Classical Music In America: A History Of Its Rise And FallW. W. Norton & Company, 2005 M03 15 - 606 pages “A splendid read, at once disturbing and illuminating.”—Gramophone “An opinionated, stimulating account of how classical music failed to establish fruitful roots in America,” Classical Music in America chronicles “a cultural attitude that has produced many fine artists and striking moments—but no institutional or intellectual support to sustain them” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “An admirable, scholarly volume” (Times Literary Supplement), this “formidable book ... shows how American classical music became a ‘performance culture,’ an ersatz-European showplace for celebrity virtuosos, rather than a native-born genre” (The New Yorker). “As a comprehensive, convincing analysis of the contemporary dilemma” of reconciling European heritage with American vision “and a riveting portrait of the century and a half of events and personalities which brought it about, Mr Horowitz’s account would be hard to beat” (The Economist). “Anyone seeking to understand why American classical music has come to so dead an end—and wondering how it might yet escape a final descent into cultural irrelevance—should read Classical Music in America with close attention” (Commentary). |
Contents
JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT THEODORE THOMAS AND THE SLAYING OF THE MONSTER CONCERTS | 15 |
HENRY HIGGINSON AND THE BIRTH OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | 43 |
BUILDING A HALL CHOOSING A CONDUCTOR | 70 |
COMPOSES AND THE BRAHMIN CONFINEMENT | 94 |
ANTON SEIDL AND THE SACRALIZATION OF OPERA | 121 |
SYMPHONIC RIVALRY AND GROWTH | 148 |
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI GUSTAV MAHLER ARTURO TOSCANINI AND THE GOSSIP OF THE FOYER | 179 |
ANTONIN DVORAK AND CHARLES IVES IN SEARCH OF AMERICA | 211 |
MORE CONDUCTORS | 305 |
THE WORLDS GREATEST SOLOISTS | 328 |
OPERA FOR SINGERS | 358 |
SERVING THE NEW AUDIENCE | 395 |
COMPOSERS ON THE SIDELINES | 433 |
LEONARD BERNSTEIN AND THE CLASSICAL MUSIC CRISIS | 475 |
POSTCLASSICAL MUSIC | 518 |
NOTES | 541 |
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Aaron Copland American classical music American composers American music American orchestras Amy Beach Anton Seidl artists audience became Beethoven Bernstein Boston Symphony Orchestra Brahms Carnegie Hall century Chadwick Chicago Symphony Chicago Symphony Orchestra City concert conducted conductor Copland critic Damrosch decades Dvořák Europe European Furtwängler George Gericke German Gershwin Gilded Age Hale Hammerstein Heifetz Henderson Henry Higginson Henry Krehbiel Ibid included Italian jazz John Sullivan Dwight Judson Klemperer Koussevitzky later Leopold Stokowski listeners Liszt Loeffler Mahler Metropolitan Opera Mitropoulos Mozart Muck music director musicians never Nikisch opera house Opera in America Overture Philadelphia Orchestra pianist played popular quoted radio recordings rehearsal Reiner repertoire Richard Strauss Sarnoff Schoenberg season Serkin singers singing songs stage Stokowski Strauss Stravinsky style Symphony Orchestra Archives Szell Tchaikovsky theater Theodore Thomas Thomas's tion tour Tristan Understanding Toscanini University Press Varèse Vienna violin violinist Wagner World wrote York Philharmonic York's