What is progress in terms of music? Progress like in anything is innovation, something new or something people have never seen or heard before. When it comes to music so many things have already been done and so many things have been recycled within new pieces of music. In the first half of the 20th century major progress was made in music, this progress was done by composers like George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky. The two composers although of diverse musical genres and particular time periods had a common theme, they both created music that pushed the boundaries for their respective styles. Gershwin with his early Jazz pieces and Stravinsky with his early neoclassicist work both created pieces that are still performed in the 2000’s. Although they both faced a different set of challenges, they did something similar, they aimed themselves toward progress. The progress that the two composers made can be heard through their profound ability’s to both borrow themes or styles from different genres and make a body of music original. The works of both Gershwin and Stravinsky particularly Rhapsody in Blue and Histoire de Soldat epitomize, in their respective time periods music at the cusp of musical progress.
Stravinsky was an accomplished composer of his time period, while many questioned him and his changes in style. But many of his changes, musically speaking, throughout his lifetime emulate or better yet display his progressive nature in music. Many critics of his era had criticized him for a surplus of variation in regards to style, notably Theodor Adorno in regards to his distaste for Stravinsky neoclassicist works.
“Stravinsky's place as a seminal figure in 20th‐cent. mus. and individually as a great composer seems assure...
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... Gershwin was helping bring Jazz to the forefronts of both popular culture and critical acclaim. Both made progress with their respective works in different ways, both extending their talents, they both brought music in the early 20th century to the next level by perpetuating their existing works into something new. Both Rhapsody In Blue and Histoire Du Soldat bear a symbol of progress in the 20th century.
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On September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York the legend was born. George Gershwin the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. George sparked his interest in music when his mom and dad bought a castoff piano for George’s older brother, Israel. At the age 15, Gershwin dropped out of school, and began playing in New York night clubs. He spent his day and nights playing pianos for demanding customers. After three-years of playing tunes for customers, he transformed into a highly skilled and amazing composer. To earn extra cash on the side, Gershwin worked as a rehearsal pianist for Broadway singers. Soon after that Gershwin published his first song “When You Want 'Me, You Can't Get 'Me, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em". At the time it was published, Gershwin was only 17 years of age, the song earned him $5. In 1917, Gershwin created a novelty rag, called “Rialto Ripples”, which was a commercial success. By 1919 he recorded and accomplished his first national hit song called “Swanee”. A famous Broadway singer, Al Jolson, heard Gershwin’s performance of “Swanee” at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows. That’s when George Gershwin’s career really took off. Between1920 to 1924, Gershwin put on a show for an annual production put on by George White. George White was a composer, musical dir...
...l development whether we want to believe it or not. From the beginning it has influenced music in different ways. It has pushed composers to produce certain types of music, censored secular and other types of music that it objected to, and inevitably has had an everlasting effect on what type of music we listen to today.
...e pervading racial stereotypes and promote racial and social integration. Porgy and Bess is one of the only pieces of its time that allowed African-American artists the opportunity to perform, creating that integration. Gershwin music is still played today by orchestras. As a member of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, I have played “Summertime” and “I Got Plenty of Nuttin.’” Although the music is played by my string instrument, I can still feel the jazz and the groove that Geshwin created. The music in it is really beautiful and has memorable melodies that people have held on to. Porgy and Bess is a wonderful American musical work that is significant and has launched the careers of many African American artists.
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In the passage by Igor Stravinsky, he uses not only comparison and contrast, but also language to convey his point of view about the conductors of the time and their extreme egotism. Stravinsky believes that conductors exploit the music for their own personal gain, so rather, he looks on them in a negative light.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
this paper I will discuss Gershwin’s life as a child and his upbringing and how his music
...aroque composers that lived around the same timeframe as Stamitz include Jan Dismas Zelenka, a prominent Czech composer, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, one of the greatest Baroque composers and George Frideric Handel, a German Baroque composer that often used shifts between major and minor keys. It may be difficult to directly see who influenced Stamitz, but it is simple to see who he influenced. Stamitz was a key person in the transistion between Baroque and Classical music. Through his Mannheim School, he directly influenced many classical era composers such as Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven by intoducing the ability notate the accompaniment of the melodic line with dynamics such as dimmuendo and crescendos . In addition, while it almost seems insignificant; his addition of four movements into a Symphony was adopted by almost every composer in the Classical period.
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As a youth he reluctantly studied law, as much bore by it as Schumann had been, and even became a petty clerk in the Ministry of Justice. But in his early twenties he rebelled, and against his family's wishes had the courage to throw himself into the study of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He was a ready improviser, playing well for dancing and had a naturally rich sense of harmony, but was so little schooled as to be astonished when a cousin told him it was possible to modulate form any key to another. He went frequently to the Italian operas which at that time almost monopolized the Russian stage, and laid t...