Leonard Bernstein and the language of jazz / Katherine Baber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baber, Katherine A., 1981- author.

Series:

Music in American life.

Illinois scholarship online.

Music in American life

Illinois scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music--20th century--History and criticism.

Music.

Jazz--History and criticism.

Jazz.

Bernstein, Leonard, 1918-1990--Criticism and interpretation.

Bernstein, Leonard.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 pages).

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2019.

Summary:

For Leonard Bernstein, music was a language capable of communicating more directly than in words, and jazz was a crucial part of his musical vocabulary. As an idiom made up of a range of styles - whether stride, boogie-woogie, swing, bebop, or cool - jazz was central to Bernstein's compositional aesthetic, particularly in his approach to tonality and to defining American music. The blues, as a special part of this jazz idiom, also helped Bernstein articulate a personal identity, expressing everything from sensuality to humor to loss and isolation. This text will examine the shifting meanings of Bernstein's jazz language in theatrical and symphonic works from across his career.

Contents:

Bernstein's philosophy and the language of jazz

Trading fours : Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin, and jazz

A jazz-shaped America : swing styles in Fancy Free and On the Town

Jazz as a rhetoric of conflict in Symphony no. 2 : The Age of Anxiety

West Side Story, modern jazz, and the musical commitment

"Red, white and blues" : Bernstein's blues and the American soul

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on August 6, 2019).

Also issued in print: 2019.

ISBN:

9780252051210

0252051211