U.S. Culture

Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera,

orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between

traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas.

During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate

wider groups of people. The African American community produced great

musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues

singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie

Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and

1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller

adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the

country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American

influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin

American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba,

were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and

jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by

the Brazilian bossa nova.

Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United

States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer

George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in

the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the

New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during

the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this

company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an

internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic

director during the 1980s.

In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who

composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United

States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andrй Previn,

who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a

number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet,

cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony

Orchestra in Washington, D.C., in 1977.

Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century

successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers

George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable

examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in

popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess

(1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and

American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along

more expressive and free-form lines.

Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and

choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the

1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with

everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of

piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began

to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects.

Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation

was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in

the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic

performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical

revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s,

this American musical tradition was well established and had produced

extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George

and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz

Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an

immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the

musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that

produced some of America's greatest choreographers, among them Jerome

Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse.

In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that

it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard

Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated

version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic

in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born

conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic.

He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador

of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music

to the public, especially through his "Young People's Concerts,"

television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many

facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world

and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation.

In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that

began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s

resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their

increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American

center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the

1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet

companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended

modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important

influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included

composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri

String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the

works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet.

As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover

between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and

1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to

new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings

such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music,

while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music,

exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of

grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare

in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was

playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large

audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-

1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras,

including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that

often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased

in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include

companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New

Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began

composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and

1980s.

The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably

America's most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music

became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the

1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring

in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music

and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the

classic opera La Bohиme. This updating of the musical opened the theater

to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as

well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music.

Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country.

This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups

as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th

century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of

resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies

increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to

travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the

audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie

Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the

Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American

Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented

on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a

provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has

become a flourishing center for the performing arts.

Libraries and Museums

Libraries, museums, and other collections of historical artifacts have

been a primary means of organizing and preserving America’s legacy. In the

20th century, these institutions became an important vehicle for educating

the public about the past and for providing knowledge about the society of

which all Americans are a part.

Libraries

Private book collections go back to the early European settlement of the

New World, beginning with the founding of the Harvard University library

in 1638. Colleges and universities acquire books because they are a

necessary component of higher education. University libraries have many of

the most significant and extensive book collections. In addition to

Harvard’s library, the libraries at Yale University, Columbia University,

the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, and the

University of California in Berkeley and Los Angeles are among the most

prominent, both in scope and in number of holdings. Many of these

libraries also contain important collections of journals, newspapers,

pamphlets, and government documents, as well as private papers, letters,

pictures, and photographs. These libraries are essential for preserving

America’s history and for maintaining the records of individuals,

families, institutions, and other groups.

Books in early America were scarce and expensive. Although some Americans

owned books, Benjamin Franklin made a much wider range of books and other

printed materials available to many more people when he created the first

generally recognized public library in 1731. Although Franklin’s Library

Company of Philadelphia loaned books only to paying subscribers, the

library became the first one in the nation to make books available to

people who did not own them. During the colonial period Franklin’s idea

was adopted by cities such as Boston, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode

Island; and Charleston, South Carolina.

These libraries set the precedent for the free public libraries that began

to spread through the United States in the 1830s. Public libraries were

seen as a way to encourage literacy among the citizens of the young

republic as well as a means to provide education in conjunction with the

public schools that were being set up at the same time. In 1848 Boston

founded the first major public library in the nation. By the late 19th

century, libraries were considered so essential to the nation's well-being

that industrialist Andrew Carnegie donated part of his enormous fortune to

the construction of library buildings. Because Carnegie believed that

libraries were a public obligation, he expected the books to be

contributed through public expenditure. Since the 19th century, locally

funded public libraries have become part of the American landscape, often

occupying some of the most imposing public buildings in cities such as New

York, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Philadelphia. The belief that the

knowledge and enjoyment that books provide should be accessible to all

Americans also resulted in bookmobiles that serve in inner cities and in

rural counties.

In addition to the numerous public libraries and university collections,

the United States boasts two major libraries with worldwide stature: the

Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the New York Public Library.

In 1800 Congress passed legislation founding the Library of Congress,

which was initially established to serve the needs of the members of

Congress. Since then, this extraordinary collection has become one of the

world's great libraries and a depository for every work copyrighted in the

United States. Housed in three monumental buildings named after Presidents

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, the library is open to

the public and maintains major collections of papers, photographs, films,

maps, and music in addition to more than 17 million books.

The New York Public Library was founded in 1895. The spectacular and

enormous building that today houses the library in the heart of the city

opened in 1911 with more than a million volumes. The library is guarded by

a famous set of lion statues, features a world-famous reading room, and

contains more than 40 million catalogued items. Although partly funded

through public dollars, the library also actively seeks funds from private

sources for its operations.

Institutions such as these libraries are fundamental to the work of

scholars, who rely on the great breadth of library collections. Scholars

also rely on many specialized library collections throughout the country.

These collections vary greatly in the nature of their holdings and their

affiliations. The Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor at the San

Francisco Public Library contains more than 20,000 volumes in 35

languages. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem,

part of the New York Public Library, specializes in the history of

Africans around the world. The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women

in America, located at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in

Massachusetts, houses the papers of prominent American women such as Susan

B. Anthony and Amelia Earhart. The Bancroft Collection of Western

Americana and Latin Americana is connected with the University of

California at Berkeley. The Huntington Library in San Marino, California,

was established by American railroad executive Henry Huntington and

contains a collection of rare and ancient books and manuscripts. The

Newberry Library in Chicago, one of the most prestigious research

libraries in the nation, contains numerous collections of rare books,

maps, and manuscripts.

Scholars of American history and culture also use the vast repository of

the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., and

its local branches. As the repository and publisher of federal documents,

the National Archives contain an extraordinary array of printed material,

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9