Orpheus in Manhattan William Schuman and the Shaping of America's Musical Life

by Swayne, Steve

• ISBN13: 9780199367849
• ISBN10: 0199367841
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-04-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Winner of the ASCAP Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography

The musical landscape of New York City and the United States of America would look quite different had it not been for William Schuman. Orpheus in Manhattan, a fully objective and comprehensive biography of Schuman, portrays a man who had a profound influence upon the artistic and political institutions of his day and beyond. Steve Swayne draws heavily upon Schuman's letters, writings, and manuscripts as well as unprecedented access to archival recordings and previously unknown correspondence. The winner of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music, Schuman composed music that is rhythmically febrile, harmonically pungent, melodically long-breathed, and timbrally brilliant, and Swayne offers an astute analysis of his work, including many unpublished music scores. Swayne also describes Schuman's role as president of the Juilliard School of Music and of Lincoln Center, tracing how he both expanded the boundaries of music education and championed the performing arts. Filled with new discoveries and revisions of the received historical narrative, Orpheus in Manhattan confirms Schuman as a major figure in America's musical life.

Author Biography

Steve Swayne is Professor of Music at Dartmouth College. He is also an accomplished concert pianist and an award-winning composer.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Impact of a Single Symphony
Part 1: The Early Years
Chapter 1: The Family Tree
Chapter 2: A Kid Grows In Queens and Manhattan
Chapter 3: Camp Cobbossee (And a Summer Abroad)
Chapter 4: A Flash in Tin Pan Alley
Chapter 5: Frankie
Chapter 6: An Unconventional Education
Part 2: The Sarah Lawrence Years
Chapter 7: Sarah Lawrence and the Beginning of the Decade of War
Chapter 8: "The pupil is outdoing the master": Harris, Schuman, and the Second Symphony
Chapter 9: Schuman, Copland, Koussevitzky, and Bernstein
Chapter 10: Populism, Progressivism, and Politics
Chapter 11: World War II and the Prize-winning Composer
Chapter 12: The Modern Meteor I Sing
Part 3: The Juilliard Years
Chapter 13: Wringing the Changes
Chapter 14: Dancing in the Dark
Chapter 15: Family Matters
Chapter 16: An Old Religion, Two Champions, and a New Symphony
Chapter 17: Delays and Distractions
Chapter 18: Striking Out
Chapter 19: The (Mostly) Off-Stage Ambassador
Chapter 20: With an Eye on the Marketplace
Chapter 21: International Man of Music
Part 4: The Lincoln Center Years
Chapter 22: The Dream Defined
Chapter 23: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed
Chapter 24: One Nightmare After Another
Chapter 25: The Potemkin Center
Chapter 26: The Deaths of the Dreamers
Chapter 27: The Death of the Dream
Part 5: The Years of Completion
Chapter 28: The Administrator Reinvents Himself
Chapter 29: The Composer Reasserts Himself
Chapter 30: Round and Round and Round He Goes
Chapter 31: Bicentennial Fireworks
Chapter 32: Reflections and Ruminations
Chapter 33: Triplets
Chapter 34: The Wind Was With Him
Chapter 35: A Rare Vintage
Epilogue: Schuman and the Shaping of America's Musical Life