Jazz & the Germans : essays on the influence of "hot" American idioms on 20th-century German music

Many commentators have observed that the influence of jazz and related popular musics on musical practice beyond American borders should be considered one of the most dynamic developments of the twentieth century. This collection of essays concentrates on American influences in Germany, where such unlikely "foreign" elements enjoyed a remarkable vogue for much of the past century, not only in the realm of popular culture but in the realm of high art as well. Against the tumultuous social and political upheavals of modern Germany there evolved a fascinating musical sound track that introduced German musicians and their public to ragtime, spirituals, the blues, later dance music, and jazz with resulting opportunities for imitation and assimilation. In this volume American scholars from various academic perspectives—Alan Lareau (German studies), Frank Tirro (musicology), E. Douglas Bomberger (musicology), Dane Heuchemer (musicology), Kathryn Smith Bowers (music education), and David Snowball (rhetoric and communication) are joined by German musician-scholars—Joachim Lucchesi, Carlo Bohländer, and Heinz Werner Zimmermann.