Chapters with Listening Guide Repertoire, CW Links, and Quizzes:

Chapter 14

Chapter Goals

  • To examine concert traditions of different genres and cultures.
  • To learn about different performing forces and styles of music.
  • To examine significant works from three concert traditions.

CW14.1 Going to a Symphony Concert

Many large cities (and some mid-size cities) have professional or semi-professional symphony orchestras. Check the web for concert schedules and student ticket prices. Colleges and universities with medium or large music departments usually also have student orchestras that perform regularly throughout the semester.

Here is a handy guide from the San Francisco Symphony for first timers at a symphony concert.

CW14.2 More on Aaron Copland’s Ballets

In the late 1930s and 40s Copland became interested in American folk music and cultivated a compositional style considered to be quintessentially American. The ballets, Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1943-4) demonstrate Copland’s ability to paint an American portrait through sound. All three ballets have been arranged by the composer as orchestral suites (using the music from the ballet but not meant to be danced to).

Here is Agnes de Milles’ choreography of the first part of “Rodeo” (this performance is from 1973 with the American Ballet Theater): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9uzwiKNhCk
You can also find it by searching “Rodeo scene 1, p. 1 ABT.” For more information and to hear a traditional fiddle version of “Bonyparte’s retreat,” go to: Bill Stepp, Aaron Copland, and “Bonaparte’s Retreat. Go here for a short film that includes interviews with Aaron Copland.

CW14.7 Jazz

See the following links for more information on jazz:

Smithsonian Jazz Library of Congress: “Jazz” New York Jazz Workshop: “Dizzy Gillespie.”

Quizzes