Book Review
Jun. 11th, 2010 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariAmerican Pioneers: Ives to Cage and Beyond
by Alan Rich
Like all the Phaidon 20th Century Composers books, American Pioneers was a solid if basic look at the lives and work of its subject. The four main composers covered were Ives, Varese, Cowell, and Cage. There were also briefer looks at Harrison, Partch, Young, and a smattering of electronic music composers. It's really liberating to read about such daring, innovative, and radical composers. I could have wished for more depth on each of them (except for maybe Cage - I've already had a lot of exposure to him), but that is a limitation more of the format than of the author, I think. It was also pretty obvious that Rich really loves Cage and is perhaps less convinced by some of the others. I was really happy at the material on Cowell and Varese, who wrote fascinating music but often get short schrift in other accounts of contemporary music through the 1960s, which usually center around the Second Viennese school and the serialists plus Bartok and Stravinsky.
by Alan Rich
Like all the Phaidon 20th Century Composers books, American Pioneers was a solid if basic look at the lives and work of its subject. The four main composers covered were Ives, Varese, Cowell, and Cage. There were also briefer looks at Harrison, Partch, Young, and a smattering of electronic music composers. It's really liberating to read about such daring, innovative, and radical composers. I could have wished for more depth on each of them (except for maybe Cage - I've already had a lot of exposure to him), but that is a limitation more of the format than of the author, I think. It was also pretty obvious that Rich really loves Cage and is perhaps less convinced by some of the others. I was really happy at the material on Cowell and Varese, who wrote fascinating music but often get short schrift in other accounts of contemporary music through the 1960s, which usually center around the Second Viennese school and the serialists plus Bartok and Stravinsky.
