This is the first book to concentrate on the rebellious trend within American music at the turn of the twentieth century. American Pioneers examines Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Carl Ruggles, Edgard Varèse, Harry Patch, Colin McPhee and Lou Harrison, focusing on the peculiarly American quality of their artistic motivation. The pioneering flair of these composers was an act of defiance: Americans throwing off the shackles of European tradition and inventing a new language, seeking to redefine what could or could not be embraced by the term ‘music’. "Smoothly executed. The chapter on Cage may well be the best introduction to his thought and work in English."― Gramophone '...Has a subtle but insistently inquiring approach to biography and details of artistic development. Alan Rich sets out the facts on early-20th-century music with clarity as well as providing a succinct summary of the background of the rise of concert music in the cultured urban classes if the west coast in the 19th century."― Musical Times On the 20th Century Composers Series "As a series, Phaidon's 20th Century Composers has brought remarkable variety and a welter of information, both necessary and delightfully trivial. Intended both for the general reader and for the more enthusiastically musical."― The Scotsman American Pioneers presents a survey of that peculiarly American innovatory spirit as manifest in the nation's music. On the east coast, early in the twentieth century, this spirit was captured by Charles Ives (whose music lay virtually ignored and unperformed until the world caught up with him, forty years later). On the west coast, Henry Cowell and John Cage encountered similar critical resistance. Their pioneering flair was an act of defiance: Americans throwing off the shackles of European tradition and inventing a new language, seeking to redefine what could or could not be embraced by the term 'music'. No single book to date has concentrated on this particularly rebellious trend in American music. American Pioneers investigates the life and work of the major American innovators - including Carl Ruggles, Edgard Varese, Harry Partch, Colin McPhee, Lou Harrison and members of America's youngest composing generation - revealing the colourful and often idiosyncratic nature of these characters, and focusing on the peculiarly American quality of their artistic motivation. Alan Rich has been a professional music critic on both the east and west coasts of the USA since 1953, with a particular passion for contemporary music. He is currently music critic for LA Weekly , the author of several books and series of interactive music programmes for computers. His most recent book, So I've Heard: Notes of a Migratory Music Critic, was published in 2006 and comprised a collection of reviews, essays and other work ranging from 1964 to the present day. Used Book in Good Condition