American Music: A Panorama

by Daniel Kingman and Lorenzo Candelaria

Book Overview

This best-selling survey text describes American music as a panorama of distinct yet parallel streams-popular, folk, sacred, and classical-that reflect the uniquely diverse character of the United... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0495128392
• ISBN13: 9780495128397
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Schirmer G Books
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Probably the best college text for a "survey" of American Music

In the past, there was Hitchcock, Chase, and Hamm's books. They were all "surveys" in that they started with Native American music and the music of the early settlers and progressed roughly to the present. These are outdated books as far as the "present" goes, but they are each still very good, even if what they emphasize is different. Today, though, the college teacher has two options, Richard Crawford's "Introduction to America's Music" and this book, originally by Kingman and substantially revised by L. Candelaria. Crawford's "Introduction" is really excellent in every way. It is packed full of information with all points-of-view and arguments thoroughly influenced by the most recent research. He really knows his stuff. It's organized chronologically, so, like the books above, it starts with the settlers and moves forward. My students had trouble with this book, as did I, because it takes a full third of the semester before you get to any music that most of the students have even heard of. That's why Kingman/Candelaria is, in my opinion, a uniquely successful alternative. It starts with the four historically principal categories of "folk" music (N-A, Mexican American, Anglo America, and African American) and includes another chapter on more recent kinds of folk music from other traditions. As for many students the "real" American music is "folk music," this is a great way to start off the semester and gets the class really thinking about the issues that shape the character and content of music in regions that now comprise the U.S. After that comes Blues and Rock (which I separate because I think rock needs to come AFTER all the other popular music), then big units on Sacred Music, Popular Music, and Classical Music. At first I didn't like this approach. But after using it I realize that, if properly supplemented, it is the ticket to a successful class. Students need to know that American Music has been around for several centuries and that we can't shape our understanding of what it is by just current standards alone. So I find the book to be very balanced. Yes, the section on jazz could be larger. And I think there musical theater gets short shrift as well as American popular music from the 1920s to 1950s that isn't jazz (as in the many famous songs that reflected changing American values over those decades as well as served as standards for jazz bands). So this needs to be supplemented. But its still the best approach for many reasons. One is that there isn't a huge amount of reading (which most students just won't do). The text that is there is, for the most part, accurate and includes very important interpretive information. I think most students feel "informed" after reading the chapter so that they can listen to music, whether it's the shape note singing of Appalachia or barrelhouse piano style or the songs of Tin Pan Alley with some solid knowledge about where these genres came from. Yes, there isn't a whole lot

Good Survey of American Music

I teach a course in United States music history at the high school level, and this college text is a good stretch for my students. It is clearly written, well organized, and provides great points for departure in my lectures. The accompanying CD set, though not perfect, is a convenient way to bring in examples and allows for some independent study. Music history teachers can augment the examples with their current CD holdings.The text surveys "American" music, not just music of the United States, although that is in the majority. The distinction of American versus U.S makes for a good discussion point throughout the semester. We do not take the chapters in order (we begin with music of the early European settlers), and the book lends itself to that flexibility.Although there may be better texts for specific music history topics, (i.e., Jazz or contemporary "serious" music) this is an excellent survey text for the advanced high schooler or college music history survey course. Term paper suggestions, questions for additional research and bibliography are included at the end of each chapter.