Reference no: EM133366882

Question: Defining unified characteristics of "American" music has always been a complex issue, due to our country's diverse and complex history. Does "American" music trace its roots back to African-American, Native-American or European musical traditions? Or to all of these, and more? The 19th Century Bohemian nationalist composer Antonín Dvorák (Chapter 39) had his own thoughts about this, and even wrote works often considered "American" (such as his "New World" Symphony and "American" String Quartet). But what makes these works American? You can find the same discrepancy if you look at popular musical styles, such as: country, hip-hop, pop, R&B, etc. We see the composers in Chapters 47-50 specifically attempting to deal with this issue, often through genre-bending attempts to infuse their own musical heritages with the Western European concert music tradition.

Please select the work of one particular composer from Chapters 47-50 who is (in your opinion) the most convincing exemplar of "American" music, and explain why. Then identify which musical characteristics (think Module 1) used in the specific work from the Chapter you selected contribute to your sense of this being a distinctly "American" work.