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Chapter 77: American Traditions: The Music of Charles Ives and William Grant Still

Study Plan

"Armies of men . . . have turned to a better life by first hearing the sounds of a Salvation Army band. The next time you hear a Salvation Army band, no matter how humble, take off your hat." —JOHN PHILIP SOUSA

Key Points

  • Music publications in early America were largely devotional; some were written in a shape-note system designed for easy reading.
  • The parlor and minstrel songs of nineteenth-century composer Stephen Foster were very popular during his lifetime and remain so today.
  • The great bandmaster and composer John Philip Sousa fostered the American wind band tradition, an outgrowth of the British military band.
  • Although Charles Ives was one of the most innovative and original composers of his time, his music was not recognized until very late in his life.
  • Ives drew on the music of his New England childhood—hymns, patriotic songs, brass band marches, and dance tunes—which he set in a very modern style, using polytonality and polyrhythms.
  • African-American composer William Grant Still broke numerous racial barriers, earning a number of firsts for blacks in classical music.
  • Still's Afro-American Symphony was the first work by an African-American to be performed by a major symphony orchestra.

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