Music Musique: French and American Piano Composition in the Jazz Age

180 Pages·2006·0.77 MB·English

by  Barbara Meister

MUSIC HISTORY MusIc
Meister
JAZZ
Music Musique is a study of American and French
composers active in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, and the infl uence of jazz on
their compositional styles. Starting with a look at
the formation of American and French styles of
M composition, Meister discusses the jazz infl uence
A Musique
on American composers such as Ives, Copland,
n engaging look at the fertile mixing of
u and Seeger, and their reception in France. She
then takes a parallel look at the jazz infl uence
national styles that created a new music
s
on such prominent French composers as Ravel,
in the years before World War II I Milhaud, and Messiaen. A conclusion briefl y
c
outlines post–World War II musical developments.

M
Considerable attention is paid to the social and
BARBARA MEISTER is author of Nineteenth-
Century French Song (Indiana University Press, u political worlds in which these artists lived and
created. Of particular interest is the community
1998). She is active as an accompanist, chamber s
of Afro-American jazz musicians who settled in
musician, solo pianist, and lecturer on art songs. i
q Paris after World War I, and their infl uence on the
Her most recent CD for Centaur is entitled
u likes of Ravel, Milhaud, Satie, and various artists
Twentieth-Century American Music. French and
e with New Orleans–based styles. Meister also
discusses the more famous coteries of American
American writers who lived and worked in Paris during the
1920s and ‘30s. The stories of these two groups of
Americans in Paris form a fascinating background
Piano
to the main topic of the book.
Composition Music Musique is intended for amateurs and
experts alike; it provides ideas about repertoire as
well as information about compositions that are
in the likely to be heard in performance.
Jazz Age
INDIANA
ISBN-13: 978-0-253-34608-7
University Press ISBN-10: 0-253-34608-8 Jacket illustration: The Piano Lesson, Henri Matisse
(1916, oil on canvas). © 2006 Succession H. Matisse,
Bloomington & Indianapolis
Paris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Barbara Meister
http://iupress.indiana.edu INDIANA Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art /Licensed
1-800-842-6796 by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.
Music Musique

Music Musique
French & American Piano Composition
in the Jazz Age
Barbara Meister
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http:/ /iupress.indiana.edu
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Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
© 2006 by Barbara Meister
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution
on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meister, Barbara, date
Music musique : French and American piano composition in the jazz age /
Barbara Meister.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-253-34608-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Jazz—History and criticism. 2. Music—France—20th century—History and criticism.
3. Music—United States—20th century—History and criticism. 4. Piano music—History and
criticism. I. Title.
ML197.M244 2006
781.6'8165—dc22
2006004443
1 2 3 4 5 11 10 09 08 07 06
To the memory of my parents

Just as my fi ngers on these keys
Make music, so these self-same sounds
On my spirit make a music too.
Wallace Stevens, “Peter Quince at the Clavier”
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
Duke Ellington

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
1. Introduction 1
2. The Formation of a French Style of Composition 4
3. The Formation of an American Style of Composition 20
4. A Brief History of Jazz in America 34
5. American Composers in the 1920s, Part I 43
6. American Composers in the 1920s, Part II 58
7. The Harlem Renaissance 71
8. America in the 1930s 80
9. Paris in the 1920s, Part I 91
10. Paris in the 1920s, Part II 106
11. Edgar Varèse and Igor Stravinsky 121
12. Paris in the 1930s 131
13. Epilogue-Envoi 140
Notes 143
Bibliography 151
Index 155