American Pioneers

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Ives to Cage and Beyond

A survey of the American composers who invented new musical languages.

Alan Rich

Editions:

Price: USD$14.95

150 points

Specifications

Paperback
English
220 x 156 mm, 8 5/8 x 6 1/8 in
240 pp
80 black and white illustrations
ISBN-13: 9780714847696
ISBN-10: 0714847690

Overview

The first survey of the American composers who invented new musical languages from the turn of the twentieth century
Includes the early pioneering flair of Charles Ives and, later, Henry Cowell and John Cage
Examines the work of Carl Ruggles, Edgard Varese, Harry Partch, Colin McPhee and Lou Harrison

In The Press

'Smoothly executed. The chapter on Cage may well be the best introduction to his thought and work in English.' (Gramophone)

'... has a subtle but insistently inquiring approach to biography and details of artistic development. Alan Rich sets out the facts on early-20^th-century music with clarity as well as providing a succinct summary of the background of the rise of concert music in the cultured urban classes if the west coast in the 19^th century.' (Musical Times)

'As a series, Phaidon's 20th Century Composers has brought remarkable variety and a welter of information, both necessary and delightfully trivial. Intended both for the general reader and for the more enthusiatically musical...' (The Scotsman)

About the author(s)

Alan Rich has been a professional music critic on both the east and west coasts of the USA since 1953, with a particular passion for contemporary music. He is currently music critic for LA Weekly, the author of several books and series of interactive music programmes for computers. His most recent book, So I've Heard: Notes of a Migratory Music Critic, was published in 2006 and comprised a collection of reviews, essays and other work ranging from 1964 to the present day.