Topic: BOOK choices
Composers Voices from Ives to Ellington: An Oral History of American Music
The first decades of the twentieth century were a fertile and fascinating period in American musical history. This book and the two CDs that accompany it present an exceptional collection of interviews with and about the most significant musical figures of the era. Tapping the unparalleled materials contained in the Oral History American Music archive at Yale University, Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington is a unique account of what it was like for musicians and composers to live and work in those years. It is also the story of the making of this archive, as told by Vivian Perlis, who personally conducted many of the interviews.