Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no. 1 (Spring 1997)
Reviews of Books
Edited by Sherrill V. Martin, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing
By J. Peter Burkholder. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-300-05642-7 (cloth). Pp.
xii, 554. $35.00.
Professor J. Peter Burkholder has written a book on Charles Ives that is both important and excellent.
It is important because it sheds new light on one of Ives' preeminent and characteristic compositional
techniques: musical quotation. It is excellent, because it is superbly written and beautifully
organized.
The use of quotation throughout music history has been extremely common. However, Ives' use of this
technique was unique in variety, scope, and profusion. Moreover, Ives' development of musical borrowing
was epitomized in his supreme masterpiece, the Fourth Symphony. In this composition, which is essentially
a reworking of Ives' "Concord" Sonata and "Celestial Railroad," in addition to strands of other Ives'
works, one finds the fruition of ideas that this American composer had explored throughout his career.
Burkholder shows that Ives' use of musical quotation is not merely a superficial procedure or mannerism
but rather a technique that enable the composer to form the basis of emerging music. This book contains
valuable discussions of Ives' treatment of "cumulative settings," i.e., gradual development of thematic
settings that are then stated in complete form at the end of a movement. He also provides insightful
exploration of Ives' use of a "patchwork" technique, a welding together of parts of two melodies, as
well as extended paraphrases.
However, some disagreements may be noted. As admirable as Burkholder's discussion of Ives' song
"General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" may be, his analysis of the "Concord" Sonata is unsatisfactory
and flawed. For example, Burkholder's allegation that the "Alcotts" movement of Ives' "Concord"
Sonata contains a quotation from Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata is highly questionable. Any
perceived similarity may be purely unintentional, since the rhythms, harmonies, and musical syntax
of these two works are strikingly different.
Then there is the question of historical dating. In this regard Burkholder seems to accept the
conclusions of Gayle Sherwood rather than those of Ives himself. I strongly disagree with this
preference. It seems to me that Ives' views of this matter are far more authoritative than conclusions
of other writers. The dating controversy, however, is peripheral to the principal ideas of the book.
For its perceptive exposition of Ives' significant compositional procedures, J. Peter Burkholder's book is
highly recommended.
--Alan Mandel
American University
Standing in the Light: A Lakota Way of Seeing
By Severt Young Bear and R.D. Theisz. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press,
1994. Pp. 191. $30.00.
Lakota master singer Severt Young Bear's title refers to a place within four concentric circles
of a ceremonial gathering. From a dark outer circle, people look on without involvement, while those
in another circle watch their relatives dancing and singing within yet another circle. The innermost
circle, however, includes not only the drum, but the people who stant in the light, organizing and
understanding the occasion. This brightest part of the circle, the circle of spiritual commitment,
is where Severt Young Bear has lived a great portion of his life, and this book is an encouragement
to others to join him there.
The Book was written by R.D. Theisz, a non-Indian professor of communications, who has sung and traveled
with Severt Young Bear's Porcupine Singers since 1972. Well known not only in the powwow world and the
milieu of Lakota ceremonial singing, the Porcupine Singers also contributed to the sound tracks of
Dances with Wolves and Thunderheart. Their recordings are available from Canyon Records,
Phoenix, Arizona.
After taping Young Bear's reflections and comments about Lakota culture and music, Theisz transformed
them from oral narrative into a literary flow, sacrificing neither the personality nor flavor of Young
Bear's speech. Topoics include the nature of oral tradition, myth as a key to understanding Lakota
history and beliefs, and the warrior traditions of the Plains. Also discussed are the activities of the
American Indian Movement, including Wounded Knee II and Young Bear's role in the music that energized
AIM's endeavors.
From a musical perspective, the most important part of the book is Young Bear's detailed information
about the life and work of a Lakota master singer, including descriptions of repertory, a musician's
status within the Lakota community, and compositional procedures. Unfortunately no recording accompanies
the book, although the narrative does contribute information to the expanding study of powwow music. Of
particular interest is a discussion of the Grand Entry Song, a type rooted in the historical context
of nineteenth-century Wild West Shows, that, according to Young Bear, is now a fresh genre of recent
invention used to accompany the modern grand entry of contemporary powwows. Theisz writes from the
frame of reference of a scholar and adopted insider. His friendly and curious presence is clearly felt,
as is his closeness to Severt Young Bear as an adopted brother. For the benefit of readers who are not
Lakota, Theisz also serves to draw information from Young Bear that might seem obvious to a cultural
insider and therefore be omitted from the story -- much like a fish might overlook the characteristics
of the water in which it lives. From the imperturbable outward uniform of sunglasses and boots to the
introspective complexity of immense remembered repertory, Young Bear and Theisz reveal much about the
mystique of the Lakota master singer.
Sir Ernest MacMillan: The Importance of Being Canadian
By Ezra Schabas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8020-2849-7. Pp. xi, 374.
In light of Ernest MacMillan's wide-ranging contributions to the arts in Canada -- as a composer, conductor,
educator, and administrator -- it is good to finally see a full-length study devoted to him.
A precocious musician, MacMillan (1893-1973) held several prestigious positions during his career. In
addition to becoming the dean of the faculty of music at the University of Toronto and conductor
of both the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Choir, he was the first president of CAPAC,
the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and of the board of the Canadian Music Centre. If that were not enough,
he was among the founding members of the Canada Council. MacMillan held several degrees (nine
honorary) from Canada and the US; was knighted in 1935; received the Canada Council medal in 1964, and
the Canadian Music Council medal posthumously in 1973.
Written in a narrative style, Schabas's book traces MacMillan's life story chronologically. By drawing
on a variety of written and oral sources, Schabas has endeavored to present a very "human" portrait of his
subject, with the aim of considering not only his strengths, but also his weaknesses. The reader will
learn, for example, that while he always had the best of intentions, MacMillan's plans were sometimes
thwarted by his lack of diplomacy.
Although he attempts to write a "balanced appraisal," Schabas's comments sometimes borderon idolatry.
Perhaps more of a concern is the lack of critical context he provides. While compelling questions are
presented, they are often left unanswered. Analogously, provocative quoted-statements are passed over
without much consideration. Despite its shortcomings, this book will provide a point of departure for
those interested in pursuing more critical studies on this important Canadian figure.
The book is enriched by thirty-two pages of photographs, as well as extensive end matter, including
a list of interviews, archival materials, a bibliography, a list of writings and compositions by
MacMillan, and a discography.
--Karen Carter-Schwendler
Miami University
Visions of Sound: Musical Instruments of First Nations Communities in Northeastern America
By Beverley Diamond, M. Sam Cronk, and Franziska von Rosen. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology. Chicago
and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. ISBN 0-226-14475-5 (cloth); 0-226-14476-3 (paper).
Pp. xviii, 222.
This monumental work grew out of a nine-year study carried out in collaboration with elders and consultants
from native communities in eastern Canada and northeastern United States.
The authors depict the musical instruments of the Anishnabe, Innu, Iroquois, Wabanski, and other peoples,
not as mere museum objects or devices for producing music, but as living entities. Each instrument is shown
in its intimate connection to the people themselves, both as individuals and as communities -- in daily and
ceremonial life, in language, history and world-view.
For Euro-Americans and Euro-Canadians interested in Indian ways, Visions of Sound provides
great insight. We are forced to consider the question, what is "real" or
"authentic"? For example, how does the ethnomusicologist, anthropologist,
historian, collector, or enthusiast react when confronted with a rattle, the hand
of which is wrapped with hockey tape? Or a drum made from plastic drain pipe? Do we look
down our noses and sniff that this object is "not authentic"? For a particular
musical event, the material itself may not be as important to the musician as the sound
it makes. "Authenticity" or "reality" is in the sound itself.
Visions of Sound provides many photographs, especially of musical instruments
held in museums and private collections. The book includes in-depth discussions of the
physical manufacture of the instruments and their design and decoration.
Rather than pretending to a "pure scientific objectivity," Diamond, Cronk, and von Rosen
show an intense involvement with the music and the cultures. The voice of the authors
is present throughout the book, spoken in first person, giving subjective reactions,
extrapolating: What might this word mean in this context? This sound? This image
painted on a drum?
There is an intentional and valuable message in this -- that the hearer of a sound
affects the sound and its meaning, and the observer of an image affects how it looks and
what it means.
--Alfred Bredenberg
Cornwall, CT
Notes in Passing
by Sherrill V. Martin, University of Carolina at Wilmington
Singing Baptists: Studies in Baptist Hymnody in America
By Harry Eskew, David W. Music, and Paul A. Richarson. Nashville: Church Street
Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8054-9824-9. Pp. xii, 223.
Singing Baptists is a compilation of fifteen essays written by Eskew, Music,
and Richardson, three of the most reknowned and prolific authorities on the subject.
Although all the articles have been previously published in a wide variety of journals,
they have been updated for inclusion in this volume.
The authors have chosen essays that reflect the diversity of Baptist belief, devotion,
worship, witness, and culture. The book is divided into four sections: 1) Music
explores different aspects of Baptist hymn singing in early New England in three
essays; 2) five articles by Richardson and Music are devoted to representative
nineteenth-century southern pastor-hymnists; 3) all three authors contribute essays
examining significant Baptist compilers of singing-school tunebooks of the nineteenth-century
South; 4) Eskew discusses the use of hymnals and the writing of hymns by Southern
Baptists in two articles. Each of the articles is informative and carefully
documented by numerous notes. In addition, a selected and annotated bibliography
follows each essay.
How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel
Text by Horace Clarence Boyer; photography by Lloyd Yearwood. Washington, D.C.:
Elliott & Clark Publishing, 1995. Pp. 272.
In How Sweet the Sound, Boyer traces the development of gospel from its
emergence in 1906 in Los Angeles to the Deep South, and then to Chicago in the 1930s
with the mass migration of African Americans. He details gospel's Golden Age from
1945 to 1955, and describes its entrance into concert halls in the 1960s.
Boyer skillfully discusses the various stages and styles of gospel from both a music
history and social context. Yearwood's striking photographs are significant
addiitions to Boyer's text. How Sweet the Sound is a vital contribution
to the study of sacred and secular music in America.
The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia
By Thomas Hischak. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. ISBN 0-313-29407-0.
Pp. xv, 543.
For this practical one-volume work, Hischak has selected more than eighteen hundred
songs from approximately five hundred Broadway musicals. These musicals, representing
the major shows, authors, genres, and eras, range from The Black Crook (1866)
to Stephen Sondheim's Passion, the winner of the 1994 Tony Award.
This reference, arranged alphabetically, provides detailed information about each
song: the authors; the source of the song; original performers; dates of recordings;
and unique features of its music, lyrics, and presentation. In addition, the musical
listing includings a discussion of all the songs from a particular musical. The
encyclopedia is indexed by song title, show, authors, and performers.
The Symphony: A Listener's Guide
By Michael Steinberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-506177-2.
Pp. xvii, 678.
Although most of this volume is devoted to the traditional European masters, Steinberg
provides generous coverage of American composers, with sections on selected works by
Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, John Harbison, Walter Piston, William Schuman, and
Roger Sessions.
The date of composition, first performance, instrumentation, and a fascinating,
perceptive description of the music itself is provided for each composition. However,
Michael Steinberg, program annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and the New York
Philharmonic, goes far beyond this basic information; he brilliantly places the
composition in the historical and personal context of the composer's life,
illustrating how each composition mirrors the person whose genius has created it.
Selected Letters by Paul Hindemith
Edited and translated by Geoffrey Skelton. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
ISBN 0-300-06451-9. Pp. xiii, 255. $30.00.
This volume, the first collection of Hindemith's letters, is an important addition to
twentieth-century music history. From one of the century's preeminent musical figures,
the letters are beautifully translated, annotated, and introduced. Although the letters
sapn Hindemith's entire career, approximately one-fourth of the collection is devoted to
his years in the United States, from his emigration from Switzerland in 1940 (he became an
American citizen in 1946) until his return to Switzerland in 1953.
Hindemith's letters reveal him to be an observant, engaging, but opinionated correspondent.
The numerous photographs add to this absorbing chronicle of Hindemith's life and times,
peopled by such luminaries as Stravinsky, Milhaud, Furtwangler, Koussevitzky, Klemperer,
Massine, and Balanchine.
Beating Time: A Musician's Memoir
By Harry Ellis Dickson; forword by John Williams. Boston: Northeastern University Press,
1995. ISBN 1-55553-229-2. Pp. xviii, 203.
What a charming, delightful, informative memoir by an entertaining raconteur and superb
musician! Born in 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Russian immigrant parents,
Harry Ellis Dickson became a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Assistant
Conductor to Arthur Fiedler for the Boston Pops, positions that he retained for many
years.
Dickson provides a fascinating glimpse into Boston's rich musical life with
reminiscences and anecdotes about friends, colleagues, and such legendary conductors and
performers as Danny Kaye, Arthur Fiedler, Serge Koussevitzky, Seiji Ozawa, John
Williams, and Igor Stravinsky. Dickson also shares touching reflections on his family,
including the failed presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, his son-in-law.
Updated 4/20/98