Dvořák's prophecy : and the vexed fate of Black classical music / Joseph Horowitz ; [foreword by George Shirley].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horowitz, Joseph, 1948- author.

Contributor:

Shirley, George, writer of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music--United States--History and criticism.

Music.

Music and race.

United States.

African Americans--Music--History and criticism.

African Americans.

African Americans--Music.

Music--United States--African American influences.

Music and race--United States.

Dvořák, Antonín, 1841-1904.

Dvořák, Antonín.

Music--African American influences.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 229 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2022]

Summary:

"A provocative interpretation of why classical music in America "stayed white"-how it got to be that way and what can be done about it. In 1893 the composer Antonin Dvorák prophesied a "great and noble" school of American classical music based on the searing "negro melodies" he had excitedly discovered since arriving in the United States a year before. But while Black music would found popular genres known the world over, it never gained a foothold in the concert hall. Joseph Horowitz ranges throughout American cultural history, from Frederick Douglass and Huckleberry Finn to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and the work of Ralph Ellison, searching for explanations. Challenging the standard narrative for American classical music fashioned by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, he looks back to literary figures-Emerson, Melville, and Twain-to ponder how American music can connect with a "usable past." The result is a "new paradigm" that makes room for Black composers including Harry Burleigh, Nathaniel Dett, William Dawson, and Florence Price to redefine the classical canon"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Foreword / by George Shirley

Preamble. Using the past

Dvořak, American music, and race

In defense of nostalgia

Nostalgic subversions

Oedipal revolt

The bifurcation of American music

Classical music Black and "Red"

Using history: a personal quest

Summing up.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [205]-214) and index.

ISBN:

9780393881240

0393881245

OCLC:

1253438121