MUSIC 26AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Irving Berlin
Case “tudies November , 7
• Who or what is American?
o Shifting historical definitions of identity markers over time
o Irving Berlin vs. Tito Puento – listed as integral parts of musical culture
▪ Puente was misunderstood as a new immigrant
• Does it take an American to make American music?
o US culture starts to circulate around the world
• Why define American music?
o Music is an agent of change
o Music can represent history
o Defining American music challenges American identity more broadly
• Books
o Music and how they relate to US national identity
• Jimi Hendrix: influential rock guitarist
o Played the national anthem at Woodstock – height of the anti-war sentiments and counter
culture period
o Lots of feedback and distortion
o Sometimes breaks away from the melody and inserts other sounds
o Hedri: I a Aeria so I plaed this piee ad I thought it as eautiful. He has ideas
that align and do not align with American ideals
• René Marie: started her career at an older age (40s)
o Lift Eer Voie ad “ig – referred to as the Black National Anthem
▪ Setting changes the purpose of the performance (ie: jazz festival vs. state of city
address)
▪ Sparked more neutral conversation and backlash at the state of city address
• Received death threats about her merging the 2 songs
o Bleds the lris of Lift Eer Voie ad “ig ith “tar “pagled Baer’s elod ito a
song
o Grounded into the jazz tradition, but infuses militaristic/martial sound (through the snare,
drums)
o Boundaries are held strictly for how a song should be performed
• Artists reated a stir eause the laied to e Aeria ut haged the a the sog usuall
sounds
• Black people have been at the center of the many heated uprisings in the US
o Formed practical models that other movements have followed
o US American music would have been different without the influence of black music
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