Chapter 8: 5 Modern American Composers

Diane Warren : "Hit Machine" creates music around a "hook"

1. "Unbreak My Heart" performed by Toni Braxton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Rch6WvPJE

2. "Because You Loved Me", performed by Celine Dion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxnqUhhlIY 

3. "Rhythm of the Night", performed by Debarge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAQSZhazYk8 

Libby Larsen : Created choral music using 
audio/visual technology.
Used actual journals and letters of pioneers to inspire lyrics for pieces "The Settling Years" and "Songs for Cowboys"..

1. The Settling Years
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abv3n9g2CkM      

2. "Like Blind Men Tapping in the Dark" Marimba duet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiE81cZxgHs 

Moses Hogan: preserved the Gospel and Spiritual music genres

1. "Jesus, Lay Your Head In My Window"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bXC9SFxXoc    
2. Multiple songs/video of Moses Hogan gospel arrangements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsUDTgnewQY&list=RDZfu1EOaDQ0M





Aaron Copland: The Father of All American Orchestral Music, 

• used American Folk Songs ("Simple Gifts")
• uses heavy brass and percussion instrumentation
• used jazz rhythms 

1. "Fanfare for the Common Man" written

in the fall of 1942. (The bombing of Pearl 
Harbor by the Japanese, causing the US to
 join the Allied Forces in World War II 
occurred December 7, 1941.) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMVB0B1_Ts 

2. "Appalachian Spring" written in 1944, ballet choreographed by Martha Graham. The ballet is about a newly married pioneer couple moving into their new home, built for them by the people in their community, a "house bee". 
Features the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts"
1. Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmgaKGSxQVw 
2. Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTdyDOWtE2Q 
3. Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91y-NEdTj-g 
4. Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KIn6xHbSZg 

 

George Gershwin "The Father of the Most American of all Operas"

• Fused jazz chords with classical meters and orchestration
• Composed over 30 musicals for Broadway
• Composed orchestra pieces

1. "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" from Porgy and Bess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apiq3VN2Ra8

2. "I Got Rhythm" from the Broadway musical Crazy Girl, sung by Ethel Merman (1930).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4hI-xhGZug 

3. Of Thee I Sing, Broadway Musical that won Pulitzer Prize
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQE0EIFaiE 

4. "Rhapsody in Blue"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLgp2L700o