Description
Book SynopsisMaking Music for Modern Dance is a fascinating collection of source readings that offer first-hand accounts of musical collaboration for early modern dance in America.
Trade ReviewWow! A book with such glorious content and organization that I would enthusiastically use it in my own courses, and recommend it to students and all readers in modern dance history, music for dance, collaborative and interdisciplinary arts, and American music history. How wonderful to have all these primary sources (many rare or previously unavailable) under one cover, each one placed in a clear context. A fantastic contribution illuminating an often neglected subject. * Greg Presley, Music Instructor, Gonzaga University, and former pianist for Martha Graham *
This meticulously researched and annotated collection of articles gives invaluable context to the development of dance as an American art form and the intertwining and influences of leading composers and dance figures to its history. * Janet Mansfield Soares, author, Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance and Professor of Dance Emerita, Barnard College, Columbia University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Threads of America's Heritage in Music and Dance Part One: Musical Collaboration for a New Era in Dance Overview: The Question of Using Old Music for New Dance 1. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. How to Revive Dancing Music and the Dancer 2. Isadora Duncan. Dancing to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony 3. Baird Hastings. Music for Isadora Duncan's Dance 4. Helen Caldwell. The Dance Poems of Michio Ito: The White Peacock, to Music by Griffes 5. Denishawn program. America and the Dance Music Visualization 6. Norman Cazden. On Dancing to Bach: Humphrey-Weidman Programs 7. Ted Shawn. American Music and Composers: What Dancers Need Part Two: Creative Procedures and Ingredients Overview: Some Challenges of Collaboration, and Composers Debate What Works 8. Louis Horst. Music and Dance: The New Generation's Change in Methods 9. Henry Gilfond. Louis Horst 10. Gertrude Lippincott. A Quiet Genius Himself: A Dance Teacher's Tribute to Louis Horst 11. Wallingford Riegger. Synthesizing Music and the Dance 12. Ernestine Stodelle. Sensing the Dancer's Impulse: A Dancer Talks about the Art of Composer-Accompanists 13. Vivian Fine. My Scores for Modern Dance: Tragedy and Comedy 14. Doris Humphrey. The Race of Life: My Side of the Story The Relationship of Music and Dance 15. Lehman Engel. Under Way: Composing for Martha Graham Details of Contemporary Collaboration 16. Henry Cowell. Relating Music and Concert Dance: An Idea for Elastic Form 17. Norman Lloyd. Sound-Companion for Dance: Henry Cowell's Talent 18. Norman Lloyd. Composing for the Dance: A Retrospective Overview of Procedures; Personal Experiences; and Advice to Collaborators Part Three: Towards New "American" Styles Overview: Defining "American" Music; Common Musical Concerns of Ballet and Modern Dance 19. Verna Arvey. The Cosmopolitan Scene of the 1920s and '30s: Avant-Garde Experiments; Symphonic Ballet Scores; Jazz 20. Virgil Thomson. The Theatrical Thirties 21. Katherine Teck: Virgil Thomson's Later Reflections 22. Dance Observer. Editorial: Dance and American Composers Drawing Upon Folk Music and War-Time Patriotism 23. Woody Guthrie. People Dancing 24. Nora Guthrie. Sophie Maslow and Woody 25. Agnes de Mille. Music for Martha 26. Aaron Copland. The Commission for Appalachian Spring 27. Gail Levin. Aaron Copland's America 28. Richard Philp. Appalachian Spring: An Appreciation 54 Years Later Building on the Horton Experience 29. Larry Warren and Others. Lester Horton: Of Money, Music, and Motivation 30. Katherine Teck. Kenneth Klauss: Musician for California Dancers 31. Katherine Teck. Carmen de Lavallade: Dancing to Many Musical Styles 32. Alvin Ailey. Instructions: How to Play the Drums 33. Jennifer Dunning. Alvin Ailey's Revelations 34. Alvin Ailey with A. Peter Bailey. How Revelations Came to Be Part Four: Instruments, Technology, and the Avant-Garde Overview: Expanding Timbre Possibilities with Percussion, Vocalization, Electronic Instruments, and the Sounds Around Us 35. Franziska Boas. Percussion Music and Its Relation to the Modern Dance 36. Henry Cowell. East Indian Tala Music 37. Lehman Engel. Choric Sound for the Dance 38. John Cage. Goal: New Music, New Dance 39. Otto Luening. Electronic Music for Doris Humphrey's Theatre Piece No. 2 40. Alwin Nikolais. My Total Theater Concept 41. John Cage. Experimental Music 42. John Cage. Communication 43. Carolyn Brown. Dancing with the Avant-Garde Part Five: Well-Springs of Creative Collaboration Overview: Diverse Methods and Aesthetic Ideas 44. Leonard Bernstein. "Fun" in Music and the Dance 45. Paul Taylor. Why I Make Dances 46. Carlos Surinach. My Intention to Serve Spanish Ballet Serves American Modern Dancers Instead 47. Lou Harrison. Meditations on Melodies, Modes, Emotion, and Creation 48. Lucia Dlugoszewski. New Music for the Dance: Choices Open to Collaborators at Mid-Century Part Six: Master Artists Speak to Future Generations Overview: Postwar Trends, and Music in the Training of Dancers 49. Erick Hawkins. My Love Affair With Music 50. Bessie Schönberg. Finding Your Own Voice 51. Paul Draper. Music and Dancing 52. José Limón. Dancers Are Musicians Are Dancers Afterword: Creativity in One's Own Time Appendix: Checklist of Composers Notes, Commentary, and Recommended Resources Bibliographic Essay Index
