The American School of Music
I read an interesting article recently from 1941 that asked the question, when will there be an American School of Music? From history, we know that there are what is referred to as “Schools” in certain countries, to refer to important and significant composers of that time and place. Most famously, The First Viennese School developed around the 18th century, the classical era in Vienna with composers like; Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, and some would throw Schubert into the mix. There is also The Second Viennese School in Vienna in the 20th century; Schoenberg, Webern, Berg. There’s The New German School with Liszt, Wagner, and Brahms. For French, I have no idea, it would probably include Debussy and Poulenc maybe even Berlioz. So, why has there never been an American School of Music? Better yet, why is it called the (insert country here) School when talking about composers of that time? They are significant composers, but who decided they were apart of that “school” leaving out many other composers that I would consider great as well.
This article was written in 1941 by The London Times.
This critic didn’t have answers to his questions, but he brings up the idea that nationalism was attached to the “schools” of composers. The most interesting part of this article is when this person talks about national revivals in Russia, among others, and how German-Italian music were staples in European culture for two centuries, being imported materials. Then suddenly because the borrowing of material had gone on so long that there was a national school of composers developed. American has done this since it was founded…we’ve not only borrowed we have morphed our music because of the mass immigration and origins of other genres. Is that why we can’t have one specific “School?” We are too much of a melting pot of cultures? European musical culture was most certainly classical, whereas American music is a plethora of many other genres. The music critic above seems to feel that Samuel Barber is a good representation, although it’s not shrouded in nationalistic idioms.
Even though this is not exactly the whole point of this article, I would argue that Samuel Barber composed pieces of music that could be considered nationalistic. In his Knoxville Summer of 1915 for Soprano and Piano, Op. 24, many believe this to be a good representation of what our nation might “sound” like as he describes the scene in the beginning as a quiet evening in Tennessee for the first 3 minutes.
His next movement is almost representative of Jazz music, which could be considered “nationalistic” because it became a fully developed genre in America…but technically a borrowed genre from the African American cultures, so maybe it’s not for some. This clip starts at 3:24.
I don’t have many answers either. I wish I had a definitive definition or opinion on the matter, but because there are so many composers and genres and cultures apart of what I would consider “American” music it’s not so easily “Schooled” or defined. Perhaps that's the beauty of the whole thing!
TTFN!
