REFLECTIONS on the MUSIC LIFE in the UNITED STATES This is Volume VI of the MERLIN MUSIC BOOKS (8 volumes). Published in this series thus far: I. _Bach: The Conflict Between the Sacred and the Secular_, by Leo Schrade, Professor of The History of Music, Yale University. II. _Tudor Church Music_, by Denis Stevens, British Broadcasting Corporation, London. III. _Stravinsky, Classic Humanist_, by Heinrich Strobel, Director, Music Division, Southwest German Radio System, Baden-Baden. IV. _Musicians and Poets of the French Renaissance_, by François Lesure, _Librarian_, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; _Chief_, Central Secretariat of “Répertoire International des Sources Musicales.” V. _Greek Music, Verse and Dance_, by Thrasybulos Georgiades, Professor of Musicology, University of Munich. VI. _Reflections on the Music Life in the United States_, by Roger Sessions, Professor of Composition, Princeton University. REFLECTIONS on the MUSIC LIFE in the United States ROGER SESSIONS MERLIN PRESS--NEW YORK Printed in Germany THIS IS A MERLIN PRESS BOOK OF THIS EDITION ONLY FIFTEEN HUNDRED COPIES WERE MADE THIS IS NUMBER 175 CONTENTS Page I. Background and Conditions 11 II. Early History 33 III. Concerts 48 IV. Musical Theater 74 V. Music Education 98 VI. Musical Opinion 121 VII. Composers and Their Ideas: 140 Nationalism 140 Quest for Popularity 153 Countercurrents 166 I The following pages represent an attempt to account for the tremendous musical development of the United States during the past thirty-five years--roughly speaking, the years since the end of World War I. We can safely characterize this development as “tremendous,” even without recourse to statistical data, so frequently cited, regarding attendance at symphony concerts, sales of “classical” recordings, new orchestras which have sprung up during the period, and comparative sums of money spent on “serious” music and on baseball. Such statistics while convenient and fashionable, and assuredly not without interest, have a purely quantitative basis--such is the way of statistics--and of themselves do not reveal a vital cultural development. Leaving such matters aside, the achievement remains impressive indeed.