The annals of the Harlem Renaissance include heated debate over the practice of turning African-American spirituals into concert songs. Zora Neale Hurston Hurston heard concert spirituals “squeezing all of the rich black juice out of the songs,” a “flight from blackness,” a “musical octoroon.” She listed Harry Burleigh among the offenders. But without Burleigh … [Read more...] about Harry Burleigh and Cultural Appropriation – Take Two
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“Heedlessly Controversial” — Remembering Oscar Levant
Reviewing Sony Classical’s invaluable new Oscar Levant tribute in the current “Los Angeles Review of Books,” I write: “That Levant was what he seemed was doubtless a key to his appeal. His authenticity has never appeared more exceptional: no present-day mainstream media personality – not even our President -- is as heedlessly controversial as was Levant every time he opened his … [Read more...] about “Heedlessly Controversial” — Remembering Oscar Levant
A Vital New Book about Music and Race
Dale Cockrell's "Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in in New York 1840-1917" is a book that will bring to wider attention the scholarship of one of America's most original music historians -- someone whose work fearlessly challenges conventional wisdom. It was my pleasure to review this new Norton release in this weekend's "Wall Street Journal": On his first trip … [Read more...] about A Vital New Book about Music and Race
Re-Thinking Aaron Copland
How did Aaron Copland’s film music attempt to counteract the Hollywood influence of Erich Korngold? To what degree did he draw inspiration from the master Mexican populist Silvestre Revueltas? How did the Red Scare change Copland’s style in the 1950s? These were some of the questions tackled by “Copland’s America,” this summer’s festival-within-a-festival at North … [Read more...] about Re-Thinking Aaron Copland
Ferruccio Busoni: “A Fresh Gust of Air”
Preparing an August 15 Busoni/Schoenberg/Kandinsky program for The Phillips Collection in DC, I discovered myself newly entranced by one of the most magical figures in the history of Western music. Around the same time, Kirill Gerstein's revelatory new CD of the Busoni Piano Concerto turned up -- and I felt impelled to take stock. I wound up writing 4,500 words: On the … [Read more...] about Ferruccio Busoni: “A Fresh Gust of Air”