental” composers (chiefly in the 1950s-60s) might we link this same work? Pay particular attention to Thomson’s compositional procedure in this work as Watkins describes it.

(7) [For grad students only: be prepared to describe Piston’s career, training, compositional emphases, and goals to the balance of the class.]

(8) On pp455 and following, Watkins provides a biographical sketch and brief discussion of selected works by Samuel Barber. How specifically do Barber’s compositional experience and goals mirror or contrast those of other members of the “Boulangerie”? With what “Isms” is Barber’s music typically associated? Pay particular attention to the discussion of Summer of 1915, a musical reminiscence by Barber, of its beautiful and evocative text, and have a listen to the work on classicalmusic.com. Does this music, in its topic, mood, musical procedures, choice of text, or other factors, remind you of another American composer not a member of the Boulangerie?

(9) [For grad students only: be prepared to describe Schuman’s career, training, compositional emphases, and goals to the balance of the class.]

(10) All: Read the section “Other Americans” very closely and retain this information. It is a marvelously succinct and insightful summary of the divergent compositional traditions which came to prominence in America during and immediately after World War II, and thus is a very important preface to our discussions of the post-1945 period.