Clearing Up Some Confusion–We Hope
On May 17, 2018, we posted an historical account of the birth of American operettas, to show how the world of operettas had transitioned from Germany, France, England and Austria to New York City.
Then on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, we tried to show how American popular music was blossoming at the same time that American operettas were taking center stage on Broadway. We wanted to make the point that neither one replaced the other; they existed side-by-side.
Based on more than 30 comments we received, our explanation was anything but clear. Each piece of the content we posted was excellent, but we tried to do too much in one post. We learned that we cannot lump three important type of compositions into one post. Instead, we should have take three posts to distinguish between the somewhat rough-and-tumble songs of Harrigan-Hart-Braham; the more refined but brash sound of George M. Cohan; and the traditional sentimental parlor songs of Carrie Jacobs Bond. But it is done, and there is no use in crying over spilt milk.
Instead, we are going to use this post to look back and to look forward, so that we can outline where we have been and where we are going.
We started this series of posts with an exploration of European opera and operetta. We tried to emphasize that opera and operetta are both based on a formal musical style; they are based on European concepts of composition, harmony and counterpoint.
When American composers, such as Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, ascended to the “operetta” throne and dethroned European composers, they did so by using the skills they learned during their European musical training. Just like their European counterparts, the American composers had been taught the classical forms of composition, harmony and counterpoint. However, the American composers were able to succeed after 1900 because their skills in applying this knowledge was superior to that exercised by their European counterparts. Second, slowly the European sound of Offenbach, Strauss and Lehar shifted to a sound produced by Herbert, Friml and Romberg that was more familiar to American ears and sensibilities.
The popularity of American operettas lasted from 1898 to 1928.
However, this compositional form did not exist in a vacuum. American popular music started to make headway during this same period of time through the sale of sheet music. “Tin Pan Alley” is the term we use to discuss the outpouring of popular music in the form of sheet music. Before records and radio, Americans bought the sheet music, took it home and played it on the piano in the parlor. We made our own music by performing at home and at parties. When we went to dances, bands played the same tunes, although they used different (dance band) arrangements.
American popular music took two paths: one style was derived from European musical forms, such as the German lieder, Scotch-Irish music and European dance music (czardas, mazurkas, verbunkos, the polenz and the waltz); the other was a new form that was derived from African rhythms and was developed for the first time in this country by African-Americans. The new African-American music was syncopated and could be found in sacred music (such as Spirituals and Gospel music) or in folk music (work songs, blues and ragtime, now generally lumped together as jazz).
Irish-American popular music came to Broadway first in the style of the music of David Braham and George M. Cohan. But the influence of this music ended well before 1910.
By 1912, Jerome Kern’s music started to appear on Broadway, along with the popular songs of Irving Berlin.
By 1919, the music of George Gershwin appeared, along with first song from Cole Porter.
By 1925, the music of Richard Rodgers was first heard on Broadway.
However, we need to keep in mind one key piece of information: Kern, Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers were classically trained in composition, harmony and counterpoint. This training would eventually result in new compositional forms of music on Broadway.
Starting in 1927, we would see the blending of classical and African-American forms in the hybrid musical, Show Boat.
Show Boat would lead to Porgy and Bess in 1935; and Porgy and Bess would lead to 1943’s Oklahoma!
While this is an oversimplification, it covers the main elements of our musical transitions.
What we must keep in mind is this: no one musical style or form has erased earlier styles or forms. We still love operettas; we still love the music of George M. Cohan. We still sing songs from the poets of Tin Pan Alley. All of this music is additive; none of it replaces any earlier style of music.
Likewise, we still go to the opera to see and hear Verdi and Puccini; we still go to concerts to listen to Mozart and Beethoven.
We must never forget our musical heritage; at the same time, we should never be so tied to our musical heritage that we cannot appreciate a new style of music.
Now on to the future: next Tuesday, May 29th, we will discuss and play ragtime piano music.
Next Thursday, May 31st, we will explore how ragtime music took Tin Pan Alley by storm just after 1900.
And on Tuesday, June 5th, we will start an examination on how jazz infiltrated Broadway scores.
When we finish with this survey of trends, we will return to individual Broadway shows in order to demonstrate how Broadway changed, from show to show. We will tackle George M. Cohan’s first big hit, Little Johnny Jones, on June 7th.
Again, we apologize for the confusion that we caused. We hope this clears up the past confusion and will lay out a clear path for our future posts.