Composers like Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, and Ellen
Taaffe Zwilich created works that indelibly commemorated American
places. Denise Von Glahn analyzes the soundscapes of fourteen figures
whose "place pieces" tell us much about the nation's search for its own
voice and about its ever-changing sense of self. She connects each
composer's feelings about the United States and their reasons for
creating a piece to the music, while analyzing their compositional
techniques, tunes, and styles. Approaching the compositions in
chronological order, Von Glahn reveals how works that celebrated the
wilderness gave way to music engaged with humanity's influence--benign
and otherwise--on the landscape, before environmentalism inspired a
return to nature themes in the late twentieth century.
Wide-ranging and astute, The Sounds of Place explores high art music's
role in the making of national myth and memory.