ABSTRACT

A musical work, of whatever dimension or intent, need not “sound” American to belong to our musical Americana category; the American musical scene without the European operetta accents of Victor Herbert, or the “absolute music” of Roger Sessions, or the experimentalism of George Crumb would be unthinkable. The authentic music of the American Indian has had little effect on the evolution of American music—and the use of its themes by trained musicians resulted generally in the dissolution of the original. Essentially a piano music, ragtime can be traced back to authentic plantation songs, minstrel shows (with their banjo virtuosos), as well as the popular dances and marches that served to make the latter 1890s truly gay. The more American accents were contributed by such as Harrigan and Hart, Weber and Fields—right out of burlesque—and the arch-Americanist, George M. Cohan. Tin Pan Alley, by the end of the war, was a thriving business, ready to supply “what the public wanted.”.