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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE AMERICAN NAISSANCE

[ Parker ( 1863-1919)-- Macdowell ( 1861-1908)-- Mason
( 1873)]-- Ives ( 1874)--( Taylor ( 1885)-- Hanson ( 1896))
-- Cadman ( 1881-1945)-- Still ( 1895)-- Villa-Lobos ( 1881)--
Chavez ( 1899)-- Ruggles ( 1876)-- Varèse ( 1885)-- Cowell
( 1897)-- Antheil ( 1900)-- Thomson ( 1896)-- Piston
( 1896)-- Gershwin ( 1898-1937)

THE American genius for publicity seems to have failed where her
music is concerned. It is true that one may find scores here and there at
agents, and that certain isolated works appear in our programmes from
time to time; but no effort appears to have been made to publicise the
music in a general way. This applies to both North and South America,
particularly to the latter, whose musical output is enormous. The
result is that American music is almost a closed book to the European
music-lover and is confined to a few names, some of which play no
part in the twentieth century concept. At the end of the last century
a certain impact was made by Horatio Parker ( 1863- 1919), whose
general musical outlook formed a clear parallel with the academic and
university approach to music here, and Parker was one upon whose
shoulders academic robes hung easily. The other name was that of
Edward Macdowell ( 1861- 1908), who made some considerable inroads
into musical consciousness through his many piano pieces, all of con-
siderable charm and romantic feeling. In this way he formed a counter-
part to Edvard Grieg ( 1843- 1907) in that pianists of limited ability were
able to form a repertoire which made an instant appeal to themselves
and their hearers, in the former case through the moderate standard
of technique required for their performance, and in the latter through
the simplicity of style and idiom.

Unfortunately, these drawing-room pieces of Macdowell took atten-
tion away from his more considerable works, among which the four

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Publication Information: Book Title: Musical Trends in the 20th Century. Contributors: Norman Demuth - author. Publisher: Rockliff Publishing. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1975. Page Number: 246.
    
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