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John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa is a bandmaster known for his marches. He was the conductor of the marine band. -
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Scott Joplin
Joplin is considered the "king of ragtime." He is most known for his piano pieces in the ragtime style. -
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Charles Ives
Ives is one of the Great American composers from the first half of the 20th century. His father shaped his style by making him harmonize tunes in the "wrong key". Most of his works were not known until the late 1950's due to them being "different". -
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R. Nathanial Dett
Dett is an Oberlin graduate who studied with Natalie Boulanger at Harvard and Columbia. He helped found the National Association of Negro Musicians in 1919. -
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Florence Price
Under her mothers guidance, she performed her first piano recital at age 4 and published her first composition at age 11. She graduated high school at age 14 and studied at the New England Conservatory of music as a double major, piano and organ performance. She became the first black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra: Symphony Number 1 in E minor. -
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Nadia Boulanger
Boulanger taught basically all 20th century composers. She helped these composers fine their "voice". Her younger sister passed away and when she did Nadia gave up piano performance to focus on helping the new generation of conductors. -
Ragtime
Ragtime is the precursor to jazz. It was developed from an African American piano style in which the left hand is playing chords and the right hand is playing rigid rhythems. -
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Prokofiev
Prokofiev is a Russian composer known for his works in film, orchestral music, and piano. He is also known for his orchestral piece "Peter and the Wolf" -
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William Grant Still
Still is the first Black American composer to have a symphony performed by a major ensemble and he was the first Black American to conduct a major symphony orchestra. He worked in New York city arranging music for jazz bands and then move to Los Angeles and composed film scores. -
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Henry Cowell
Cowell was an American innovator who was drawn to non-Western music. He was a huge supporter of Ives and his "different" music. He coined the term "tone cluster" which is groups of adjacent noted and were sounded with the arm and were highly dissonant. -
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Duke Ellington
Ellington was a major band leader in the swing era. He composed hundreds of tunes, film scores, concert pieces, and works for the theatre. He is most known for his jazz tunes. -
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Aaron Copland
Copland was a composer, teacher and critic who taught at Harvard. He composed a variety of works in a mostly tonal style. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris for 4 years. His style was inspired by the old west and Mexican dance music after visiting Mexico. -
The Unanswered Question
The unanswered question is "what is the meaning of life". A lone trumpet is placed out of view of the audience and plays a melody that is answered by a quartet of wind instruments. The first time the question is asked the trumpet is given a gentle answer, but as they continue to ask the question the answer gets more and more aggressive until the final time the question is left unanswered. The strings are playing long tones in the background during this exchange. -
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Elliot Carter
Carter was an American composer and influential teacher as a composer for 50 years. -
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Oliver Messiaen
Messiaen is a serialist french composer and teacher. Many of ise works focus on religious subjects. -
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John Cage
Cage innovated many modern composition techniques. He also helped change the definition of music to "sound organized through time". -
Six Families of Noises
Russolo created a notation system for noise. Noises such as roars, whistling, whispers, screeching, and nouses obtained by beating on metals, woods, stones, and pottery. -
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Billie Holiday
Holiday was one of the leading female jazz singers who's known for her renditions of blues songs. -
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Billy Strayhorn
Strayhorn composed "A Train" which was performed on what looked like a moving train. -
Jazz
An American music style that arose from African traditions and art music of the West in 1916-17. It's roots are derived from call-and-response singing and 19th century African American ceremonial and work songs. -
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Miltion Babbit
An American composer and music theorist. He wrote and article for High Fidelity magazine called, "The composer as Specialist." -
The Harlem Renissance
The culture of African American art, literature, and music emerged during 1923 lasting up until the depression in the 1930's -
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Pierre Boulez
Boulez is considered the most important composer and conductor of the French avant-garde. -
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Luciano Berrio
The leading modern Italian composer of the 20th century. He helped establish the electronic studio in Milan which became the center of avant-garde activity -
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Karlheinz Stockhausen
A German composer who made innovations in electronic music. -
The Swing Era
Swing was a highly improvisational style -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash. Everyone panicked and ran to the banks to withdraw their money. -
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The French Avant-Garde
Boulez was an important composer during this time. His work demonstrated the obsession that many composers had with complexity in the middle of the 20th century. IT can be seen as maximalism in the idea of "maxing out" -
Appalachian Spring
A ballet composed by Copland and choreographed by Martha Graham. The ballet portrays a pioneer story in spring after a couple is married and builds a farmhouse -
Rock 'N' Roll
During 1950's a style of blended jump blues and honky-tonk was created. The genera was aimed at a teenage audience and brought an atmosphere where people of all races could come together. This inspired musical experiences such as "Hairspray." This started the beginning of the end of racism. -
West Side Story
West Side Story, in the musical theatre genera, was created in the image of "Romeo and Juliet" -
The Moon Landing
America was in a race with Russia to see who could bring a human being to the moons surface first. America won. -
9/11
September 11th, 2001 the twin towers and the world trade center were attacked by terrorists from another country