Composers Of The 1950's-1970

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era. Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. on November 6, 1854, to John Antonio Sousa and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus. Born of both Portuguese and Bavarian ancestry. His father was Portuguese, and his mother of Bavarian ancestry. Sousa started his music education by playing the violin as a pupil of John Esputa and George Felix Benkert for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. At this time he also began studying voice, violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, trombone and alto horn. He was found to have absolute pitch. When Sousa reached the age of 13, his father, a trombonist in the Marine

The 1940’s was recognized as the era of the common household names such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como. Jazz was the strongest music genre in the 40’s era with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong taking the lead. Radio was the most common way to listen to music back then, but phonograph players were just starting to get affordable for the average wage.

The Sixties were an exciting revolutionary period of time with great social and technological change. Some people called it the “decade of discontent” because of the race riots in Detroit and La, and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Other people called it the decade of “peace, love, and harmony”. It was called this because of the peace movement and the emergence of the flower children. (Britannica) The sixties were about assassination, unforgettable fashion, new styles of music, civil rights, gay and women’s liberation, Vietnam, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, peace marches, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, and Woodstock. All of these components caused a revolutionary change in the world of popular Music.

While Ludwig van Beethoven and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky have much in common, they also have many differences. Both men are famous for their orchestral compositions and their future influence on other composers. They experienced a blend of horrible failures and great successes. Although they were from different musical time periods, they both made huge contributions to the world of music.

​The Roaring Twenties was a decade absorbed with the growth of the music industry thanks to the radio being born in 1920 (Tyle). The excitement of the war being over brought the Roaring Twenties forth. The American people hungered for change, and the new music of the era, jazz, satisfied their great hunger (100 Favourite Songs). Jazz was a brand new type of music drastically different from anything the American people had heard before. Unfortunately, the Great Depression, which occurred in the thirties, brought forth an aroma of sadness and despair in the lives of the American people. Would jazz also cave into the Depression? Or fight back? Although the mood of the American people changed from the Roaring

The 1930’s was a decade of extremely hard times, following the stock market crash and an extreme depression. In spite of the tremendous hardships in America during this decade, it also became a time of great music that is still remembered today. Jazz music was highly popular in this time, and Billie Holiday was a famous jazz performer. She stood out from many other musicians because of her intense and passionate performances. Jazz arose from “unacceptable” segments of society, but quickly grew like wildfire. We often think of the 1930’s as the decade that jazz became civilized, and famous throughout popular culture through the work of pioneering artists like Billie Holiday. People did not own televisions or cable, so radio was their main source of entertainment, and music during this decade was both up beat and a source of relaxation. “Strange Fruit” defied musical category because it was considered too artsy to be folk, and too explicitly political to fit into jazz. This is why “Strange Fruit” became such a powerful phenomenon. Many other artists later took on this song, changing the genre but still portraying the same message. Nina Simone dramatized “Strange Fruit” in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. More important artists like Jeff Buckley, Rene Marie, Labor Camp Orchestra, and many others made their own rendition on the song, still leaving all of their audiences moved by the powerful imagery of the lyrics.

The music of the sixties went through tremendous change. It shaped mush of the music we hear today. From New Orleans came Jazz, from the East Coast came rock, from the West Coast came Psychedelic rock, and from England came the Invasion.

The fugue is often regarded as a genre defined by strict procedural guidelines. It is notable that three historically important composers, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), all employed a closely related fugue subject in three different works. An analysis of each of these works individually, and a comparison of these works collectively reveal numerous latent and salient features, and a reflection of the composers’ style within these works. Analyses also provide an outlook into the fluidity in certain aspects and rigidity in others of the form itself, reflected historically. The three composers analyzed fall closely together in history. J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel were contemporaries, whereas Mozart was born six years after Bach’s death and three years before Handel’s death. Analytically, the angularity of these similar fugue subjects presupposes a treatment regardless of the composer. Because of the shared intervallic content among the subjects of these fugues, despite being written by several different composers, a surprising number of similarities arise. Therefore, it is reasonable to assert that compositional choices made in the construction of the fugue subjects limit the number of results possible.

Many jazz artist do not write their own music but Duke composed most of hs albums and compositions. Duke composed his songs so that every player in his orchestra would sound their best and each instrument was emphasized. He mainly focused on rhythm and how each instrument would sound together and how it would make the audience feel. Duke had many famous songs but a few are: “If it Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Take The ‘A Train.” Over his 50 year musical career he won many honors and awards for his songs.

Jazz music is a blend of white middle class thoughts and African American traditions. Jazz originated in New Orleans in the beginning of the 1920’s. The Jazz Age was from 1920 through 1929. During the 1920’s, the First World War had just ended in 1918 and the Great Depression was affecting the citizens of the United States. Jazz music and dancing helped people forget about the terrible Great Depression. It gave the citizens a reason to be happy and love life during the 1920’s. The new form of music allowed people to express themselves in new ways. Jazz music was influenced by African American musicians, changed the music industry all over the world, and affected the society.

The music of the 1940’s was the Big Band sound like Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Popular singers were the Andrews Sisters, Kay Kaiser and many other famous ones. There were crooner style singers, including Bing Crosby, whose smooth voice made him one of the most popular singers. There was Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Tony Bennett, Pat Boone, Nat King Cole, Kate Smith and Perry Como. All of these very popular singers led the hit parade. They sang the songs that went with the mood of the country in the early 50s. Many of these crooners became the idols of the decade’s later rock and roll stars, who used their influence to create a unique sound.

Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel are considered possibly the most important female figures of the Romantic Era. Both women were friends living with the struggles of trying to make a name for themselves as musicians and composers while living in the shadows of their famous male family members: Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn.

There are thousands of movie composers in the music industry, a few who triumph and whose work is well known to almost half of the world. One example of that can be the famous Maestro John Williams. John

Musical modernism can be seen as the time where music emerges its liberty from Romantic era style -that started in the late nineteen century to end of the Second World War- and gains new ideas and freedom. With the political turmoil and chaos that took over the European countries, -that lured countries into the First World War- composers and artists started to find, create more and new ways to express themselves. They eagerly began to discover the art of Eastern countries with the hope of finding new ways of expression. The changes in tonality, irregular rhythms, tone clusters, distressed and antagonistic melodies, the expressionist, abstract, unusual ideas over powers the music, the traditional structures recreated or composed with

CENTRAL IDEA/THESIS: Film scores are an undoubtedly important part of the movie watching experience, however you may not know about how they were first introduced, the process it takes to make them, or how they have changed over time.