Part 1 - the 18th Century

From: ARTSEDGE
Series: American Classics with Miles Hoffman
Length: 15:02

Classical music in the years before and just after the Revolution Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Part 1 - the 18th Century
From: ARTSEDGE

Moravians_small While Vivaldi in Italy, Bach in Germany, and their contemporary George Frideric Handel, in England, were writing marvelous and sophisticated music, America was a backwater. If you looked for classical music in the early days of America, you'd be hard pressed to find it, even in the big cities and the centers of wealth, commerce, and social sophistication. But it was there; in some odd locations including the backwoods of North Carolina and the Port of New Orleans. Miles Hoffman, Morning Edition music commentator and dean of the Petrie School of Music at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina takes us on a tour of classical music in early America.

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Piece Description

While Vivaldi in Italy, Bach in Germany, and their contemporary George Frideric Handel, in England, were writing marvelous and sophisticated music, America was a backwater. If you looked for classical music in the early days of America, you'd be hard pressed to find it, even in the big cities and the centers of wealth, commerce, and social sophistication. But it was there; in some odd locations including the backwoods of North Carolina and the Port of New Orleans. Miles Hoffman, Morning Edition music commentator and dean of the Petrie School of Music at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina takes us on a tour of classical music in early America.

Transcript

This is "American Classics," a look a classical music across American history. I'm Miles Hoffman, dean of the Petrie School of Music at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In this segment we look at where American classical music got its start.

MUSIC

Today we think of America as the place that drives the world's culture. Our movies, our music, and our TV shows are watched, listened to, and imitated all over the world. But it wasn?t really so long ago that no one turned to us for culture. A mere three centuries ago, for example, America wasn't even a country. It was a backwater. Nola Reed Knouse is the Director of the Moravian Music Foundation, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She points out that in the early 1700s, Americans were mostly just trying to get by.

KNOUSE: For much of American culture, you were concerned so much with survival -- with food and clothing...
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Musical Works

Title	Artist	Album	Label	Year	Length
Trio 1 in Eb, Allegro	American Moravian Chamber Ensemble	Gaudeamus: Music of the Moravians.	Moravian Music Foundation	2008	00:00
Le quattro stagioni Concerto in mi maggiore La primavera Allegro	Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta	Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Stern/Zukerman/Mintz/Perlman/Mehta.	Deutsche Grammophon	1983	00:00
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: III. Allegro	Academy of Ancient Music, Catherine Mackintosh, Christopher Hogwood & Stephen Preston	Bach, J.S. : The Brandenburg Concertos.	Decca		00:00
Suite Les Indes Galantes: No. 21. Air pour les sauvages	Frans Br'ggen & Orchestra Of The 18th Century	Rameau: Les Indes Galantes Suite etc.	Decca		00:00
My Days Have Been So Wond'rous Free	Gregg Smith Singers	America Sings, Volume I: The Founding Years.	Vox (Classical)	1995	00:00
Chester	Colonial Revelers	Revelry, Reflection & Revolution.			00:00
Die Frucht des Geistes ist Liebe	Boston Baroque	Lost Music of Early America: Music of the Moravians.	Telarc	1997	00:00
Der Herr Ist Mein Theil	Boston Baroque	Lost Music of Early America: Music of the Moravians.	Telarc	1997	00:00
Gaudeamus Pariter	American Moravian Chamber Ensemble	Gaudeamus: Music of the Moravians.	Moravian Music Foundation	2008	00:00
Serenade Waltz	American Moravian Chamber Ensemble	Gaudeamus: Music of the Moravians.	Moravian Music Foundation	2008	00:00
The Springs of Salvation (221 A)	American Moravian Chamber Ensemble	Gaudeamus: Music of the Moravians.	Moravian Music Foundation	2008	00:00
L'Orgueil by Joseph Francois Salomon	Le Concert Lorrain, Anne-Catherine Bucher conducting	Manuscrit des Ursulines de la Nouvelle-Orleans.	The Historic New Orleans Collection	2002	00:00
Jumping Dance	Bahamian drum group	Roots of Black Music in America.	Folkways Records		00:00
French Suite No. 5 in G, BWV 816: III. Sarabande	Andrei Gavrilov	Bach: Keyboard Concertos.	Deutsche Grammophon	1993	00:00
Mazurka Opus 7 No. 3	Stephen Aron	My Favorite Chopin Mazurkas.	Clear Note	2006	00:00