The Music Of Wayne Peterson

Music during the progressive era progressed drastically during this time period. Songs became more complex, and sophisticated. They told the stories of individuals lives, or the lives of a certain group of people. The songs showed how people felt about political issues and personal matters. Not only did music change, but new forms of music were created. Brilliant musicians and songwriters were discovered during the progressive era. All and all, some amazing musical discoveries happened during the progressive era.

This speech is Karl Paulnack’s welcoming address for incoming freshman students. He addresses that music isn’t apart of arts and entertainment rather music is an invisible force that helps us piece ourselves together. Paulnack believes that music is an essential part of life and goes to prove it by telling his experiences with it. He describes the first moment he truly understood music and the impact it has on people. Paulnack portrays the day after 9/11 after he struggles to find any meaning in being a pianist. After a long time of questioning himself he observes the city and notices something. He sees that in this time of grief and sadness people are singing. From this he learned that music is a form of expression, it allows people to express their feelings when they have no other words to describe them. Paulnack goes on to describe what he says was the most important concert of his life. He and a friend were playing a concert at a nursing home. During their performance, one man began to cry, it was at that time Paulnack knew the man was a veteran. After Paulnack and his friend finished the piece, they announced that the piece they were playing was Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was a work

In 1894, a young, quietly colorful Charles Ives enters Yale University. He enters with a strong musical foundation provided by his father and community and a vision of what he thinks music can be. Horatio Parker, Ives’s composition professor unashamedly informs Ives that his vision of music seems blurry, perhaps even nauseating, to the astute, cultured musician. Ives quickly develops anger towards Parker’s traditional tutelage and rarely recognizes the positive effects Parker has on his compositions. Here begins the battle between new and old that Ives and Parker embarked upon during Ives’s college years, however the story starts and ends far from their four short years together.

Felsenfeld takes his readers on a journey from being an uninspired teenager, into the world of an adult “rebel” composer. Although Daniel was in piano lessons at a young age, he just couldn’t seem to spark an interest in the classical music that was being put in front of him. He continued the lessons through high school, and only had enough skill to make minimal money in piano bars and orchestra pits. Daniel regularly hung out with a friend, Mike, whose house he would go

Without question his most famous work is his Pulitzer Prize winning “Appalachian Spring” with which he received the prestigious award in 1945. Commissioned by American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham in 1943, Copland finished the work a year later while teaching at Harvard. The song had a traditional American sound much like his previous works, “Quiet City” and “Billy the Kid” and won immediate success with audiences when it debuted in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 1944. The material of the piece is largely folk and even incorporates an old shaker song called “Simple Gifts” by Elder Joseph Brackett written in 1848. One song, a patriotic piece called “A Lincoln Portrait” was written at the beginning of World War II after Copland was commissioned to write a musical portrait of an eminent American political figure. He quoted original folk songs of the time such as the well-known “Camptown Races” and also included material from letters and speeches Lincoln had given.

Dr. Howard Hanson enjoyed a celebrated international music career including becoming the first composer to enter the American Academy in Rome in 1921, an appointment as director of the Eastman School of Music in 1924, and winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his Symphony No. 4. Chorale and Alleluia was Dr. Hanson's first of five works for wind band, commissioned in 1954 by Edwin Franko Goldman for the American Bandmasters Association.

My composer that was given to me was Aaron Copland. Aaron Copland is an American composer, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as " The Dean of American Composers".

Aaron Copland was one of the foremost composers in the twentieth century. Copland was born on November 14,1900 in Brooklyn,New York. On December 2,1990 at age 90 he past away in New York city. His parents were jewish and european descendants and he was the youngest of five children. At the age eleven he developed an interest for the piano. one of his older sisters taught him to play for a while then a neighborhood teacher began giving him lessons. “Copland later studied under Rubin Goldmark in manhattan and regularly attended classical music performances. He decided he wanted to be a composer at the age of fifteen. He began studying music theory while in high school in 1917.

Only one man could claim the title as probably the greatest composer in American history for writing so many unforgettable works: Aaron Copland. He lived a life inspired by many things as well as inspiring people all across the nation, and it really led to the opposite of being drawn into himself, as he described in the quote above. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 14 in 1900. He was the youngest of five children to Sarah and Harris Copland. A musical spark came out in Copland already at the age of 11 as he began piano lessons with his sister. His musical talents

James Clifton Williams was born on March 26, 1923 and died at the age of 53 on February 12, 1976. He is a widely known and respected composer and conductor for American wind band music. In addition, Williams was a Sinfonian who crossed at the Beta Omega chapter at Louisiana State University.

o compose music is to place each tone into a time of rhythmical relationship with every other tone. William Grant Still’s African American Symphony combines a symphony with blues and is a symphonic piece for full orchestra. This piece tells more of a story than you might think. His childhood is involved because he was taught at a young age about blues and he also was exposed to different musical types at a young age, which led to him creating this piece of music.

The folk music of the Civil Rights Movement “came out of tradition, common experience, and generations of resistance” (Dunaway 2010: 140). The songs used throughout the movement derived from the shared experiences and struggles of African Americans while connecting “the gentle, idealistic world of folk music and the integrationist world of civil rights” (Dunaway 2010: 145). Songs, such as “We Shall Overcome”, were put through the folk process, where a song is passed on and alterations are made to verses (Dunaway 2010: 141). These folk songs evolved to embody the movements they were used for: “Those songs came out of the movement. The songs came out of very specific movements” (Dunaway 2010: 139). Folk music, which can

By the time he was twelve he was already being paid to perform at school dances. He then went to high school in Chicago for, at most, one year before dropping out to attend Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. He studied for two years at Washburn at which time he learned about harmonies and composition; which would prove to be of utmost importance to him and his career in later life.

Looking back in time at the great composers of the world, only one foreign composer stands out for his many contributions to classical music and in helping America to find its own music. Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born on September 8th, 1841, in a small village of Nelahozeves in Bohemia that lies on the bank of the Mauldau River. The village Dvorak was born into was in good company and surroundings however also retained much of its native luster even through the worst times of political oppression (1).

The artist I have chosen for this project is John Roger Stephens, also known as John Legend. Born on December 28, 1978 in Springfield Ohio, John showed musical potential at an early age. His grandmother taught him to play his first instrument, which was the piano. He grew up playing and singing in his church’s choir. His talent at that age was amazing, labelling him a child prodigy. Growing up, he listened to music from Michael Jackson, LL Cool J, Boyz II Men, and MC Hammer, very influential African American artists. They were able to change the way people viewed African Americans with their music, and make the world a more accepting place. John knew that he wanted to become a vocalist, and was determined to make his dream