Classical music in Europe was representative of the tastes of the sophisticated urban aristocracy and the growing educated middle class. Unlike the examples visited in the earlier modules, this music was not meant to be danced to, instead it was meant to be purely a listening experience, one that demanded familiarity not just with the stylistic traits in vogue, but with some historical tradition as well.

It still remains today mostly an experience for the educated listener. The famous phrase “music is a universal language” is not only false when applied across cultural boundaries separating countries and civilizations, but it is also not true when applied across class boundaries within the same country and/or civilization. Typically, jazz musicians don’t truly understand classical music and classical musicians don’t truly understand jazz.

In fact, classical music is most authentically a European tradition. This tradition includes the many differences in styles between European countries and even between its cities. Similarly, many examples of classical music by composers from parts of the world other than Europe also have a distinct quality, one that points to its non-European origin. American classical music is no exception.

The music of the best American classical composers is now routinely performed in concert theaters across the globe, including Europe. Yet, it would be a stretch to think of this music as being indistinct from the music of European composers.

To understand American classical music, we must understand America not as a “transplanted Europe” but as a new civilization, one that has strong European cultural elements, but that is also fundamentally shaped by among other things:

- The different physical reality and extent of its natural landscape.
- The lesser density of the population in general.
- The greater cultural homogeneity of the population of European descent.
- The enormous distances between cultural centers.
- The lack of an extended privileged class with enough history to be the supporters of a “real” market for indigenous classical music.

Even though American composers were consistently exposed to European music through numerous local concerts featuring European classical music, in their own compositions they still retained a quality that was distinctively non-European.

The different social, geographical and cultural realities the Americas had to offer gave composers of this venerable musical tradition a distinct character.

The contact with Native American cultures and especially with the cultures of peoples of African descent would not only capture their imagination but also give them an element of originality that would eventually ensure them an entrance into the highly coveted musical centers of Europe. Also it tied in neatly with a new and expanding musical nationalism in Europe, which started around the 1860’s.

Most of the best known composers in the Americas, such as Carlos Guastavino, Alberto Ginastera from Argentina; George Gershwin, Charles Ives, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, from the US; Carlos Chávez, Silvestre Revueltas, from Mexico; Heitor Villa-Lôbos, Carlos Gomes, from Brazil; Gonzalo Roig from Cuba; and others, included in their compositions elements of their own national musical styles, which were rooted in their local popular music, and which were themselves derived from either native or Afro-American influences.

It must be stated too that in many cases it was Europe who first accepted these American composers, since their own countrymen tended to prefer Italian arias or German symphonies.

Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Assignment 3