New World symphonies

by Jack Sullivan

This book shows for the first time the profound and transformative influence of American literature, music, and mythology on European music. Although the impact of European tradition on American composers is widely acknowledged, Jack Sullivan demonstrates that an even more powerful musical current has flowed from the New World to the Old. The spread of rock and roll around the world, the author contends, is only the latest chapter in a cross-cultural story that began in the nineteenth century with Gottschalk in Paris and Dvorak in New York. Sullivan explores the effects on European music of American authors as diverse as Twain, DuBois, Melville, and Langston Hughes, and he uncovers the African-American musical influence on Europe, beginning with spirituals and culminating in the impact of jazz on Stravinsky, Bartok, Walton, and other noted composers.