ABSTRACT
In this chapter the authors explore two large, yet interrelated, genres of music that have, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, become associated with the concert hall: classical musics and jazz. Mexican American composers and performers, living primarily in Los Angeles, were especially productive, contributing a different voice to American classical music practice. Leading post-World War II composers Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter, although not strictly serialists, wrote compositions with melodic-harmonic textures akin to serialism. Jazz is widely regarded as the pinnacle of African American music in the twentieth century, distinguished by the originality of its improvisation, the virtuosity and erudition of its performers and composers, and its professionalism and artistry. Several broader social forces have shaped the history of jazz and its changing cultural meaning in the twentieth century, including urbanization, racism, the advent of recording and broadcasting technology, modernism as an aesthetic ideology, two world wars, and the Civil Rights movement.
