Product details
- ISBN 9781442242449
- Weight: 386g
- Dimensions: 156 x 237mm
- Publication Date: 22 Dec 2016
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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With their unforgettable melodies, timeless messages, and stylistic indebtedness to both jazz and Broadway, American popular standards have proven to be among the most widely performed and enjoyed songs of the past century. Shaped in many ways by the technological and cultural developments of the early twentieth century, they have also managed to transcend these origins and become an enduring part of the American musical landscape.
Ann van der Merwe explores how and why American songbook standards developed in the early twentieth century and how these standards have shaped American—and even global—musical culture ever since. The American Songbook explores key aspects of individual songs, including the musical and lyrical reasons for their broad appeal and applicability over the years.
The American songbook continues to permeate the fabric of our daily lives. It is a repertoire that spans generations, from Fred Astaire to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. As a result, music lovers both young and old will enjoy discovering how these beloved songs emerged and why they remain relevant a century later.
Ann van der Merwe has taught in the music departments of Miami University and
Ohio State University. She is the author of The Ziegfeld Follies: A History in Song (Scarecrow Press, 2009) and has contributed entries to the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Her research has also been published in Music and the Moving Image and Studies in Musical Theatre, and she appeared in the 2000 national tour of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.
