Additional Resources (Spring 2021)

West Side Story 2020: In the Rehearsal Room - recorded exactly a year ago, a British cast of WSS records “Somewhere” shortly after learning their production was cancelled due to the pandemic.

History and Subtext of "West Side Story”

Sarah Fishko, “The Real-Life Drama Behind 'West Side Story'" NPR, January 7, 2009

David LaFontaine, “Inside West Side Story” The Gay and Lesbian Review, November-December 2017 (EXCERPT)

Memorable performance of “Mambo”: Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra

Week 5

The role of technology in promoting different musical genres

Forefront of a Revolution: The Integration of Modern Technology in Classical Music

This is an article I wrote for The Penguin, New England Conservatory’s student newspaper exactly ten years ago, in early 2011 (the version above was published on Polyphonic.org in 2012). The topic centers on the role technology played in promoting Jazz in its genesis, and how classical musicians are embracing technology in the present-day. This was one of my favorite articles I wrote for the paper, since it really changed my perspective on how technology and culture influence the evolution of new music. My interview subjects were two of my favorite professors, Paul Burdick (who taught a variety of different classes, including Solfege, Community Outreach and Music and Technology) and Nicholas Kitchen, who was (and remains) the first violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet. Presciently, at the end Burdick predicts a time when people would collaborate over the internet a decade into the future—we need to buy that man a Sam Adams!

More from Scott Joplin:

The Entertainer

Overture to Treemonisha

Pleasant Moments - Ragtime Waltz

Scott Joplin mini-documentary ~12 min:

The Incredible Story of America’s First Pop Star

James’s arrangement of the Maple Leaf Rag on viola (March 10, 2021)

Some more hits from the Original Dixieland Jazz Band:

Tiger Rag (1917)

Margie (1920)

Historical perspectives

1917: Original Dixieland Jazz Band (podcast, ~30 minutes)

Geoffrey Hines, “This is the ‘Jass” Record That Introduced Millions of Americans to a New Kind of Music.” Smithsonian Magazine, February 2017.

More from George Gershwin:

An American in Paris

“Summertime” from Porgy and Bess

Gershwin performs his own “Variations on I Got Rhythm”, April 30th, 1934

Piano Concerto in F Major (Yuja Wang, piano)

Cuban Overture

Rhapsody in Blue in culture

Fantasia 2000

United Airlines commercial

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More info on Creative Ability Development!

Breaking the Tradition of Imitation: Creativity in Music Education and Performance (2015 article by Alice Kanack on the origins and philosophy of CAD)

2016 CAD class at Music Institute of Chicago (this gives you an idea of what a typical class looks like; I taught this class for a couple years and we had prepared the video for a faculty development session.)

There’s No Such Thing As A Mistake (1995 documentary shot in NYC)

CAD Tour Group (video from a 2013 performance at the Kanack School)

Jessie Montgomery (CAD alum and prominent American composer)

Kanack School of Musical Artistry (Kanack School main page)

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Week 4

Issues of Gender Equality in Classical Music

Classical Music’s Gender Gap (great ~five-minute video on the history of women composers in western music)

Emily Hogstad, “In Which I Learn Why There Are No Great Woman Composers.” Song of the Lark, September 26, 2015.

Emily Hogstad, “Why Are Pioneering Female Composers So Neglected?” Song of the Lark, April 30, 2017.

Feminist in the Concert Hall (blog of Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Women in Music | The Kennedy Center