Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West Volume 14 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520267763)

Frontier Figures is a tour-de-force exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and Arthur Farwell, Beth E. Levy addresses questions of regionalism, race, and representation as well as changing relationships to the natural world to highlight the intersections between classical music and the diverse worlds of Indians, pioneers, and cowboys. Levy draws from an array of genres to show how different brands of western Americana were absorbed into American culture by way of sheet music, radio, lecture recitals, the concert hall, and film. Frontier Figures is a comprehensive illumination of what the West meant and still means to composers living and writing long after the close of the frontier.

Author: Beth E. Levy
ISBN-10: 0520267761
ISBN-13: 9780520267763
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 04/18/2012
Pages: 470
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2012