Awards

• Winner of Winner, Lowens Book Award, Society for American Music.

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9780195058499

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Reviews

Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is a rare achievement, at once on essential musicological study and major contribution to our general fund of knowledge on America in the twentieth century...Too much cultural history is written from a... big man perspective. This book fills in our map of the neighbourhood, giving us the lesser known musicians, patrons, critics, magazines, and new music societies, not to mention selected painters, philosophers, mystics and cranks...Her brief discussions of the artistic/intellectual climate surrounding her composers is superb, and will keep the non-specialist glued to the page. --Current Musicology Pioneering....This is important history, and [Oja] cover[s] all of it, conservatives and radicals alike, with fascinating sidelights on critics, female patrons of contemporary music and of course on individual composers....[Oja reveals] that modern music in the 20's was diverse and multicultural, with jazz and Latin overtones, women composers and one strong African-American, William Grant Still. And [she shows] that American modernism could be provocatively different from the European kind. --The New York Times Book Review [A] superb exploration of the classical music scene in New York City during the 1920s and early 1930s....Profiles a variety of composers, both well known (Aaron Copland) and little remembered (Dane Rudhyar)....[Oja's] ability to show how styles such as neoclassicism and the use of technology or dissonance combined to form a new genre of `American' music is a distinguishing feature....Exhaustively researched and written in an intelligent, engaging style, this book is highly recommended. --Library Journal Marvelous....[Oja] wisely recognizes both the internationalism of the music scene during the 1920s [and] the huge importance of the developing new music infrastructure that emerged during the 1920s....Oja avoids the cultural exclusivity so prevalent among musicologists in her virtuosic contextualization of the emerging new music in the broader world of arts and ideas....A remarkable study. --Institute for Studies in American Music Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is an extraordinary contribution to the history of American music. Her sweeping panorama of New York's music in ferment is, by virtue of the nature of the city, also a brilliant view of the liberation of American composers from bondage to the European tradition. Professor Oja's generous serving of the political and social setting of American modernism and its creators reveals music as a living body within a universe of artistic credos, human relationships, racial prejudices, and economic needs. The book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the concert music of our time and the cultural life of New York. --Joel Sachs, The Julliard School Making Music Modern is an absorbing book that gives a refreshing view of an exciting and pivotal time in the history of American music. Carol Oja has achieved a wonderfully readable book, backed by an impressive amount of research. It is filled with rich detail and vivid portraits of the colorful figures that made modernism the catchword of 20th-century music. Carol Oja brings this fascinating period to life in an original format that gives the reader an insightful and engrossing experience. --Vivian Perlis, Yale University Making Music Modern is a distinguished work of musical scholarship: a beautifully wrought blend of data and interpretation by an author with sovereign command of her subject. The topic is important as well as complex: not only how American composers grappled with modern currents but how European modernism extended its reach to a part of the globe that was in the process of changing from outpost to cultural capital. I unreservedly commend it. --Richard Crawford, University of Michigan Wise, witty and compulsively readable...non-dogmatically postmodern. Eschewing a linear narrative, [Oja] writes short chapters that are narrowly and precisely focused rather than comprehensive. The result might be likened to the comic strip, that most post-modern of narrative forms, and the form fits the content. --Times Literary Supplement Pioneering....This is important history, and [Oja] cover[s] all of it, conservatives and radicals alike, with fascinating sidelights on critics, female patrons of contemporary music and of course on individual composers....[Oja reveals] that modern music in the 20's was diverse and multicultural, with jazz and Latin overtones, women composers and one strong African-American, William Grant Still. And [she shows] that American modernism could be provocatively different from the European kind. --The New York Times Book Review Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is a rare achievement, at once on essential musicological study and major contribution to our general fund of knowledge on America in the twentieth century...Too much cultural history is written from a... big man perspective. This book fills in our map of the neighbourhood, giving us the lesser known musicians, patrons, critics, magazines, and new music societies, not to mention selected painters, philosophers, mystics and cranks...Her brief discussions of the artistic/intellectual climate surrounding her composers is superb, and will keep the non-specialist glued to the page. --Current Musicology [A] superb exploration of the classical music scene in New York City during the 1920s and early 1930s....Profiles a variety of composers, both well known (Aaron Copland) and little remembered (Dane Rudhyar)....[Oja's] ability to show how styles such as neoclassicism and the use of technology or dissonance combined to form a new genre of `American' music is a distinguishing feature....Exhaustively researched and written in an intelligent, engaging style, this book is highly recommended. --Library Journal Marvelous....[Oja] wisely recognizes both the internationalism of the music scene during the 1920s [and] the huge importance of the developing new music infrastructure that emerged during the 1920s....Oja avoids the cultural exclusivity so prevalent among musicologists in her virtuosic contextualization of the emerging new music in the broader world of arts and ideas....A remarkable study. --Institute for Studies in American Music Brings a multidimensional perspective to examining the music scene in 1920s New York. Having unearthed extensive archival materials (including interviews, correspondence and little-known music manuscripts), Oja dispels many myths and considers art in conjunction with contemporary social, cultural, and political issues. --Publishers Weekly A rare achievement, at once an essential musicological study and a major contribution to our general fund of knowledge on America in the twentieth century. --Current Musicology Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is an extraordinary contribution to the history of American music. Her sweeping panorama of New York's music in ferment is, by virtue of the nature of the city, also a brilliant view of the liberation of American composers from bondage to the European tradition. Professor Oja's generous serving of the political and social setting of American modernism and its creators reveals music as a living body within a universe of artistic credos, human relationships, racial prejudices, and economic needs. The book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the concert music of our time and the cultural life of New York. --Joel Sachs, The Juilliard School Making Music Modern is an absorbing book that gives a refreshing view of an exciting and pivotal time in the history of American music. Carol Oja has achieved a wonderfully readable book, backed by an impressive amount of research. It is filled with rich detail and vivid portraits of the colorful figures that made modernism the catchword of 20th-century music. Carol Oja brings this fascinating period to life in an original format that gives the reader an insightful and engrossing experience. --Vivian Perlis, Yale University Making Music Modern is a distinguished work of musical scholarship: a beautifully wrought blend of data and interpretation by an author with sovereign command of her subject. The topic is important as well as complex: not only how American composers grappled with modern currents but how European modernism extended its reach to a part of the globe that was in the process of changing from outpost to cultural capital. I unreservedly commend it. --Richard Crawford, University of Michigan Wise, witty and compulsively readable...non-dogmatically postmodern. Eschewing a linear narrative, [Oja] writes short chapters that are narrowly and precisely focused rather than comprehensive. The result might be likened to the comic strip, that most post-modern of narrative forms, and the form fits the content. --Times Literary Supplement

""Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is a rare achievement, at once on essential musicological study and major contribution to our general fund of knowledge on America in the twentieth century...Too much cultural history is written from a...""big man"" perspective. This book fills in our map of the neighbourhood, giving us the lesser known musicians, patrons, critics, magazines, and new music societies, not to mention selected painters, philosophers, mystics and cranks...Her brief discussions of the artistic/intellectual climate surrounding her composers is superb, and will keep the non-specialist glued to the page.""--Current Musicology ""Pioneering....This is important history, and [Oja] cover[s] all of it, conservatives and radicals alike, with fascinating sidelights on critics, female patrons of contemporary music and of course on individual composers....[Oja reveals] that modern music in the 20's was diverse and multicultural, with jazz and Latin overtones, women composers and one strong African-American, William Grant Still. And [she shows] that American modernism could be provocatively different from the European kind.""--The New York Times Book Review ""[A] superb exploration of the classical music scene in New York City during the 1920s and early 1930s....Profiles a variety of composers, both well known (Aaron Copland) and little remembered (Dane Rudhyar)....[Oja's] ability to show how styles such as neoclassicism and the use of technology or dissonance combined to form a new genre of `American' music is a distinguishing feature....Exhaustively researched and written in an intelligent, engaging style, this book is highly recommended.""--Library Journal ""Marvelous....[Oja] wisely recognizes both the internationalism of the music scene during the 1920s [and] the huge importance of the developing new music infrastructure that emerged during the 1920s....Oja avoids the cultural exclusivity so prevalent among musicologists in her virtuosic contextualization of the emerging new music in the broader world of arts and ideas....A remarkable study.""--Institute for Studies in American Music ""Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is an extraordinary contribution to the history of American music. Her sweeping panorama of New York's music in ferment is, by virtue of the nature of the city, also a brilliant view of the liberation of American composers from bondage to the European tradition. Professor Oja's generous serving of the political and social setting of American modernism and its creators reveals music as a living body within a universe of artistic credos, human relationships, racial prejudices, and economic needs. The book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the concert music of our time and the cultural life of New York.""--Joel Sachs, The Julliard School ""Making Music Modern is an absorbing book that gives a refreshing view of an exciting and pivotal time in the history of American music. Carol Oja has achieved a wonderfully readable book, backed by an impressive amount of research. It is filled with rich detail and vivid portraits of the colorful figures that made modernism the catchword of 20th-century music. Carol Oja brings this fascinating period to life in an original format that gives the reader an insightful and engrossing experience.""--Vivian Perlis, Yale University ""Making Music Modern is a distinguished work of musical scholarship: a beautifully wrought blend of data and interpretation by an author with sovereign command of her subject. The topic is important as well as complex: not only how American composers grappled with modern currents but how European modernism extended its reach to a part of the globe that was in the process of changing from outpost to cultural capital. I unreservedly commend it.""--Richard Crawford, University of Michigan ""Wise, witty and compulsively readable...non-dogmatically postmodern. Eschewing a linear narrative, [Oja] writes short chapters that are narrowly and precisely focused rather than comprehensive. The result might be likened to the comic strip, that most post-modern of narrative forms, and the form fits the content.""--Times Literary Supplement ""Pioneering....This is important history, and [Oja] cover[s] all of it, conservatives and radicals alike, with fascinating sidelights on critics, female patrons of contemporary music and of course on individual composers....[Oja reveals] that modern music in the 20's was diverse and multicultural, with jazz and Latin overtones, women composers and one strong African-American, William Grant Still. And [she shows] that American modernism could be provocatively different from the European kind.""--The New York Times Book Review ""Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is a rare achievement, at once on essential musicological study and major contribution to our general fund of knowledge on America in the twentieth century...Too much cultural history is written from a...""big man"" perspective. This book fills in our map of the neighbourhood, giving us the lesser known musicians, patrons, critics, magazines, and new music societies, not to mention selected painters, philosophers, mystics and cranks...Her brief discussions of the artistic/intellectual climate surrounding her composers is superb, and will keep the non-specialist glued to the page.""--Current Musicology ""[A] superb exploration of the classical music scene in New York City during the 1920s and early 1930s....Profiles a variety of composers, both well known (Aaron Copland) and little remembered (Dane Rudhyar)....[Oja's] ability to show how styles such as neoclassicism and the use of technology or dissonance combined to form a new genre of `American' music is a distinguishing feature....Exhaustively researched and written in an intelligent, engaging style, this book is highly recommended.""--Library Journal ""Marvelous....[Oja] wisely recognizes both the internationalism of the music scene during the 1920s [and] the huge importance of the developing new music infrastructure that emerged during the 1920s....Oja avoids the cultural exclusivity so prevalent among musicologists in her virtuosic contextualization of the emerging new music in the broader world of arts and ideas....A remarkable study.""--Institute for Studies in American Music ""Brings a multidimensional perspective to examining the music scene in 1920s New York. Having unearthed extensive archival materials (including interviews, correspondence and little-known music manuscripts), Oja dispels many myths and considers art in conjunction with contemporary social, cultural, and political issues.""--Publishers Weekly ""A rare achievement, at once an essential musicological study and a major contribution to our general fund of knowledge on America in the twentieth century.""--Current Musicology ""Carol Oja's Making Music Modern is an extraordinary contribution to the history of American music. Her sweeping panorama of New York's music in ferment is, by virtue of the nature of the city, also a brilliant view of the liberation of American composers from bondage to the European tradition. Professor Oja's generous serving of the political and social setting of American modernism and its creators reveals music as a living body within a universe of artistic credos, human relationships, racial prejudices, and economic needs. The book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the concert music of our time and the cultural life of New York.""--Joel Sachs, The Juilliard School ""Making Music Modern is an absorbing book that gives a refreshing view of an exciting and pivotal time in the history of American music. Carol Oja has achieved a wonderfully readable book, backed by an impressive amount of research. It is filled with rich detail and vivid portraits of the colorful figures that made modernism the catchword of 20th-century music. Carol Oja brings this fascinating period to life in an original format that gives the reader an insightful and engrossing experience.""--Vivian Perlis, Yale University ""Making Music Modern is a distinguished work of musical scholarship: a beautifully wrought blend of data and interpretation by an author with sovereign command of her subject. The topic is important as well as complex: not only how American composers grappled with modern currents but how European modernism extended its reach to a part of the globe that was in the process of changing from outpost to cultural capital. I unreservedly commend it.""--Richard Crawford, University of Michigan ""Wise, witty and compulsively readable...non-dogmatically postmodern. Eschewing a linear narrative, [Oja] writes short chapters that are narrowly and precisely focused rather than comprehensive. The result might be likened to the comic strip, that most post-modern of narrative forms, and the form fits the content.""--Times Literary Supplement

In its rich accumulation of detail, its overlapping and sometimes conflicting perspectives, and its occasional confusion of the substantial and the imaginary, Oja's book on New York is a mirror of its wonderful subject ... Making Music Modern will be for many readers a bridge to an enticing new world. Music and Letters One of the admirable features of this book is that Oja avoids the trap into which many well-meaning studies fall: the assumption that music history is shaped entirely by composers. Music and Letters As befits its subject, it is teeming with names and events and packed with information: any reader, no matter how specialist, will learn new things ... The author's evident love for the New York of those years is stamped on every page, and her enthusiasm for its musical legacy is infectious. Music and Letters Carol J. Oja's wise, witty and compulsively readable book, Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920's, looks back at the formation of the experimental, traditionalist and populist strains in today's New York with a critical yet sympathetic sense of the mixture of idealism and hucksterism that still prevails. Carol Oja writes short chapters that are narrowly and precisely focused rather than comprehensive. The result might be likened to a comic strip, that most post-modern of narrative forms, and the form fits the content. David Schiff, Times Literary Supplement

In its rich accumulation of detail, its overlapping and sometimes conflicting perspectives, and its occasional confusion of the substantial and the imaginary, Oja's book on New York is a mirror of its wonderful subject ... Making Music Modern will be for many readers a bridge to an enticing new world. Music and Letters One of the admirable features of this book is that Oja avoids the trap into which many well-meaning studies fall: the assumption that music history is shaped entirely by composers. Music and Letters As befits its subject, it is teeming with names and events and packed with information: any reader, no matter how specialist, will learn new things ... The author's evident love for the New York of those years is stamped on every page, and her enthusiasm for its musical legacy is infectious. Music and Letters Carol J. Oja's wise, witty and compulsively readable book, Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920's, looks back at the formation of the experimental, traditionalist and populist strains in today's New York with a critical yet sympathetic sense of the mixture of idealism and hucksterism that still prevails. Carol Oja writes short chapters that are narrowly and precisely focused rather than comprehensive. The result might be likened to a comic strip, that most post-modern of narrative forms, and the form fits the content. David Schiff, Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

Carol Oja is William Powell Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University. She is co-editor of Aaron Copland and his World, as well as author of Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds, which won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, and American Music Recordings: A Discography of U.S. Composers.

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