The story of American musical composition, this work delineates the heritage, actuality and potential of music. In 20 chapters, it shows the necessity of dealing with such unrelated artists as Milton Babbitt and Laurie Anderson, John Cage and Neil Young, Elliott Carter and David Byrne, and Philip Glass and Ornette Coleman.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Open-minded but over-critical,
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This review is from: All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century (Paperback)
This book receives kudos for the broad range of genres covered, and the open mind that indicates. It also deserves kudos for its actually critical attitude. However, that critical attitude is the main drawback of the book. Nearly every artist presented is set up only to be knocked down. Ernst Krenek goes first and gets the worst treatment, and everyone till at least Ornette Coleman is dismissed by the end of their respective chapters. The goal is to criticize the American music scene through examining individual partcipants, but this seems both inaccurate and unfair and is depressing through its unending negativity.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Captures the time very well,
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This review is from: All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century (Paperback)
The original Knitting Factory, ABC No Rio, White Columns; the early 80's were a time when many experimental "classical" musicians seemed to say the heck with Julliard and the academy and cast their lot with jazz - yet to be Wynton-ized and smoothed to suffocation and still wandering in that DMZ between post-funk and ECM Lexicon modal bliss - and rock - battling its own rear guard action from English synth-pop that for awhile threatened to render the electric guitar (and acoustic piano) obsolete. Eno, Bowie and Byrne got much recognition as popularizers, but there were many others doing more daring, if less-accessible, work. Taken as a whole, this book paints a broad portrait of those in and out of various establishments - commercial and academic, and tries to find common ground in their expression of American music.And yeah, it's fun to recall how Laurie Anderson was more famous for her hair back then for her performances. Full disclosure: I participated in the concert of Terry Riley's "In C" at White Columns for a group of around 20 electric guitars, mentioned in one of the book's chapters.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent book,
This review is from: All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century (Paperback)
This is a brilliantly written book.None of the simplistic oppositions for Rockwell:this is a guy who can find virtues in both Phil Glass (minimalism) and Milton Babbitt(hyper intellectual) but can take gentle side swipes at them as well.
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