{"product_id":"music-for-the-common-man-elizabeth-b-crist-9780195151572","title":"Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland During the Depression and War","description":"In the 1930s, Aaron Copland began to write in an accessible style he described as \"imposed simplicity.\" Works like \u003cem\u003eEl Sal M騙ico, Billy the Kid, Lincoln Portrait\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eAppalachian Spring\u003c\/em\u003e feature a tuneful idiom that brought the composer unprecedented popular success and came to define an American sound. Yet the cultural substance of that sound--the social and political perspective that might be heard within these familiar pieces--has until now been largely overlooked.\u003cbr\u003eWhile it has long been acknowledged that Copland subscribed to leftwing ideals, \u003cem\u003eMusic for the Common Man\u003c\/em\u003e is the first sustained attempt to understand some of Copland's best-known music in the context of leftwing social, political, and cultural currents of the Great Depression and Second World War. Musicologist Elizabeth Crist argues that Copland's politics never merely accorded with mainstream New Deal liberalism, wartime patriotism, and Communist Party aesthetic policy, but advanced a progressive vision of American society and culture. Copland's music can be heard to accord with the political tenets of progressivism in the 1930s and '40s, including a fundamental sensitivity toward those less fortunate, support of multiethnic pluralism, belief in social democracy, and faith that America's past could be put in service of a better future. Crist explores how his works wrestle with the political complexities and cultural contradictions of the era by investing symbols of America--the West, folk song, patriotism, or the people--with progressive social ideals.\u003cbr\u003eMuch as been written on the relationship between politics and art in the 1930s and '40s, but very little on concert music of the era. \u003cem\u003eMusic for the Common Man\u003c\/em\u003e offers fresh insights on familiar pieces and the political context in which they emerged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Elizabeth B. Crist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0195151577\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780195151572\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/27\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.12lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.52h x 6.44w x 0.96d","brand":"Elizabeth B. Crist","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43914195566847,"sku":"9780195151572","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_ccadfd0a-e407-48ce-8705-d342e8b3fd3e.jpg?v=1680640891","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/music-for-the-common-man-elizabeth-b-crist-9780195151572","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}