Research Catalog

Title

Composer's voices from Ives to Ellington : an oral history of American music / Vivian Perlis and Libby Van Cleve.

Author

Perlis, Vivian

Publication

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Van Cleve, Libby

Description

xxv, 477 p. : ill., music; 27 cm. +

Summary

The first decades of the twentieth century were a fertile and fascinating period in American musical history. This book and the two CDs that accompany it present an exceptional collection of interviews with and about the most significant musical figures of the era. Tapping the unparalleled materials contained in the Oral History American Music archive at Yale University, Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington is a unique account of what it was like for musicians and composers to live and work in those years. It is also the story of the making of the archive, as told by Vivian Perlis, who personally conducted many of the interviews. Music aficionados can now hear Eubie Blake describe the birth of ragtime or listen to a firsthand account of how Ira Gershwin came to write those famous lines in "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." In-depth interviews with such figures as Henry Cowell, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Duke Ellington are included in the book, which also features chapter introductions and fascinating sidebars, illustrations, and anecdotes throughout. Two CDs complete the set, enabling today's listener to enjoy the remarkablen experience of hearing the actual voices and the music of American composers of the early twentieth century [Publisher description]

Series Statement

An oral history of American music

Uniform Title

Oral history of American music

Subjects

• 1900-1999
• Geschichte 1900-2000
• Goria, A
• Interviews
• Compact discs
• Jazz musicians > United States > 20th century > Interviews
• Composers > United States > 20th century > Interviews

Genre/Form

• Compact discs.
• Interviews
• Interviews.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [431]-443) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introducing the century : 1 January 1900. Charles Ives -- On ragtime and Eubie Blake -- From the early modernists. Leo Ornstein ; Edgard Varèse ; Carl Ruggles ; Dane Rudhyar ; Charles Seeger ; Henry Cowell -- On the jazz age and George Gershwin -- With a French accent: Nadia Boulanger -- From the Boulangerie. Virgil Thomson ; Aaron Copland ; Roy Harris -- Exploring the world of Duke Ellington.

ISBN

0300106734 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2005000361

OCLC

• 57391257
• SCSB-10613816

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library