It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsi-
bilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious veneration of
Europe. HENRY JAMES

What was happening to music in the United States in
these rich years of the early twentieth century? Was any-
thing produced comparable to Le Sacre or Pierrot Lunaire?
The answer is an unqualified no, for the lack of a musical
environment such as that enjoyed by Berlin, Paris, or
Vienna, with their great opera houses, orchestras, and well-
established conservatories, made the creation of musical
masterpieces in the United States virtually impossible. If a
genius had been born in our Midwest in the 1870's and if
he had spent all of his formative years there, think what
his musical experiences would have been in comparison
with Debussy's or Schoenberg's! What would he have
heard of Wagner or Moussorgsky? It is not surprising that
the United States did not make strong contributions to
music in these years, for great works of art do not appear
spontaneously in a barren atmosphere.

This is not to say, however, that there was no musical
activity at all. A few of our larger communities had orches-
tras, conservatories, and opera houses, but in most cases
these were but pale copies of European organizations. Since

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