Tamás Ittzés:
Franz Liszt's Influence
On The Ragtime And Swing Era
- historical and musical parallelisms -


III
Music of the 19th Century In America

There has always been one important difference between European and American music: entertaining (or light) music and serious music have never been so much apart in America as in Europe. This is true even if the two poles were much closer in Europe in Liszt's era than they are today. The American ‘music is music’ idea comes from the fact that all kinds of nations brought their diverse music and culture to the New World. Classifying such mass of music was impossible, especially as the development was extremely fast. For instance, Chicago's population of 4470 in 1840 increased to 100 000 in only twenty years then it surpassed one million by 1881! One can imagine how many different cultures and music came into the city within such a short period. It is also clear that the individual colonies must have had strong mutual influences regarding their music, too. These were the sources of a totally new culture that was open in all directions but at the same time had no real roots.

This is especially true for music. Despite its diversity, American music always wanted to find its identity and national character. That was a very appropriate need in the middle of the 19th century when national revolutions swept through Europe. The fast-assimilating immigrants (who came from a ‘national’ Europe) sought the national characteristics of their new country. And, though it may sound paradoxical, the most important element (because of its difference) of these national characteristics was found in black culture, at least in music. The exotic feel of the minstrel shows was replaced by the ‘this is ours’ feel even though nobody stated this officially. This opinion is underlined by the fact that later on all American musicians were proud to feel (and say) that through jazz America finally gave something to the world in music. (Here I do not intend to go into the universality of jazz as it is clear that traditional jazz could not have evolved anywhere else than in the US.) The fact that blacks were respected, at least through their music, resulted not only from the novelty of their music but also from American liberty. Sometimes I have the feeling as if Americans would had imitated and listened to black music for the acquittal of their conscience (especially as many of them still strongly believed in segregation). It is also likely that nobody had such philosophical thoughts but found the music interesting and the publishers were only interested in sales and business success. Anyway, this kind of liberalism is typical in the New World even today.

Now it is not surprising that, compared to European standards, all American ‘serious’ composers composed commercial music. They only wanted to be Americans, I believe. It is worth mentioning that even black jazz musicians emphasized in their interviews that in the Afro-American roots of jazz, American is more important than Afro. This ‘becoming American’ movement was present in black society, as they wanted to incorporate the music of the whites and fit it into their own style.

We should not forget about the musically less challenging but historically very important American patriotic songs such as Yankee Doodle, My Old Kentucky Home, The Star-Spangled Banner, Hail Columbia etc. These songs were published in many different arrangements and were part of the standard repertoire of concert bands. Sousa's marches only increased the already ongoing patriotic movement by the end of the 19th century.

Contents
Introduction
I: What Is Ragtime?
II: Ragtime in Liszt's Age
III: Music of the 19th Century In America
IV: Liszt: The Virtuoso Musician of the Salons
V: The American Liszt: Louis Moreau Gottschalk
VI: Liszt's pupils and contemporaries in America
VII: Liszt and European romanticism in American music education
VIII: Liszt and ragtime regarding piano technique and harmonization
IX: Popularity of Liszt's works in America - piano rolls
What became a hit?

X: European masters in ragtime and swing
XI: The national character of Liszt’s music
National music in America, exotic features in ragtime and jazz

XII: Liszt and the opera - ragtime and jazz examples
XIII: From ragtime to swing - progress in music and society
XIV: Progressive features in Liszt’s late art
XV: How Liszt, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel influenced swing
XVI: Symphonic poems - Philosophy and religion expressed in music
XVII: Liszt and Bartók
XVIII: Liszt as a predecessor of modern jazz - building on fourths
XIX: Did Liszt influence 20th century music through jazz?
XX: Who if not Liszt?
XXI: Epilogue
Sources

Copyright © 2003 Tamás Ittzés.
All rights reserved.