Arthur Farwell was a leading figure in the so-called "Indianist" movement of the early 20th century, quite a celebrated composer during the first third of the 20th century, and admired by no less a figure than Toscanini. He fell into obscurity after his death, charged, even before the concept was in general circulation, with cultural appropriation. However, the question is complicated, for he did a lot of what would be called ethnography and treated Native American music in a variety of ways that show him wrestling with its ...
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Arthur Farwell was a leading figure in the so-called "Indianist" movement of the early 20th century, quite a celebrated composer during the first third of the 20th century, and admired by no less a figure than Toscanini. He fell into obscurity after his death, charged, even before the concept was in general circulation, with cultural appropriation. However, the question is complicated, for he did a lot of what would be called ethnography and treated Native American music in a variety of ways that show him wrestling with its models at a deeper level than his contemporaries. Indeed, listening to this program originated by historian and musicologist Joseph Horowitz, one may think at times of the music of Bartók, who was indeed not a Hungarian peasant. The program here includes music for string quartet, voice and piano, piano solo, and a small chorus, and it gives a sense of Farwell's encounter with Native American traditions. At times, he simply provided Native American melodies with European-style...
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