Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall [Hardcover]

Joseph Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2005

In this chronicle of the tensions and contradictions of a musical high culture, Joseph Horowitz argues that classical music in the United States is peculiarly performance-driven. He traces a musical trajectory peaking at the close of the nineteenth century and receding after the First World War. He defines the decades of ascendancy as the quest for an American compositional voice, painting vivid vignettes of America's most celebrated performers and groundbreaking institutions. He explores a century of decline characterised by illustrious orchestras, conductors and virtuosos, and he exposes a crisis of leadership and suggests new musical directions in the post-modern age. Horowitz fashions a sweeping narrative-packed with personality and incident, textured by literature, sociology and intellectual history-that freshly illuminates the American experience.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Horowitz (Understanding Toscanini) surveys the course of classical music in America, discussing composers, performers, conductors, managers, entrepreneurs, critics and orchestras in a wide-ranging and provocative volume. The book's first half charts the vibrant years from the late 19th century to WWI, when major orchestras, including the Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic, were created, composers such as George Chadwick and Amy Beach were met with wide acclaim, and the visionary conductor Theodore Thomas was thrilling Gilded Age audiences. He makes a more contentious assessment of the period following WWI - a time of decline, in his view, as conductors and performers ignored new music and concentrated on works from the European past. Horowitz singles out Arturo Toscanini, who rarely conducted anything other than "canonized masterworks"; David Sarnoff, who created the NBC Symphony as a vehicle for Toscanini; and Arthur Judson, the powerful manager who promoted the familiar, conservative repertoire. Recycling the tried and true was a sure bet, and Horowitz blames this safer marketing strategy for our contemporary quandary: most composers of classical music find American audiences have little interest in what they have to offer. Horowitz doesn't deliver a solution to the problem, though, and his critical tone detracts from what is otherwise a valuable contribution to the history of classical music in this country. Illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this large history, Horowitz traces developments through two centuries. Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to World War I, wealthy sponsors nurtured symphony orchestras in Boston and New York; orchestra members and conductors were mostly European. Opera, though centered in Boston and New York, included companies that traveled throughout the country; and New England and New York supported several composers whose music was played by their orchestras. The peak of classical performance occurred just before WWI. Thereafter, performance in America declined. American singers and performers grew in prominence in the 1930s, however, when their European counterparts were unable to cross the pond, and after 1950 American conductors, performers, and composers came into their own. But opera companies and orchestras declined as radio, television, and recordings replaced live concerts. Opera companies and orchestras reactively pursued marketing instead of music. Horowitz sees twenty-first-century growth in chamber groups pursuing contemporary music by Americans. Full of sketches of significant people and organizations plus critical commentary, this excellent, readable, concise history would grace any collection. Alan Hirsch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 606 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393057178
• ISBN-13: 978-0393057171
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #974,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank Goodness for Criticism!, June 27, 2005

By 

Michael Beckerman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall (Hardcover)

For years we have been sustained by a notion that we could, if we worked hard enough, use documents of all kinds (musical scores, diaries, images, letters, etc.) to figure out something like "what really happened" in the past. Alas, the past is a much vaster ocean than we imagine. The refreshing thing about Horowitz's brilliant Classical Music in America, is that he's not about writing a chronicle, he's about telling a particular story. In the end, it's not whether you agree or disagree that there was something like a Golden Age in the United States around the turn of the century followed by a gradual but inevitable slide, but that the reader is bathed in the very richness of the tale and the telling. Through his passion, his gifts as a writer and thinker, and actually through the very idiosyncratic thinking that can annoy, cajole, and prod, he compels attention, and stimulates deep thought about the past and the present.

Horowitz has been one of our leading cultural critics for decades, and this is a book that should be on every music lover's bookshelf.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, comprehensive history of American musical scene, June 13, 2006

By 

klavierspiel "klavierspiel" (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall (Hardcover)

Horowitz's panoramic history traces the development of American classical music institutions, performers, and composers from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Emerging from such low-brow entertainments as "monster concerts" with multitudes of choral and orchestral performers, so numerous that they could hardly hear each other, the American musical scene came to maturity both in Boston and New York, two locales around which much of the author's chronicle centers. Horowitz's chronicle charts in detail the history of many performing institutions in both these cities, the men who ran them, and those who kept a watchful eye on their doings: the music critics. Orchestras, opera companies and solo performers parade past in dizzying array, kept from totally overwhelming the reader by Horowitz's firm organization, both by chronology and by topic area.

It is the attempt to establish a distinctive and indigenous school of musical composition that most interests Horowitz, and here his discussion is at its most valuable. He gives due weight to names that are now fashionable once again, such as Amy Beach, but also speaks up for some that are still neglected, notably George Whitfield Chadwick in Boston. The distinctive musical cultures that arose in the two cities are painted with a sure hand, resulting in many fascinating revelations: Edward MacDowell's chilly relations with many of Boston's pre-eminent composers, for example, came as a surprise to me. Alas, according to the author, though America has produced many major composers in the twentieth century, a truly distinctive and thriving culture of original composition has never succeeded in establishing itself. Horowitz blames this failure on the cultivation of what amounts to performer worship and the endless recycling of a canon of old masterpieces that took hold after World War I. His conclusions may be arguable, but his observations are unfailingly lucid and engaging. This is a book that will sit by Richard Crawford's recent book on American music, and books on American opera and singing by John Dizikes and Peter G. Davis, on my shelf of frequently consulted sources.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb -- and Disturbing, April 18, 2005

By 

Martin B. Haub "mbhaub2" (Gilbert, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall (Hardcover)

For the classical enthusiast, this is a must read. It puts into great perspective the problems currently facing us -- and frankly leaves me despondent about the future of live, symphonic music. Everyone involved gets blamed: conductors, soloists, union members, orchestra managers, audiences, composers, music schools...

The book is nicely divided into historical periods, and all the big (and not so big) names are here. Horowitz obviously knows his subject, writes about it passionately and communicates to the reader well. He also likes obscure words: more than once I had to grab a dictionary.

There's a nice Naxos web page that offers up substantial samples of much of the music mentioned in the book.

My only complaint is that I wish he had added a last chapter: What We Need to Do! There are plenty of people who need to read this book, but I fear that it's length will prevent wide readership.