ABSTRACT
The leaders of American modern dance, such as Graham, Humphrey and Weidman believed that movement was the primary medium of expression of dance. As such, they maintained that the accompaniment should grow out of the movement form and not dominate, as it seemed to do in ballet. Therefore, whenever possible, they commissioned music specifically for their dances. Humphrey had studied music as a child and she composed some of her own scores, such as the arrangement of drum, accordion and wordless soprano voice for The Shakers (1931). Graham, unlike Humphrey, did not develop her musicality from childhood, but rather through her long personal and professional association with Louis Horst. From 1926, when Graham began to choreograph and perform on her own, she was encouraged by Horst, her musical director and a composer in his own right, to dance to the music of modern composers and to commission the scores for her works. After 1933, Graham seldom choreographed to a pre-existent score.
