In the opening class of the semester, Dr. Brunner made a very interesting observation about the nature of American Innovators. He pointed out that while most people equate American composers with being a resident of the United States, there remains a significant problem with such an approach. Left out by this methodology are a significant number of composers who are also Americans, yet do not live in e USA. This raises a question that needs to be properly addressed by musicologists and musicians alike: is the term American an ineffective designation since it is not a nationality but merely a vague geographical designation?
A simple glance at a globe or any world atlas would reveal that there are two continents that make up the hemisphere we currently reside in. Both of these large masses of land bear the geographical labels of North and South America. When a person wishes to invite someone to their house, they don't give vague generalizations such as "remain in America for the duration of the trip." Obviously, if someone were traveling from Cleveland to Cincinnati or from Baltimore to Annapolis, a statement such as this would be ludicrous, since they not only stay within the same country (USA), they don't even leave the state in order to go from the point of origination to the place of arrival.
This sounds completely absurd, but musicologists, musicians -namely anyone involved in the world of music- are willing to let such a nebulous term as "American" remain in common usage and act as if it is clear what is being referred to.
Nobody would refer to the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi as simply European. Obviously, it would be a highly convenient method of labeling all of these composers in the same group, but aside from this, it has little practical value. Beethoven, while obviously a European, will always remain in association with the Austro-Germanic tradition. Tchaikovsky, a native of the eastern most country on the European continent, will be remembered for his lyrical compositions that borrowed from the Russian folk song tradition. Verdi, also a resident of the European continent, will be remembered with his nationalistic operas calling for Italian independence from foreign control.
So why then, is this label "American" used? Even if more precise terminology were to be used in order to accurately designate what country these "American" composers are from, the term American unfortunately, has been in use for so long that despite the necessity of such a change, any attempt to make one would most likely prove to be fruitless. While a more accurate means of designating the geographical location with which any given composer in this hemisphere spent their career would be immensely helpful in associating them with schools of composition as well as stylistic traits indigenous to that particular region, improper terminology has been in use for such a long time, that to go back and change now would completely cloud the issue. The lesson, then gained from such a serious nomenclature mistake is twofold. One, it forces us to be specific about "where" a given "American" composer is from, and finally, it shows the importance of properly designating something within the field of musicology before the mistake becomes insuperable.
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I agree Evan. This might shine some light on the subject. I read your post and decided to look up the true definition of an "American" and "inovator" in the dictionary.
ReplyDeleteAmerican- Of or relating to the United States of America or its people, language, or culture.
To be an American Inovator one does not have to be born, or even lived in America.
The term Inovator means- To begin or introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time.
If you put the two definitions together, it would create the term which is the definition of our class.
American Inovator- To introduce something new in relation to the United States of America or its people, language, or culture.
I do not believe the term "America" is as vague as some may think.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the term "America" to refer to the US is commonplace, as cited above by Eric. The definition I looked up first gave the general use of the word as a designation of North and South America, but then added that it is commonly used to denote the US. While it is true that the entire western hemisphere is collectively referred to as the Americas, the USA is the only country this side of the puddle with the word "America" in its name. It's much easier to shorten the name to "America" than to say the full name.
When someone refers to American music, then, it is not surprising to assume they mean music of the United States (of America). If Canada were called the Canadian Provinces of America, then there might be cause for confusion.
This in no way belittles the contributions of other countries sharing the same hemisphere, nor does it rob them of being American. They are American in a different, broader sense than the US is American. Denizens of the US typically think of themselves as Americans. But I'd be interested to hear from our international contributors about this. Do people from Brazil self-identify chiefly as Americans or as Brazilians?
I, as a US citizen think of myself as "American" because that is the only word I have to go by. “United Statesian”? Does the term "American movies" typically refer to anything other than Hollywood? Does "American fast food" typically mean anything other than McDonald's (and the like)? Does the term "American President" typically refer to any president in North or South America.
Labeling Beethoven, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky all as European is not a negative thing. True they all have different pieces of the puzzle to contribute. But calling them European does not imply that they were all the same, only that there are traceable similarities among them that the listener can link together—certainly they have more in common with each other than with, say, Central African drumming. One calls Verdi “Italian” when one wishes to highlight his differences from those around him; one calls him European when one wishs to highlight his homogeneity with those around him. If one intends to avoid more general geographical designations, then the term “Russian” is perhaps too broad. After all, Russia is a big place, and it produced both Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, who, in my opinion, do not sound very similar.
I am by no means supporting a view that excludes the rest of the Americas. Goodness, no! But I trust that we need not give too much weight to semantics, and simply acknowledge that "American" is a common (and really the only) term for inhabitants of the US. But by all means, I would welcome a discussion that includes all of the Americas, should we so desire.
For me, “American Innovators” is a funny title for this class. I think of the title as trying to put a sticky note on a plate of uncongealed Jello. Innovators usually innovate because that’s how they express themselves no matter where they live.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to share something with the class (as well as shamelessly promote my recital that is on 1/21/09 at 7:30pm in the recital hall) that I have been dealing with for the last few months. Recently, I contacted the composer, JacobTV (aka - Jacob Ter Veldhuis) to play a percussion arrangement of a piece that was originally for tape and saxophone he had written a few years ago. The piece entitled, “Grab It!” uses tape accompaniment, which is by no means progressive, where all the sounds on the tape are spliced from aggressive conversations of life-sentence prisoners in the MTV special “Scared Straight.” The special took a group of at-risk teenagers to a maximum security prison where the prisoners were allowed to verbally harass the teenagers, thus trying to show the teenagers how horrible prison life is and that they should change their life paths so as to keep them from ending up in prison. All this is well and good, and it’s a great piece, but does it do anything that hasn’t been done before? Probably not on all accounts, so why do I bring this up? The composer thinks of himself as a “Dutch avant pop composer.” My question is, what exactly makes him Dutch? …or avant? …or pop? He is Dutch, and has been awarded the Dutch Composition Prize in 1980, so does that make his compositions innately Dutch? If he’s using audio from a show that was taped in America, does that make this composition American? Does that make him an American innovator? And pop…what makes it popular? Is it because he’s sold X amount of copies or because he’s internationally known? I don’t believe so, personally I think he’s given himself these labels (or maybe has taken them from a review written about him) and has applied them to himself to give people who are not familiar with his work a sense of understanding of what the pieces are about before they have even listened (could this be a clever marketing move?!?!). Whether he strongly believes these labels to be true or not is a question I should ask him, but the point of this little aside is that I don’t think anything about an innovators nationality is important (or even relevant). Especially now, in a time where anything and everything is far game for the recital hall, concert hall, outdoor park, or even apartment basement, the idea of nationality is almost irrelevant. Since we are trying to focus our attention on composers who started an American trend, what makes them American? Is it their lack of European compositional techniques, or anything other nationalistic or period base techniques? Is the idea of being American, to not belong to any other country’s stereotypes?
And since we’re starting with Ives, I think it’s appropriate to mention that although he is thought to be an American composer, was anything about what he did American? I believe that he used tunes that are indigenous to America itself, but I don’t feel like Ives was ever really celebrating America. It is my belief that we should call him just an innovator, or maybe we should change the name of the class to “Musical Innovators that have impacted America.” But even that is misleading because we are usually referring to North America (excluding Canada and Mexico, …of course?), and we are talking about people who were born here or at least spent most of their life here. It is not my intention to try and rename this class, but rather to try and create a freedom to our discussions. So maybe talks of things like jazz should be mentioned, even if Gann doesn’t. I don’t think we should limit ourselves with what we discuss as long as it is interesting and fruitful with an emphasis towards composers that affected the musical ideals we carry with us to this day in modern day America.
There are a ton of questions in this post with very few answers, but hopefully they will give everyone ideas and topics to discuss.