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American Music

CFA MH 735

Early music in the colonies. Various attempts to create an individual "American" musical style. Diversity of influences: European, African American, Indian, Spanish-Mexican, religious, jazz, folk song, minstrel, etc. Music of Billings, Lowell, Mason, Gottschalk, MacDowell, Ives, Gershwin, Copland, and others. 3 cr.

FALL 2025 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
A1 Yudkin FLR 209 W 2:30 pm-5:15 pm This class will trace the history of popular music in the United States from 1800 to 1960, from its beginnings in Irish, Scottish, and English folk music to minstrel shows and minstrel songs (with both white and black composers) to the popularization of parlor songs by composers such as Stephen Foster and classical/popular piano music with a Latin tinge by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. The commercial aspect of popular music begins with Foster but achieves its greatest nineteenth-century momentum with the rise of Tin Pan Alley and the sentimental songs of Charles K. Harris. Civil War brought Americans their first introduction to genuine black music and after the war they became entranced by the band music of John Philip Sousa and his United States Marine Band. In the meantime, the variety show was evolving into vaudeville. The two most important developments around the turn of the century were the evolution of jazz, which spread rapidly across the country, and the technological innovations of recording and reproducing sound. Later, electric microphones enabled the vast popularity of crooners, while black and white music and audiences tended to remain separate until the 1950s. The story of the 1950s is the story of black cultural appropriation and the gradually increasing enthusiasm of young Americans for original black musical traditions. Open to MM, DMA, MA students. Prerequisites: 600+ level MH courses or Approved consent; Meets with MH835

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