American Music Drew Andrew Davies,

A. American Music, Drew Andrew Davies, Associate Professor, Musicology

What is American music? Is there such a thing as American music? Or for that matter, is there any music that isn’t American music?

In this nine-week class, we will explore music that expresses the uniqueness, diversity, contradictions, and global connections of music in the United States across the country’s history. American music is not a single tradition, but rather a multiplicity – a quilt? – of contiguous practices shaped by religion, race, geography, migration, commerce, innovation, and many other factors. The topic is too large to be comprehensive, thus the repertoires selected will concentrate in three areas: secular songs (folk, art, pop, etc.), religious songs (hymns, Spirituals), and the contributions of African American composers and traditions.