Living Genres in Late Modernity: American Music of the Long 1970s

352 Pages·2022·4.686 MB·English

by  Charles Kronengold

Living Genres in Late Modernity
The publisher and the University of California Press
Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support
of the Roth Family Foundation Imprint in Music,
established by a major gift from Sukey and Gil Garcetti
and Michael P. Roth.
Living Genres in Late Modernity
American Music of the Long 1970s
Charles Kronengold
University of California Press
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2022 by Charles Kronengold
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Kronengold, Charles (Charles Stewart), author.
Title: Living genres in late modernity : American music of the long 1970s /
Charles Kronengold.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2022005490 (print) | lccn 2022005491 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520388765 (cloth) | isbn 9780520388772 (paperback) |
isbn 9780520388796 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Popular music—United States—1971–1980—History and
criticism. | Popular music—United States—1961–1970—History and
criticism. | Popular music—Social aspects—United States—History—
20th century. | Popular music genres. | BISAC: MUSIC / History &
Criticism | MUSIC / Philosophy & Social Aspects
Classification: lcc ml3477 .k66 2022 (print) | lcc ml3477 (ebook) |
ddc 781.640973—dc23/eng/20220304
LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2022005490
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2022005491
Manufactured in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Musical Examples vii
Note on Musical Examples ix
Introduction: Listening for Genres 1
1 Unengaging Histories: The Pop Song’s “More”
•
and Melancholy Democracy, 1968–69 43
2 Space Issues: The Seventies- Soul Complex 89
•
3 Exchange Theories: Disco, New Wave,
•
and Album- Oriented Rock 138
4 Senses: Nocturnes among the Smaller Genres 171
•
5 Forces: The Late- Modern Concerto 200
•
Afterword 249
Acknowledgments 257
Notes 259
Index 325

Musical Examples
Ex 1.1. The piano’s right hand signifies pop at the beginning of Esthero’s
2005 “Everyday Is a Holiday (With You).” 44
Ex 2.1. Anthony Jackson’s famously funky bass line, which opens
the O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money.” 131
Ex 4.1. Elliott Carter’s 1978 Glock Birthday Fanfare presents fragments
from “Happy Birthday.” 177
Ex 4.2. “Happy Birthday,” transposed to correspond to the opening
of Glock Birthday Fanfare. 177
Ex 4.3. The opening of John Cage’s Nocturne for Violin and Piano raises
the question: What kind of piece is this? 181
Ex 4.4. The opening of Copland’s Midsummer Nocturne; the title
reflects—or helps produce—the late- modern nocturne’s
characteristics. 189
Ex 4.5. The opening of Ulysses Kay’s First Nocturne for piano. 190
Ex 4.6. The nocturne’s conventions saturate the score and paratexts
of George Crumb’s Music for a Summer Evening
(Makrokosmos III). 193
Ex 4.7. Four minutes into Earl Kim’s Earthlight the soprano speaks this
line as her spotlight dims and the piano’s chord decays. 197
Ex 4.8. In the final section of Earthlight the texture reduces to
b
a little canon on B , D, and E between soprano- plus- violin
and piano. 198
Ex 5.1. Morton Feldman’s 1975 Piano and Orchestra, mm. 1–5. 213
vii
Ex 5.2. At the end of Morton Feldman’s Flute and Orchestra (1978),
the soloist, an English horn, and a solo cello combine to slowly
present a complete chromatic scale. 224
Ex 5.3. The opening measures of Olly Wilson’s Akwan for piano
(doubling electric piano), amplified strings, and orchestra
(1972). 232
viii • Musical Examples
Note on Musical Examples
In addition to the brief score examples that appear in this book, some score
examples are available on the University of California Press book page,
https://www.ucpress.edu/books. These examples are called out in the text
using the icon G. The website also has links to playlists. These playlists in-
clude most of the main audio examples discussed in the text; these too are
called out, using the icon . When the text focuses on a moment in the
middle of an audio example, the callout includes a time- point. In the spirit
of this book, there are additional playlists of “bonus tracks” for each chapter;
these contain representative works mentioned in the text or notes. These are
not called out in the text and need not be listened to in any particular order;
their aim is to deepen your engagement with the genres, people, and works
discussed in the chapters.
ix