October - 21st Century Music

Doubtless Butterworth seems to favor conservative andaccessible works to the disadvantage of experimental, serial,and recent innovative compositions. However, his detailedtreatment of about 20 individual pieces provides analyticaldescriptions, plentiful quotations from record liner notes(often by the composers), and reviews, whose precise sourceunfortunately is often omitted. Sometimes Butterworth drawsstrange or vague conclusions such as the following: "[AntonPhilipp] Heinrich had chosen American subjects for hisgrandiose orchestral works, but they remained stubbornlyEuropean in musical idiom" (p. 21). He characterizes otherpieces as “less Germanic” (p. 26), “devoid of any Teutonicgloom” (p. 27), “pure Americana” (p. 64), or “the essence ofAmerica” (p.132) without explaining why these subjectivedescriptions apply. One easily disagrees with such blanketassertions as “Anti-German feeling aroused by the First WorldWar diminished the dominance of European music throughoutAmerica.” (p. 26). Or “the post-Second World War revival ofinterest in the 12-note system which swept Europe again hadonly a marginal effect in the United States.” (p. 93). However,most symphonies are presented without any commentaries orare only touched upon. Butterworth merely gives their date ofcomposition, premiere date, instrumentation and number ofmovements. When such information is mechanically strungtogether, one wishes for more reflection, a more preciselydefined context, and helpful references and footnotes. Thebibliography for such a vast topic consists of less than fourpages.With The American Symphony, Butterworth attempts to fill along-felt need. But his book leaves both listeners and scholarsnot quite satisfied. Listeners focus on a limited number ofdetailed descriptions and turn away from the encyclopedicallyassembled data. Scholars miss precision, references,thoughtful analysis and find fault with a number ofmisspellings and factual mistakes (for instance, p. 6: Ives losthis father at age 20 not 10; p. 99-100: Becker’s Symphoniabrevis was premiered not in 1958, but in 1937, by theMinnesota Symphony Orchestra under the composer) andindeed was published in 1971. Nevertheless The AmericanSymphony is based on a great deal of research, most obviousin the gigantic works catalogue that takes up a third of thewhole publication. It provides information that is asheterogeneous as the sources it draws upon, yet informationthat for the most part is not to be found in Baker’sBiographical Dictionary of Musicians or The New GroveDictionary of American Music. Despite its shortcomings TheAmerican Symphony will be a useful reference tool.26