Page 218 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
P. 218
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MUSIC IS A
LANGUAGE OF
THE INTANGIBLE
WOODLAND SKETCHES (1896),
EDWARD MACDOWELL
he first music published choral melody is sung in unison
IN CONTEXT in North America were and then in counterpoint but with
T tunes in the Bay Psalm scant regard for traditional Western
FOCUS Book, a compilation selected standards of harmony.
American nationalism
from European psalters by the
BEFORE 17th-century emigrants who settled America’s first
1640 The Bay Psalm Book is in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Bohemian-born Anthony
published in Massachusetts. By the late 18th century, however, Heinrich, who lived in the United
American-born composers such as States from 1810, is generally
1834 Anthony Heinrich William Billings and Daniel Read, considered the first “professional”
composes The Treaty of who formed part of the First New American composer. Inspired by
William Penn with the Indians, England School, began to publish different parts of the United States,
a concerto grosso. music that marked a distinct he developed a more dissonant
departure from European models. harmonic language than had been
1848 Stephen Foster publishes These composers, who were heard elsewhere and was the first
the song “Oh! Susanna,” which usually self-taught, were writing American to write for a symphony
becomes an instant hit. new types of sacred music, such orchestra. More famous, however,
1863 Louis Moreau Gottschalk as the “fuguing tune,” in which a was the virtuoso pianist, Louis
publishes Battle Cry of Moreau Gottschalk, who studied
Freedom, based on an in Paris and was feted by Chopin
American Civil War song. and Liszt. Returning to America in
1853, he toured widely, performing
AFTER his own works that would often
1897 John Philip Sousa’s reference the indigenous music
march The Stars and Stripes A house of dreams untold, and instruments of the New World.
Forever premieres. it looks out over the As American tastes evolved, a
whispering treetops, and new group of composers emerged—
faces the setting sun. now known as the Second New
Edward MacDowell England School. The strongest
influence for these composers was
the German Romantic tradition,
and a number of them studied in
Europe. The best remembered of
this group is Edward MacDowell.
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