John Kirkpatrick, American Music, and the Printed Page

by Drew Massey

Overview

How one extraordinary pianist, scholar, and editor prepared for publication important scores by Ives, Copland, and Ruggles, and reshaped the history of American musical modernism.

For over sixty years, the scholar and pianist John Kirkpatrick tirelessly promoted and championed the music of American composers. In this book, Drew Massey explores how Kirkpatrick's career as an editor of music shaped the musicand legacies of some of the great American modernists, including Aaron Copland, Ross Lee Finney, Roy Harris, Hunter Johnson, Charles Ives, Robert Palmer, and Carl Ruggles. Drawing on oral histories, interviews, and Kirkpatrick's own extensive archives, Massey carefully reconstructs Kirkpatrick's collaborations with such luminaries, displaying his editorial practice and inviting reconsideration of many of the most important debates in American modernism —for example, the self-fashioning of young composers during the 1940s, the cherished myth of Ruggles as a composer in communion with the "timeless," and Ives's status as a pioneer of modernist techniques.

First winner (November 2014) of ASCAP's Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism.

Drew Massey is an Assistant Professor of Music at Binghamton University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580464048
Publisher:	BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date:	06/15/2013
Series:	ISSN , #98
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

List of Musical Examples ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Strange Stopping Places 1

1 Beginnings 8

2 Mentorship: Music Publishing 28

3 Collaboration: Ruggles's Evocations 50

4 Performance: Ives's Concord Sonata 73

5 Imagination: Ruggles's Mood 92

6 Voice: The Prose Works 118

7 Institution: The Charles Ives Society 129

Conclusion: Kirkpatrick, Compared 153

Notes 157

Works of John Kirkpatrick 181

Bibliography 187

Index 197

Plates follow page 100

Editorial Reviews

WINNER OF THE 2014 VIRGIL THOMPSON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MUSIC CRITICISM, ASCAP FOUNDATION

.

A major contribution to understanding Kirkpatrick's role in performing and editing American music. Adds significantly to the relatively sparse existing literature on Ruggles. The overall tone is accessible.

MLA NOTES

An engrossing, thought-provoking, and unusual book about a most unusual man. . . Delectable smorgasbord of biography, cultural and reception history, and philological review. [The chapter on Charles Ruggles's Mood for violin and piano is] a tour de force of musicological inquiry. . . A fascinating and multilayered book about a man who truly made an incalculable difference, not only in Ives reception and studies, but also for the legacy of strong, ambitious, and dissonant . . . American classical music. MUSIC & LETTERS

MUSIC & LETTERS

A substantial and provocative contribution to our understanding of Kirkpatrick as a man, performer, editor, and scholar. This book's implications reach beyond the particular composers and works involved and will interest readers concerned with American music generally, as well as those interested in the history and practice of editing in the twentieth century. —

Tom C. Owens

We need a lot more books like this, books that don't content themselves with the public record but go backstage and unravel what ropes were being pulled by whom to make the stage machinery work. A mesmerizing final chapter relates how the evolving editorial policies of the Charles Ives Society formed and reformed in relation and reaction to Elliott Carter's and Maynard Solomon's charges against Ives.

POSTCLASSIC

Massey conjures up atmospheres (e.g., Paris in the 1920s as experienced by young American musicians) ably and supplies interesting facts (such as that in 1928, Kirkpatrick was the first person to write an article about Aaron Copland). This book should be in the collection of every academic library. . . . One of the charms of Massey's book is his respect for his subject and the flowery language he sometimes employs to convey his admiration. . . . Massey's discussion of the respective positions of Elliott Carter and Kirkpatrick on the Ives controversy alone is worth the cost of the book. Anyone interested in the history of 20th-century American music and questions of priority will want to read this book.

CRITICAL MARGINS

We need a lot more books like this, books that don't content themselves with the public record but go backstage and unravel what ropes were being pulled by whom to make the stage machinery work. A mesmerizing final chapter relates how the evolving editorial policies of the Charles Ives Society formed and reformed in relation and reaction to Elliott Carter's and Maynard Solomon's charges against Ives. POSTCLASSIC

A major contribution to understanding Kirkpatrick's role in performing and editing American music. Adds significantly to the relatively sparse existing literature on Ruggles. The overall tone is accessible. MLA NOTES

WINNER OF THE 2014 VIRGIL THOMPSON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MUSIC CRITICISM, ASCAP FOUNDATION

An engrossing, thought-provoking, and unusual book about a most unusual man. . . Delectable smorgasbord of biography, cultural and reception history, and philological review. [The chapter on Charles Ruggles's Mood for violin and piano is] a tour de force of musicological inquiry. . . A fascinating and multilayered book about a man who truly made an incalculable difference, not only in Ives reception and studies, but also for the legacy of strong, ambitious, and dissonant . . . American classical music. MUSIC & LETTERS

Massey conjures up atmospheres (e.g., Paris in the 1920s as experienced by young American musicians) ably and supplies interesting facts (such as that in 1928, Kirkpatrick was the first person to write an article about Aaron Copland). This book should be in the collection of every academic library. . . . One of the charms of Massey's book is his respect for his subject and the flowery language he sometimes employs to convey his admiration. . . . Massey's discussion of the respective positions of Elliott Carter and Kirkpatrick on the Ives controversy alone is worth the cost of the book. Anyone interested in the history of 20th-century American music and questions of priority will want to read this book. CRITICAL MARGINS

A substantial and provocative contribution to our understanding of Kirkpatrick as a man, performer, editor, and scholar. This book's implications reach beyond the particular composers and works involved and will interest readers concerned with American music generally, as well as those interested in the history and practice of editing in the twentieth century. --Tom C. Owens, editor of Selected Correspondence of Charles Ives

From the Publisher