John Parker asks the hard questions, replying to me:

>>Sure, but they're American (the original point of the list) only by
>>adoption.  I would consider Korngold Viennese and Rozsa Hungarian, as
>>far as their music went.
>
>Many Americans came to their country as emigrants, including a number
>of composers who were cast adrift by the events in Europe during the
>first half of the century.  Igor Stravinsky, who is, as far as I know,
>is always considered a Russian composer, spent nearly 30 years of his
>compositional life in the United States.  Would his later work ever
>qualify as "American", whatever that might be? Are there any composers
>who emigrated to America who became American composers, or is their music
>indelibly stamped with the signature of their country of origin? And if
>that is the case, then what do we call the music of those 19th and early
>20th century Americans, such as Edward MacDowell and George Chadwick whose
>training and tradition were primarily European?

Well, as it turns out, most of the so-called American "nationalists"
(Copland, Harris, Thomson, etc.  -- Ives is the notable exception) were
also trained in Europe.  Stravinsky is the godfather of most modern
American music.

What makes one composer, like Copland, artistically American and another,
like MacDowell, mainly American by birth? I don't think it a matter of
mere aesthetics.  I'm reasonably certain that at one point, the issue of
American Music was in far greater doubt than it is now.  Did Barber write
"American?" Did Hanson? Did Burrill Phillips? Did Harrison or Hovhaness? To
some extent, I believe that particular critics and writers established, for
better or worse, a canon and a "story" of American music.  Chadwick's out;
Ives is in.  German-trained (Bahn) is out; French-trained (train de
voyeurs) is in.

Incidentally, one of the few writers who doesn't follow the standard
musicological line is Wilfrid Mellers.  He comes up with brand-new
categories, strongly related to American literature, and manages to include
more composers as American.  If you find a second-hand copy (because it was
out of print, last time I looked) of Music in a New-Found Land, snap it up.

Steve Schwartz