# I love American Classical Music !



## jojoju2000 (Jan 5, 2021)

People often forget this but America had a bustling Classical Music Scene in the mid to late 1800s. The Second New England School was huge during this time. They helped to create America' Music Educational structure. People like George Chadwick, Arthur Foote, John Paine helped America discover it's own Music sensibilities. Of course, they borrowed alot from their Romantic Germanic Cousins, but over time, America began to have it's own Musical Voice. 




The worst part though is that Americans don't know and appreicate their own past and treasures. Well I do.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

I have enjoyed much of our 'home-land' music. I especially enjoy the colonial tunesmiths like William Billings, Jeremiah Ingalls, etc.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Please allow me as a Brit to endorse this. I enjoy many of the composers mentioned above. Chadwick's Symphonic Sketches are a particular favourite of mine.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

America also had a bustling music scene in the 18th C with composers such as William Billings, James Lyon, Jacob French, Andrew Law, and Supply Belcher.

John Cage pays homage to these earlier composers as well as to America's various religious traditions in his _Apartment House 1776_.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I love this genre so much - and it's a shame that so much of it is ignored. The Mystic Trumpeter by Converse is one of my all-time favorite symphonic poems. I've wheedled conductors into doing the Beach symphony four times now. At almost every concert I conduct I manage to sneak in something from this generation: Dudley Buck, George Chadwick, Arthur Foote. Every time I do the positive responses from both the players and the audience make me feel something's right! It's just so unfortunate that orchestras all over are stuck in the European classics that they aren't willing to try something else. And frankly, just getting performance materials for much of the American music is a real challenge.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

IMO, American classical music was derivative until the 20th century. What I consider the actual American stye did not occur until Ives, Gershwin, Cage, Feldman (and the NY School), and Bernstein. But I also consider Jazz to be America's classical music.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Once I chanced to consider how the USA stacks up against Europe genre by genre:

FANFARES:
Copland's _Fanfare for the Common Man_ vs. Richard Strauss' _Fanfare_ from _Thus Spake Zarathustra _
"SPRINGTIME" WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA:
Copland's _Appalachian Spring_ vs. Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_
RHAPSODIES:
Gershwin's _Rhapsody in Blue_ vs. Liszt's _Hungarian Rhapsody #2_ 
HEART-FELT ADAGIOS:
Barber's _Adagio for Strings_ vs. Albonini's _Adagio_ or Mahler's _Adagietto_ from _Symphony #5_
FIVE MOVEMENT ORCHESTRAL WORK THAT DEPICTS "NATURE":
Grofe's _Grand Canyon Suite_ vs. Beethoven's _Symphony #6 "Pastorale"_
FUGUE: 
Bernstein's _Prelude, Fugue and Riffs_ vs. Bach's _Toccata and Fugue_ 
MOUNTAINS:
Hovhaness: _Symphony #2 "Mysterious Mountain"_ or _Symphony #50 "Mount St. Helens"_ vs Richard Strauss' _Alpine Symphony_
GRAND EGYPTIAN OPERA:
Glass' _Akhnaten_ vs. Verdi's _Aida_
GRAND CHINESE OPERA:
Adams' _Nixon in China_ vs. Puccini's _Turandot_
ROMEO & JULIET?
Bernstein & Sondheim's _West Side Story_ vs. _Romeo and Juliet_ by St. Seans, or Berlioz, Tchaikovsky (_Overture Fantasy_), Prokofiev (_Ballet Suite_), etc.
PIANO DREAMS:
Cage's _Imaginary Landscapes #1_ vs. Schumann's _Traumerei_ 
ALL YEAR 'ROUND:
Ives' _Holidays Symphony_ vs. Vivaldi's _Four Seasons_
OUTER SPACE:
John Williams' _Star Wars Suite_ vs. Holst's _The Planets_
OUT WEST:
Copland's _Rodeo Suite_ vs. Puccini"s _Girl of the Golden West_
MUSIC USED TO CELEBRATE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY:
Sousa's _Stars and Stripes Forever_ vs. Tchaikovsky's _1812 Overture_

In this context, I don't think the USA does so bad!


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## jojoju2000 (Jan 5, 2021)

Coach G said:


> Once I chanced to consider how the USA stacks up against Europe genre by genre:
> 
> FANFARES:
> Copland's _Fanfare for the Common Man_ vs. Richard Strauss' _Fanfare_ from _Thus Spake Zarathustra _
> ...


Walter Piston also has some very underrated pieces of his own.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

I also like some of the Americans whose careers straddled the 19th-20th centuries: (chronological order) Edward MacDowell, Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Scott Joplin.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

In establishing their own musical culture the USA covered a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time whereas the UK had an embarrassing black hole of about 200 years to make up before _re-establishing_ theirs.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

mbhaub said:


> I love this genre so much - and it's a shame that so much of it is ignored....... Dudley Buck, George Chadwick, Arthur Foote......


Didn't Dudley Buck compose a rousing work based on our National Anthem?? can't remember the exact title, but it is quite spectscular....I'd love to see it replace "1812" as the standard summer Pops Holiday feature....another good one, deserving of more exposure is Morton Gould's "Declaration", esp the last section


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Roger Knox said:


> I also like some of the Americans whose careers straddled the 19th-20th centuries: (chronological order) Edward MacDowell, Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Scott Joplin.


Joplin was off in a category of his own. MacDowell, Parker, Beach, and Chadwick were among the Boston Classicists, a group that tried to jump-start an "American" school, but was basically a reflection of European Romanticism. Even so, they did manage to compose some entertaining stuff with MacDowell's piano miniatures pretty much being the highlight.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

elgars ghost said:


> In establishing their own musical culture the USA covered a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time whereas the UK had an embarrassing black hole of about 200 years to make up before _re-establishing_ theirs.


Britain had some great composers up until the Baroque era: Byrd, Gibbons, Purcell, and we may as well through in Handel who was pretty adopted as an Englishman. The Classical and Romantic era seemed to elude Britain, but she made up for it starting in the late Romantic era with Delius and Elgar, and the Early Modern era with Ralph Vaughan Williams. Gustav Holst, Arnold Bax, Arthur Bliss, Michael Tippet, Malcolm Arnold, and especially Benjamin Britten. Britten is one of my favorite composers.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Heck148 said:


> Didn't Dudley Buck compose a rousing work based on our National Anthem?? can't remember the exact title, but it is quite spectscular....I'd love to see it replace "1812" as the standard summer Pops Holiday feature.


That's the one: Festival Overture on the National Anthem. It is a rousing piece, and so little known. The first time I ever conducted it the orchestra management was really leery of it, some orchestra members were snotty about it ("this is _band_ music") but holy smokes the audience loved it! They get to participate - at the grandiose end the conductor turns to them and indicates for them to rise and sing - they love it. I've used it several times and it never fails to get a huge response. We get notes from audience members thanking us for playing it and please do it again! I don't know why it's not played more often. It's in public domain, easily available, not that hard to play. Buck also wrote a Theme and Variations on the National Anthem for Organ which some organists know. Then there's his one other orchestral work: a symphony. Not published. Someday I hope to prepare a set of parts and get it performed. So much music, so little time.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I also love American composers!

Some of my favorite composers are from the US:

Elliott Carter
Charles Wuorinen
Samuel Barber
Joseph Schwantner
Joan Tower

Just to name a few...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I prefer 20th century American composers to those of the earlier centuries, but I've built up a considerable library of the 19th century composers and some from earlier centuries. For me, American serious music really pops to life with Charles Ives. Another early 20th century composer I delight in is Charles Griffes, who died too young at 35. His tone poem _The Pleasure-Dome Of Kubla Khan_ is a real gem.

When I was teaching literature, I made a recording reading the Coleridge poem accompanied by the Griffes' music. If one begins at the right moment and continues at the right pace, he'll find the poem's words fit beautifully to the music, hitting all the proper spots at the proper times. I was rather surprised it worked so well. I used the recording for years. The Coleridge poem is a wonderful testament to the nature of Romantic poetry and the spirit of the Romantic poet.

I also incorporated the Canadian power trio Rush's take on the Coleridge poem, a piece titled "Xanadu" from the _Farewell to Kings_ album. Can't explain why, but most students preferred the Rush music to the Griffes. Hmm. No way to account for taste, is there.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Coach G said:


> Joplin was off in a category of his own. MacDowell, Parker, Beach, and Chadwick were among the Boston Classicists, a group that tried to jump-start an "American" school, but was basically a reflection of European Romanticism. Even so, they did manage to compose some entertaining stuff with MacDowell's piano miniatures pretty much being the highlight.


Scott Joplin: Treemonisha [opera]


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> That's the one: Festival Overture on the National Anthem. It is a rousing piece, and so little known. The first time I ever conducted it the orchestra management was really leery of it, some orchestra members were snotty about it ("this is _band_ music") but holy smokes the audience loved it! They get to participate - at the grandiose end the conductor turns to them and indicates for them to rise and sing - they love it. I've used it several times and it never fails to get a huge response. We get notes from audience members thanking us for playing it and please do it again! I don't know why it's not played more often. It's in public domain, easily available, not that hard to play. Buck also wrote a Theme and Variations on the National Anthem for Organ which some organists know.


I've been under the impression that there are some legal restrictions on how the American National Anthem can be represented. Might that be a problem with the Dudley Buck compositions? I played my New Age synthesizer arrangement of O Canada, with a single bass tonic pedal throughout, at a public elementary school and the teachers were so frosty with me afterwards ...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Coach G said:


> Britain had some great composers up until the Baroque era: Byrd, Gibbons, Purcell, and we may as well through in Handel who was pretty adopted as an Englishman. _The Classical and Romantic era seemed to elude Britain, but she made up for it starting in the late Romantic era_ with Delius and Elgar, and the Early Modern era with Ralph Vaughan Williams. Gustav Holst, Arnold Bax, Arthur Bliss, Michael Tippet, Malcolm Arnold, and especially Benjamin Britten. Britten is one of my favorite composers.


That was including the fallow period I was referring to - post-Purcell and pre-Sullivan/Elgar. The UK did indeed make up for it - eventually...

Discovering 20th century music from the USA has been a real pleasure for me over the years, and I hope to explore a little further before I'm through.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Roger Knox said:


> I've been under the impression that there are some legal restrictions on how the American National Anthem can be represented. Might that be a problem with the Dudley Buck compositions? I played my New Age synthesizer arrangement of O Canada, with a single bass tonic pedal throughout, at a public elementary school and the teachers were so frosty with me afterwards ...


There are no restrictions - at least not anymore. There is an amusing story about the Boston Symphony playing an arrangement by Stravinsky that created quite a stir. It was against the law in Massachusetts to alter the work. The police informed Stravinsky after the performance and he withdrew it. You can read about it here: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/post/stravinskys-run-boston-police#stream/0

Then there's the myth that it must be in the key of A flat. That came about for two reasons: it was seen as the best key for singing, the best compromise I suppose, and then it makes life easier for the wind bands with all the transpositions to play. I've played arrangements of it in many other keys.

When Dudley Buck wrote his overture, there was no official national anthem; the Star Spangled Banner didn't become that until 1929, some 50 years after Buck's work. In his time it was a popular, national song, and unofficially the national anthem.

There are many great arrangements out there, from Toscanini's to ones by Sousa or Walter Damrosch. The ones I loathe are the versions by pop artists who for some reason can't sing anything in 3/4 time - so they redo it in 4/4. That's not right. Play the tune as the British drinking song it really was!


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

I too am a big fan of 20thC American works, apart from the usual big names like Copland and Bernstein, I particularly like Kernis, Adams, Diamond, Schumann, Harris, Rousse, Hanson, Dougherty, etc etc.

I'm completely hooked on Rorem's 2nd Piano Concerto at present. It's a bit like Ravel meets Rachmaninov in style and tone with some gorgeous harmonies. It's easily found on YT, if you don't know it, just listen to the first minute as it is so seductive and completely draws me into its world.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I love 20th century orchestra music, and American composers have been major contributors to this genre....
Copland, Gershwin, Schuman, Mennin, Diamond, Hanson, Bernstein, Ellington are some but not all of my American favorites.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Count me as another huge fan of American music!

Elliott Carter is one of my favorite composers.

Others I consider 1st rate:

Charles Wuorinen
Joan Tower
Samuel Barber
Joseph Schwantner
Jacob Druckman
George Crumb
Steven Stucky


A few that skirt the line between classical and other forms:

Anthony Braxton
Anthony Davis
Keith Jarrett
Frank Zappa


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

mbhaub said:


> That's the one: Festival Overture on the National Anthem. It is a rousing piece, and so little known. The first time I ever conducted it the orchestra management was really leery of it, some orchestra members were snotty about it ("this is _band_ music") but holy smokes the audience loved it! They get to participate - at the grandiose end the conductor turns to them and indicates for them to rise and sing - they love it. I've used it several times and it never fails to get a huge response. We get notes from audience members thanking us for playing it and please do it again! I don't know why it's not played more often. It's in public domain, easily available, not that hard to play. Buck also wrote a Theme and Variations on the National Anthem for Organ which some organists know. Then there's his one other orchestral work: a symphony. Not published. Someday I hope to prepare a set of parts and get it performed. So much music, so little time.


I have this recording off the Buck work along with other works. A nice collection of pieces.








]

One American composer I would love to have more modern recordings is Daniel Gregory Mason.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

mikeh375 said:


> ...I particularly like... *Diamond*...


it's nice to see a favorable mention of David Diamond here. I think he's a very underappreciated composer. His string quartets are outstanding.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Bluecrab said:


> it's nice to see a favorable mention of David Diamond here. I think he's a very underappreciated composer. His string quartets are outstanding.


his symphonies are very good also...Diamond is an excellent composer.


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