American music

Jake F. writes:

I haven’t seen you write much about music, but I thought you or your readers might appreciate something I found recently.

American classical music isn’t very popular. There are some names you know, with Aaron Copland, Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, and Leonard Bernstein topping the list, but there are a lot of more obscure composers who are well worth listening to. Performance Today recorded a concert of Thomas Hampton singing some wonderful songs by American composers, and you can download them all for free here.

I’ve been listening to them for the past day or so, and I have to say, they really sound American to me. I had been told that Copland was the first really American composer, and while I’ve been a fan of Charles Ives for some time I have agreed that he tends to sound European. These songs really ring true, though. I hope you or your readership like them.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 13, 2010 10:00 PM | Send