Book Review: Making Music American

Making Music American: 1917 and the Transformation of Culture
E. Douglas Bomberger
History, music

In December 1916, "real" music in America meant music that was (a) classical, and (b) European--most especially, German. With the entry of the U.S. into World War I, that changed. Whether it changed so much or so dramatically as Making Music American wants us to think is open to doubt.

The things I liked best about this book are structural. Bomberger picks a limited cast of characters, emblematic of the changes he's talking about. He gives good introductions of those characters. He doesn't pretend to be inclusive. Each chapter of the book is a single month, and each chapter follows several of those characters through the month. It's a nice format.

The narrative, by contrast, takes a while to get going. There are only so many lists of concerts and repertoire that a body can take before the message starts getting repetitive. Things pick up as the year goes on; the U.S. fell into a depressingly contemporary-seeming slough of jingoism, cheap patriotism, xenophobia, and rabid flag-waving, and the "Germanophile" musical establishment had to cope with it. The depth of animosity, and the speed with which it developed, must have seemed bewildering at the time. The same must have been true of the shallowness, provincialism, and downright stupidity of the so-called patriots. Then, as now, there are plenty of people who imagine that genuine patriotism is interchangeable with symbolic, performative patriotism.

On the American side of the equation, the narrative is less clear-cut. Yes, jazz was clearly in the ascendant in popular culture. It's not particularly evident that the events of the year either advanced or retarded it, though. Nor is there any sign that individual listeners switched from Wagner to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, or even put the two in the same category. Here, I think, the small cast is a double-edged sword; Bomberger omits a lot of significant figures, and can't quite tie his anecdotes into the larger narrative of American music.

I didn't dislike Making Music American, but I thought it oversold its promise. It's well-written enough, but not so compelling as to drag in a reader who's not already invested in the subject matter. The research is very deep, but not very broad. If you're a serious musicophile, in other words, give Making Music American a look. If not, it's skippable.