Music of the USA

Over the course of history, musicologists refer to music as being of a specific school within a given nationality. These labels are intended to facilitate a variety of things 1.) identification of certain stylistic traits inherent in composers within that specific school, 2.) the ability to easily contextualize where specific composers fit within their microsociological and microhistorical context, and 3) a ready means of organizing specific eras and movements within the fulcrum of music history.

This method is highly effective when talking about countries within the European heritage. Germany has a distinct style of music as well as a distinct musical heritage. Within this heritage, there exist schools that have dominated musical thought for a time, only to be superseded by another school. Even though such distinctions occur within a certain musical heritage, it is obvious to any onlooker that these distinctions are only surface level, and that they at most serve as guideposts within the German musical heritage. For example, even though Bach's Birth is almost two centuries before the birth of Richard Strauss, any listener can listen to their music and even though there is a tremendous gap of time between the composers, know that they come from the same musical heritage.

This works well until a country such as the USA is introduced. What heritage does this country have? This is a question that plagued musicians for centuries. Some tried to emulate European composers in their music. Others looked to native American Indians for this country's musical heritage. Still others sought the negro spirituals as the starting point of a national musical heritage within the USA.

This article is not simply here to point out the exact date of which such a musical heritage began within the United States. Such a move would be ludicrous. Not even a country with as well established a musical tradition as Italy could point to a date of origin for its musical tradition.

The USA, because of its abundance of external influences from all the nations of the world, is a unique study. There have existed many different schools of thought within this country, but for many of them (throughout the history of the USA), the composers depended heavily upon European tutelage. This can be readily seen in the number of composers that crossed the Atlantic to study with the great composers in Europe.

With such a great deal of importance placed upon external sources then, a new and different approach to studying music of the USA needs to be adopted. Each source needs to be studied as its own school of thought within the USA. Hence, there was a German school of composition within the USA, a French school of composition, and an Italian school.

The question does arise: do such schools constitute merely an extension of their European counterparts? The answer is an overwhelming no. Such schools are merely catalysts, since once the composers has left Europe for the USA, even though he has studied music within a certain cultural context, he now has entered a different social context with different social norms. This would then result in a blend. While there are many traits extant that would be, for example, indicative of German music, it is not German, since the composers, place of composition, and indeed performance, occurred within the confines of a different country, the USA. The instrumentation, performance venues, and the musical background of the performers themselves would cause the result, both in composition and performance, to be significantly different than had the same piece been written in Germany. So even though such a piece bears resemblance to music of the Germanic tradition, it is just that, a resemblance.

To further complicate the issue, as pointed out in the textbook for this class, both world wars had different affects on the musical scene in the USA. The first World War gave the USA the status as the most powerful nation in the world. As pointed out by Gann, this resulted in the USA exerting its independence musically. However, the second World War had drastically different results. Even though the USA was again victorious in the conflict, because of the totalitarian regimes in Europe that suppressed artistic freedom, composers sought refuge in this country (such as Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Hindemith) in order to pursue artistic endeavors, hence, creating their own schools of composition.

It must me concluded that while the USA presents a special case for the musicologist, it is not an insuperable one. In fact, because of the unique nature of the music of the USA, one is able to look at a musical heritage that, while dependent on all of the peoples of the earth for inspiration, is as much an independent entity as any other musical heritage on the earth.