Charles Faulkner Bryan: His Life and Music.Charles Faulkner
abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-57233-220-4.) Many years ago, the groundbreaking American musicologist mu·si·col·o·gy n. The historical and scientific study of music. mu  si·co·log Oscar
Sonneck Oscar George Theodore Sonneck (born October 6, 1873 in Jersey City; died October 30, 1928 in New York) was a U.S. librarian, editor, and musicologist.Sonneck studied philosophy and musicology in Germany at the univerities of Heidelberg and Munich. observed that there could be no complete understanding of the history of America's music until the musical stories of its various regions had been told. Nevertheless, regional studies of American music remain relatively rare, and music historians continue to lavish their attention on the development of musical culture in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Boston. Thus, for this volume on composer, music educator, performer, and scholar of folk music folk music: see folk song. folk music Music held to be typical of a nation or ethnic group, known to all segments of its society, and preserved usually by oral tradition. Knowledge of the history and development of folk music is largely conjectural. Charles Bryan (1911-1955), Carolyn Livingston and the University of Tennessee Press are to be commended for augmenting our knowledge of the music of Tennessee The story of Tennessee's contribution to American music is essentially the story of three cities: Nashville, Memphis, and Bristol. While Nashville is most famous for its status as the long-time capital of country music, Bristol is recognized as the "Birthplace of Country Music". in particular and the South in general. With the goal of demonstrating that Bryan not only exerted considerable influence during his life but is still worthy of attention today, Livingston has traced the details of Bryan's life and the sociological conditions under which he studied and worked, using archival and secondary sources. She has also examined the people and institutions with which he interacted, the overwhelming importance for him of Appalachian folk music, his musical compositions, and evidence of his lasting legacy. The volume is especially effective at portraying the nurturing, small-town Tennessee environment in which Bryan grew up and in detailing succinctly the machinations of the various New Deal music programs through which Bryan found employment. The book also provides information about Bryan's ideas on music education in the context of his time and place. Another strength of the work is its discussion of the folk music revival of the 1930s, the people, including Bryan, who were involved in it, and how Bryan's later performances formed a link to the folk-music revival of the 1960s. Regarding Bryan's compositions, Livingston provides tantalizing tan·ta·lize tr.v. tan·ta·lized, tan·ta·liz·ing, tan·ta·liz·es To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. descriptions and a few examples in score that make one wish that recordings of these works were available. In sum, Livingston is a powerful advocate for Bryan, and her book does an admirable job of representing him and his environment. On a critical note, the book is marred by recurring redundancies, such as the passages where, describing two choral works, Livingston first observes that "the nonmusical subject matter of the spirituals was almost identical" and, a few sentences later, that "both deal with the same subject matter and have similar texts" (pp. 92-93). Also, one aspect of the book's structure--the way each chapter begins with a list of what will be covered and ends with a recap of the chapter's main points--seems unnecessary. That being said, Livingston's book is a valuable contribution to the history of music in the United States. Rice University WALTER B. BAILEY |
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