Reflections of an American Composer.by Arthur Berger Arthur Berger (May 15 1912 in New York City –- October 7 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts) was a composer who has been described as a New Mannerist. He studied as an undergraduate at New York University, during which time he joined the Young Composer's Group, as a graduate . University of California Press "UC Press" redirects here, but this is also an abbreviation for University of Chicago Press University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. (2000 Center Ct., #303, Berkeley, CA 94704), 2002. 277pp., $44.95. For those of us who did some graduate study in music theory three or four decades ago but desire to pursue our knowledge in theory education to meet our students' needs, Reflections of an American Composer by Arthur Berger could serve as a source of ideas and information about what has been happening. Berger, born in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. in 1912, was educated in the 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 areas and has spent all his life living and working in the Northeast. A few years teaching at Mills College Mills College, at Oakland, Calif.; for women; est. 1852 as the Young Ladies' Seminary at Benicia, Calif., moved 1871, chartered as Mills College 1885. The first women's college in the Far West, it has programs in English literature and creative writing, foreign and working there with Darius Milhaud Noun 1. Darius Milhaud - French composer of works that combine jazz and polytonality and Brazilian music (1892-1974) Milhaud and a couple years studying in Paris with Boulanger are the exceptions. Apparently, his compositional tastes have grown from neo-classic style (Although he dislikes the label.) of Stravinsky (fostered by Boulanger) to the new music style of Milton Babbit. To read this book is like visiting my one-time music history and composition teacher from my alma mater. The book is not written in the usual first person, auto-biographic style. (I had to look up Berger's birth date in my Baker's.) Berger has had a very full life as a composer, scholar, philosopher, musicologist mu·si·col·o·gy n. The historical and scientific study of music. mu  si·co·log , teacher, theorist-analyst, music critic Noun 1. music critic - a critic of musical performancescritic - a person who is professionally engaged in the analysis and interpretation of works of art , journalist and publisher. According to the author, all of these have been necessary to make his life successful. As a result of his areas of activity, he can, and does, speak well on many professional musical subjects. The book is divided into four sections: I. Trends in Twentieth-Century American Composition (Copland's two styles of writing: for the intellectuals and for the masses; Virgil Thomson expressing himself on the growth of the number of American orchestras playing American music until the audiences were "taught not to enjoy it"); II. Writing about Music (nationalism, American idioms, folk pentatonic scales, rhythms of small note values, the boredom of most commercial music and experiences as co-editor of the periodical Perspectives of New Music); III. Aesthetics and Musical Analysis (This was the toughest section for me to comprehend in the areas of philosophy and theoretical analysis with set theories--Chapter 15 on the Octatonic Scale was most interesting.); and IV. Retrospectives (from Berger's experiences as a professional critic and of the various personalities with whom he came in contact, such as Stravinsky, Boulanger, Copland, Milhaud, V. Thomson, Carter, Paul Bowles, Piston, Diamond, Cowell and so forth). The Appendix contains six musical reviews from 1944 to 1953; there are seven pages of documentary-style photographs. Having lived rather comfortably with the theory knowledge I had gained some forty years ago, I now must spend some time with my professional theory colleagues and be brought a little more up to date for the twenty-first century. Paul Reed, Wichita, Kansas. |
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