Classical Music in America: A History (review)

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Classical Music in America, originally published in 2005 and recently released in a lightly revised paperback edition, is a big book. This is not because of its formidable length but because of its scope and aspirations. Too many books today are narrow in scope and intellectually safe rather than daring. The ambitious goal of this study is to survey the history of classical music culture in America—not merely composition—from its origins in the nineteenth century to the present. The story is told with an epic sweep that makes for entertaining, almost novelistic reading, and it presents provocative new ideas that have challenged readers to rethink the history of music and culture in America. Such a book demands thoughtful responses and careful analysis, both of which have been supplied by a variety of critics during the past four years.

The unique perspectives of the work derive in large part from the diverse experiences of the author. Joseph Horowitz is best known as a cultural historian who has written books and articles on an impressive array of topics in American music history. He is also a critic who wrote for the New York Times from 1977 to 1980 and has been an articulate observer of concert life in New York for decades. Finally, he has been a concert producer, both in his official capacity with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra during the 1990s and as an independent producer since that time. The book draws on these varied experiences and also on his previous writings, most notably on Wagner and Dvořák in America, the influential career of Arturo Toscanini, and “post-classical” musical culture.

Classical Music in America was originally subtitled “A History of Its Rise and Fall,” an apt description of the author’s view of the trajectory of classical music in the United States. The story is presented as a tragedy, and as in the great tragedies of Sophocles and Shakespeare, the outcome hinges on the faulty choices of the protagonist. In Horowitz’s view, classical music matured rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century, reaching a zenith of influence and cultural relevance shortly after 1890. In the twentieth century, American classical music culture lost its integrity through a series of missteps: the failure to establish opera in the vernacular; the marginalization of German-American musicians during World War I; the elevation of Toscanini to the status of cultural leader despite his limited range of repertoire and inadequate grasp of American culture; the failure to establish public radio in the 1930s; the rise of “music appreciation” with its attendant focus on “great” music at the expense of a broad musical culture; and the establishment of generous Ford Foundation grants in the 1960s, which led to an oversupply of orchestral concerts but a disconnect with contemporary composers. The result was that “by [the twentieth] century’s end, intellectuals had deserted classical music; compared to the theater, cinema, or dance, it was the American performing art most divorced from contemporary creativity, most susceptible to midcult decadence” (516). He closes the book with speculation about what is most vibrant in today’s “post-classical” world and about where the culture might go in the future.

In an opening “Apologia,” Horowitz clarifies that the book is neither comprehensive (xvi) nor objective (xvii). The numerous anecdotes and statistics covering 150 years of music and musicians are selective rather than exhaustive, used most often to support his deeply personal views on American musical history. Because he feels so strongly about his subject, there is a tendency to moralize about the false steps that he describes. He expresses disappointment and even outrage at the actions and attitudes of his historical subjects, as in this description of Gilded Age Boston:

In pondering Boston’s errors of judgment—John Sullivan Dwight’s repudiation of Wagner, Philip Hale’s condescension toward Dvořák—the historian of culture is challenged to understand what others thought in the context...