Without a doubt there is no more influential power in contemporary popular music than the United States. Regardless of your appreciation of jazz, pop, rock, rap and so forth, it is clear that America is responsible for much of what the rest of the world listens to--good and bad. And while the same leadership cannot be claimed in the realm of art music (so-called "classical" music), the U.S. has certainly risen to full partner status in its compositions, educational institutions and quality of its performers. What may be surprising is how recently this country's musical "respectability" occurred.
This is apparent when one looks back into the last century. The American musical landscape of the 1900s was largely barren, with but a very few composers and performers who might be considered as having any historical significance.
Even those couple of artists whose works remain today are hardly worth mentioning when their European counterparts were the likes of Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Wagner, Liszt and so forth. In addition, as we research the lives of most of the composers we can muster as being indigenous to the States, we discover that they, on the whole, spent considerable time in Europe for their education and grooming. So while we may claim them by birthright, their music is clearly the progeny of the mother countries.
Nonetheless, there are a few composers and works that have survived. And from our comfortable distance of a hundred plus years we begin to see in these men and their music the seeds of an American musical spirit.
