Gann, Kyle.  AMERICAN MUSIC IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.  New York, London:
Schirmer Books, 1997.  400 p.

Like the Struble book which I recently reviewed here, this is intended
to be an historical survey, organized by period or style (with some of
the same difficulties in keeping the apples and oranges separated) and
by individual composer within those categories.  Each survey focuses on
musical composition and style, rather than performance practice, musical
institutions, or economic and social aspects of the musical world, although
such matters are touched on as part of the larger context of original
creativity.  Neither book is concerned directly with popular music or jazz,
except as influences on what Struble does not mind calling "classical
music," but which Gann refuses to refer to that way, because "classical"
implies "European" to him.  Both books deal largely with the present
century, although Struble goes back much earlier and Gann lays heavy
emphasis on recent music.  At this point comparison between the two books
comes to an end.

About two thirds of Gann's book deal with the last quarter of the century.
The periods Gann finds most appealing are the 1990's and 1920's, followed
by the 1980's and 1930's.

Gann, formerly a reviewer for FANFARE, is presently the new music critic
for THE VILLAGE VOICE, and it shows.  His preference for the "downtown"
new music scene, rather than the "uptown" musical establishment is clear,
both in the composers he includes and those he does not choose to discuss
or even mention.  As Struble noted, many composers today are heard only
locally, and quite a number of the composers Gann discusses have been
given a hearing mainly in New York.  Solo "performance artists" and small
ensembles loom large here.  Although I have not been a stranger to new
music concerts at various times and places, and although I would have said
I was reasonably conversant with recent musical developments, a large
percentage of the composers Gann chooses to discuss have names I am
complately unfamiliar with--which was not the case with Struble's
selection.

To be sure, there are vastly more significant composers than can be
included in any selection, but Gann's selections often seem driven
more by personal preference rather than by prominence or influence.  For
instance, Gann discusses Mikel Rouse in depth, Christopher Rouse only in
passing.  He gives Walter Piston a bare mention at most, while writing--to
my satisfaction, I admit--about Harold Shapero as "the composer who, more
than any other, came to symbolize America's hard-core neoclassic movement
with its devotion to Stravinsky." (105).  I was less happy to see the
finale of Shapero's "magnum opus," Symphony for Classical Orchestra,
characterized as "Beethovenian bombast." Aside from that crack, Gann is
generally respectful of all the composers he discusses.  He does make his
preferences for American rather than European, and experimental rather
than traditional biases clear though, even to--surprisingly--quoting Roger
Sessions, an example of what he sees as the European tradition, as saying
"I have no sympathy with consciously sought originality." (107).

Gann also describes the work of a remarkable number of women composers
in some depth, and as a matter of course.  Besides Ruth Crawford, among
the 1920's "ultramodernists," he features Pauline Oliveros and Annea
Lockwood, who burned one piano and drowned another, among the post-Cage
conceptualists; and, as minimalist and performance artist, Meredith Monk;
in connection with the new romanticism, Nancy Van de Vate, one of whose
works shares a VMM disc with Rabushka's Clarinet Concerto; with reference
to jazz and rock influences, Laurie Anderson; among post-minimalists,
Janice Giteck, Elodie Lauten, and Mary Ellen Childs; and among the
"totalists," Lois V.  Vierk, Eve Beglarian, Bernadette Speach, and,
briefly, Brenda Hutchinson, Laetitia de Compiegne Sonami, and Linda
Fischer.

Gann's survey begins with the "forefathers," Ives and Ruggles, and moves
quickly to "ultramodernism" in the '20s:  Cowell, Varese, Crawford, Antheil
and McPhee.  (The kind of Asian influences the last-named represents
feature prominently in later chapters.) "Populism in the 1930's begins with
Copland and Harris, before settling down to discuss American opera, with
perhaps surprising sympathy for Thomson, Barber and Menotti, as well as
Gershwin and Bernstein.  Moving on to "experimentalism," Harry Partch, Ben
Johnston, Conlon Nancarrow, Lou Harrison, Henry Brant and Alan Hovhaness
share a chapter.  "Atonality and European Influences" brings together
diverse styles, sometimes in the same composers, and seemingly as briefly
as possible.  There is a remarkably long chapter on electronic music, and
extended treatment of Cage and post-Cage conceptualism, minimalism and
post-minimalism, which Gann is at pains to distinguish (he does not permit
Glass and Reich to disavow the term), but he places John Adams among the
new romantics.  John Luther Adams finds himself among the "totalists." Few
neoromantics are discussed--no more than Struble included, but the names
that appear in connection with several of these other movements are far too
numerous and, for me, too unfamiliar even to mention.  Let me just say that
someone looking for an introduction to new musical experiences might do
well to dip into this book.

Just a word about "totalism," which I have to admit was not part of my
vocabulary before, and with which Gann ends his survey.  I am still not
entirely clear about it, because I know little of the music discussed here,
but Gann describes it as "music that appeals to audiences on a sensuous
and visceral level, and yet which still contains enough complexity and
intricate musical devices to attract the more sophisticated aficianado.
It also imples using all the musical resources available..." (355) These
include jazz and Asian styles.  A steady beat may coincide with
polyrhythms, in contrast with music by Carter or Babbitt, whose rhythms
are harder to follow.

Gann writes well.  He includes many musical examples and considerable
musical analysis.  There are many photographs of composers.  A composer
himself, Gann gives himself a short paragraph toward the end--in the third
person.

Jim Tobin