Orpheus in Manhattan William Schuman and the Shaping of America's Musical Life [Paperback]

Winner of the ASCAP Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography

The musical landscape of New York City and the United States of America would look quite different had it not been for William Schuman.Orpheus in Manhattan, a fully objective and comprehensive biography of Schuman, portrays a man who had a profound influence upon the artistic and political institutions of his day and beyond. Steve Swayne draws heavily upon Schuman's letters, writings, and manuscripts as well as unprecedented access to archival recordings and previously unknown correspondence. The winner of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music, Schuman composed music that is rhythmically febrile, harmonically pungent, melodically long-breathed, and timbrally brilliant, and Swayne offers an astute analysis of his work, including many unpublished music scores. Swayne also describes Schuman's role as president of the Juilliard School of Music and of Lincoln Center, tracing how he both expanded the boundaries of music education and championed the performing arts. Filled with new discoveries and revisions of the received historical narrative,Orpheus in Manhattanconfirms Schuman as a major figure in America's musical life.

Introduction: The Impact of a Single Symphony
Part 1: The Early Years
Chapter 1:The Family Tree
Chapter 2:A Kid Grows In Queens and Manhattan
Chapter 3:Camp Cobbossee (And a Summer Abroad)
Chapter 4:A Flash in Tin Pan Alley
Chapter 5:Frankie
Chapter 6:An Unconventional Education
Part 2: The Sarah Lawrence Years
Chapter 7:Sarah Lawrence and the Beginning of the Decade of War
Chapter 8: The pupil is outdoing the master : Harris, Schuman, and the Second Symphony
Chapter 9:Schuman, Copland, Koussevitzky, and Bernstein
Chapter l#Ð