Music of the Gilded Age

(Hardback)

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Description

America's Gilded Age was a time of great musical evolution. As the country continued to develop a musical style apart from Europe, its church and religious music and opera took on new forms. Music-as-entertainment also evolved, with marching bands at public events and the new musicals in theaters. This volume presents the composers, musicians, songwriters, instruments and musical forms that uniquely identify the Gilded Age. Chapters include: Concerts and Symphony orchestras; Grand Opera; Composers, Critics, and Conservatories; Amateurs and Music at Home; Sacred Music, Black and White; Ragtime, Vaudeville, and the American Musical Stage; Music, Politics, and the Progressive Movement; and Music Industries and Technology

Reviews

Both respected musicologists, Ogasapian and Orr took up a daunting challenge because they had to run the gamut from art music (and its various supporting institutions) to various types of popular theater and popular music (and their venues) and at the same time show how this huge and diverse body of music both reflected and influenced society. Organized by genre, this compendium draws on a vast amount of information, taken from approximately 175 writings on American music. The authors stress basic social themes of the period: industrialization, acquisition of wealth, population growth, immigration, territorial expansion, communication, race, and religion. No single piece of music is discussed in any detail and even major composers are not treated in depth. The reader will come away from this book with an appreciation of both the quantity and diversity of music that kept pace with the growth of a nation from relative insularity to a world power. Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers. * Choice *
For general readers, Ogasapian and Orr provide a history of music during the Gilded Age in the US, organized by genre and including both classical and popular music, with chapters on orchestras and concert music, opera, church music, and popular songs, as well as information on important critics, composers, and conservatories, and amateurs and entrepreneurs. Music is described in terms of its basic elements and social, economic, political, technological, and religious influences. * Reference & Research Book News *

Author Bio

John Ogasapian was a Professor of Music History at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and author of Music of the Colonial and Revolutionary Era (Greenwood, 2004). N. Lee Orr is Coordinator of Music History and Literature at Georgia State University.