The Indian Character Piece

Native-American Influenced Piano Works from the Early 20th Century

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1597 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. Stephanie Bruning, piano Th e

The Indian Character Piece India n

Arthur Farwell Characte r 10 The Domain of Hurikan, op. 15 [9:06]

TROY1597 Amy Marcy Cheney Beach Eskimos: Four Characteristic Pieces Piece Stephani e Native-American Influenced Piano Works for Pianoforte, op. 64 from the Early 20th Century 11 Arctic Night [3:59] 12 The Returning Hunter [1:07] Stephanie Bruning, piano 13 Exiles [3:56]

14 With Dog Teams [2:21]

Charles Wakefield Cadman George Templeton-Strong piano Idealized Indian Themes, op. 54 Au pays de peaux-rouges: Suite for Piano [2:27] 15 Moniagnes-Rocheuses [3:10] 1 The Pleasant Moon of Strawberries Bruning , 2 From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water [2:15] 16 Un jeune guerrier [2:34]

Bruning , 3 The Sadness of the Lodge [2:11] 17 Une jeune Indienne [3:06] 4 The Return of the Braves [3:04] 18 Chant de guerre [2:17] piano Homer Grunn Ferruccio Busoni Desert Suite, op. 7 Indianisches Tagebuch, Book I

5 At Sunrise [3:06] 19 Allegretto affettuoso, un poco agitato [3:25] 6 Cholla Dance [2:02] 20 Vivace [1:56] 7 The Mesa [3:09] 21 Andante [5:26] 8 Mirage [1:47] 22 Maestoso ma andando [3:22] Piece Stephani e 9 Oasis [3:11] Total Time = 68:59 TROY1597

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Characte r TROY1597 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD

India n TEL: 01539 824008 © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. Th e The Creation of the Indian Character Piece mapping. Anthropologists and ethnologists moved quickly. By January 1888 the American Folklore Society was established and began collecting lore of the North American Indian.4 Developments in technology, such as The Indianist Movement is a title many music historians use to define the surge of compositions the 1877 Edison phonograph, made it possible to record and conduct the first scientific studies of this music. related to or based on the music of Native Americans that took place from around 1890 to 1920. Hundreds of Because of years of German domination in Western art music, many American composers before compositions written during this time incorporated various aspects of Indian folklore and music into West- the turn of the century sought to please audiences by writing music in the late-Romantic, German style ern art music. This movement resulted from many factors in our nation’s political and social history as well that influenced them most. In contrast, a number of composers in Europe and Russia began to challenge as a quest for a compositional voice that was uniquely American. At the same time, a wave of ethnologists German musical domination. In Russia, the “Mighty Five” wrote music based on their national folklore, began researching and studying Native Americans in an effort to document their culture. In music, the which inspired the development of many new schools of composition in France, Spain, and England. It was character piece was a very successful genre for composers to express themselves. It became a natural not until the last decade of the nineteenth century that a new generation of American composers emerged, genre for composers of the Indianist Movement to use as an outlet for portraying musical themes and folk- concerned with creating its own unique compositional voice and ridding itself of European influence.5 As a lore of Native American tribes. Eventually the enthusiasm for using Native American material died out and result, a debate began between critics and composers about the viability of idiomatic American music and left a large body of piano literature collecting dust, out of print, and virtually unrecognized. whether its roots could be found in folk music, including the music of North American Indians.6 The debate was exacerbated when Antonín Dvorˇák visited the United States and suggested that American composers draw upon their own folk heritage for inspiration. On 15 December 1893 he wrote in Background of American Perceptions the New York Herald: “Since I have been in this country I have been deeply interested in the Music of the In order to understand the creation, progression, and dissemination of the Indian character piece Negroes and the Indians. The character, the very nature of a race is contained in its national music. For that 7 as a genre, it is essential to discuss political and social events that were going on in the United States at reason my attention was at once turned in the direction of these native melodies.” His call to composers the time. These events had a direct impact on the attitudes of composers and audiences regarding Native offended some and inspired others to search for a music that was uniquely American. Americans and their music. A final influence on composers’ eagerness for drawing upon Native-American music was the Chicago Native Americans were not granted voting rights until 1924. Prior to that, Americans were divided as World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 (which Dvorˇák attended). The Exposition displayed a number of ethnic to whether or not Native Americans should be considered Americans at all. In the preceding decades, many villages from around the world. Indian music and ceremonial dances were the hit of the show, and for many 8 factors led to this divide. Political and social progressivism was a sign of advancement in science, economy, composers this event was their first exposure to the music of Native Americans. and civilization, but also created racial tension and was detrimental to the Native-American population.1 It was a powerful ideal that pervaded almost every aspect of American life from around 1890–1920. As a reaction, many Americans took an anti-modernist stand by searching for a return to a simpler way of life, The Development of the Indian Character Piece spiritual beliefs, and a more authentic experience.2 Early adaptations of Native-American melodies would not have progressed into Indian character In 1887 the Allotment Act created the reservation system for Native Americans, and later that year pieces without an ideal idiom to cultivate their development. Before the Indianist Movement emerged, the the Dawes Act put restrictions on the performance of traditional ceremonies. As a reaction to government character piece for solo piano was a very popular and influential Romantic genre. Many Romantic character restrictions, people increasingly sympathized with the “plight of the Indian.”3 In a humanist effort to document pieces include extra-musical suggestions, ranging from portrayals of poems or stories to musical depictions and preserve Indian folklore before it became completely westernized, there was a burst of collecting and of general moods or exotic settings. The character piece was a practical idiom for composers who were Beyond the Wa-Wan Press exploring and attempting to include nationalistic elements.9 Edward MacDowell (1860–1908), who built his reputation on the quality of his piano miniatures, Although the Wa-Wan Press was a prominent beacon in the Indianist Movement, it was not the only composed the earliest known Indian character piece. In 1896 he wrote “From an Indian Lodge” in Ten place where Indian character pieces were published. A well-known composer whose Indian-based works Woodland Sketches, op. 51 followed by “Indian Idyl” from New England Idyls, op. 62 in 1902. Both were were published outside of the Wa-Wan Press was Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867–1944). She, like many written after the initial success of his Indian Suite for Orchestra in 1896, which is considered the first other Indianist composers, was inspired by the new trend to utilize Native-American melodies in serious significant work utilizing Indian themes in America. MacDowell’s Indian character pieces are groundbreaking compositions, writing five Indian-based works in several genres. Beach’s Indian character setEskimos: primarily because they served as a model for the next generation of American composers who made use of Four Characteristic Pieces for the Pianoforte, op. 64 (1906) is a simple adaptation, yet it is colorful and Indian subjects in their character pieces. interesting to play. They are also the only Indian character works to include “character piece” in their title. Other Indianist composers preferred terms such as “tone pictures” or “sketches.” Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881–1946) wrote Indian character pieces with greater virtuosity that The Era of the Wa-Wan Press appealed to concert audiences. Later in his life, Cadman also collected additional Native-American melodies in the Southwest. Like many other Indianist composers, Cadman drew material from ethnologist Alice Fletcher’s A new wave of American composers wrote many Indian character pieces over the next decade. Several publications for his Idealized Indian Themes, op. 54 (1912). The second piece in the set, “From the Land composers developed close relationships with ethnographers and sought to create Indian character pieces of Sky-Blue Water,” is a piano arrangement of an earlier version written for voice and piano. This early ver- that retained various aspects of their original melodies. Indian character pieces were greatly advocated in sion was Cadman’s most famous song and arguably the best-known work of the entire Indianist Movement. Cad- the Wa-Wan Press, a music printing press designed to foster aspiring American composers and the creation man’s eleven works utilizing Native-American melodies caught attention and won affection from American audi- of a national music. ences.11 The creator of the Wa-Wan Press and a pioneer of the Indianist Movement was Arthur Farwell Another composer who contributed multiple Indian character sets to the genre was Homer Grunn (1872–1952), who became an avid promoter of adapting Native-American material. In 1902 Farwell wrote (1880–1944). Grunn, a pianist and teacher, held particular interest in the music of Native Americans living the Domain of Hurakan, op. 15, his longest Indian character piece, which received many accolades. This in desert regions. Grunn’s tuneful compositional style is shown in his first Indian character set from 1913, thirteen-page score mixes three themes from varying tribes in his most virtuosic Indian character piece. Desert Suite: Five Tone Pictures for the Piano, op. 7. Op. 15 musically portrays Hurakan, the god of wind and sea who created the earth.10 He combines Vancouver and Pawnee game songs from tribes of the Pacific Northwest and Nebraska. Also included is a fragment of a Navajo night chant from the Southwest. In all, Farwell wrote seven sets of Indian character pieces, more than any other Indianist composer. The breadth of his Indianist output establishes him as a leading composer of Experimental Indianists the Indianist Movement. After the dispersion of the Wa-Wan Press, the style of Indianist compositions shifted toward freer treatment of Native-American melodies. By 1910 the use of Native-American melodies had become so popular that many composers were motivated to experiment with incorporating Indian themes into at least one composition. Most composers who dabbled with the inclusion of Native-American material did so through the Indian character piece for solo piano. One such composer was [George] Templeton Strong (1856–1948) who wrote Au pays des peaux-rouges: Another factor that hindered continuance was that many people were divided on whether to accept Suite for Piano (The Country of the Red Skins) in 1918. Strong was born in the United States, but moved to Indian material as American folklore. A contradiction was created when Indianist composers were adapting Geneva, Switzerland in 1911 and lived there for the rest of his life. He was a friend of MacDowell’s, and Native-American songs and at the same time the United States government was trying to break up reservations wrote in the impressionistic and late-Romantic styles that influenced him most. His five-piece experimental and outlaw traditional practices, codified in the Dawes Act of 1887. Composers were elevating Native-American Indian-based work demonstrates exoticism more than American nationalism because he spent most of his culture as the government was destroying it.13 compositional years in Switzerland. This set is imaginative and its impressionistic inflections provide a A final reason for the decline of the Indianist Movement was that many composers were striving to unique contrast to other Indian character pieces. break away from German musical influence. None of the Indian character pieces written during this time The Indianist Movement and the adaptation of Native-American material must have made an completely rejected traditional concepts; consequently they were attacked by critics and more experimental impression on foreign composers, because in 1913 to 1914 Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) composers, who were on the brink of atonality. Essentially, this body of piano literature is more closely wrote the concerto Indianische Fantasie fuer Klavier mit Orchester [Indian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra]. linked with late-Romantic program music, nationalism, and the character piece than with the groundbreaking After its success he wrote his single Indian character set Indianisches Tagebuch: Erstes Buch [The Indian’s trends that took place during the twentieth century. These criticisms led to the elimination of Indianist works Diary: Book 1] in 1915. This set is basically a solo piano arrangement of his Fantasy transformed in four from serious consideration in American musical history.14 Indianist composers were searching for something separate pieces. Unlike many other Indian character sets, none of his pieces have descriptive titles. Busoni’s new and found innovative subject material, but they did not reach far enough harmonically, which in hindsight, irregular rhythmic patterns and cleverly harmonized melodies help was the direction twentieth-century music was going. create an original and effective setting that will likely stand the test of time. Strong and Busoni’s experimentation attests to the prominence of the Indianist Movement and its underlying aims to create a national music. Although their work differs greatly from Farwell’s initial concepts, Summary and Conclusion they signify some success in the genre’s perpetuity. Taken in the context of their time, Indianist composers should be given more acknowledgment for their efforts in creating an American national music. If this trend had taken place two decades earlier when nationalism was in its earlier stages, the Indianist Movement may have been perceived as a revolutionary point in music The Decline of the Indianist Movement history. The Indian character piece is a relatively large and varied body of piano literature and most Indianist Many factors led to the decline of the Indianist Movement and the omission of virtually all Indian composers wrote at least one work in this idiom. An examination of this genre offers a glimpse of each composer’s character pieces from standard piano literature. Early collectors of Indian lore showed cultural biases style and a look into musical and social issues America was grappling with at the turn of the century. In the words because they did not consider Native-American music equal to that of Western composers. Composers drew of Charles Wakefield Cadman . . .“Every movement in art, science or literature while in the process of making, from these ethnological sources, and, in order to make them appealing to the public, changed them to fit the must be fired with an idea and an art-purpose mirrored for the moment or for all time in the history of mankind.”15 Western musical system, which could not accurately notate nuances in their originals. As a result, “accessibility degraded authenticity” —the very reason many composers sought out native songs to begin with.12 Extensive cultural information provided by Farwell and other composers may have caused concertgoers to accept these Indian character pieces as authentic representations of Native-American music, rather than the European-like depictions they really were. Dr. Bruning, an Iowa native, has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician through- Stephanie out the United States and Holland. She holds degrees in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Drake University and University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music where her major teachers included Bruning Dr. Chiu-Ling Lin, Eugene Pridonoff, and Frank Weinstock. In demand as an instructor and adjudicator, she often conducts master classes and has adjudicated numerous competitions including the 2008 Elizabeth R. Davis Piano Competition and the 2007 International Young Artist’s Piano Competition in Washington, DC. An expert in Native-American-influenced music from the early Twentieth Century, she frequently performs and lectures on the subject at venues such as The State Department in Washington, DC, and the 2007 College Music Society National Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. In November 2009 Ludwig Masters published the first in a series of piano books compiled and edited by Dr. Bruning entitled The Indian Character Piece: Native-American Influenced Piano Works from the Early Twentieth Century, Volume I. Volume II was published in 2012. Dr. Bruning serves as a reviewer for the scholarly journal Clavier Companion where she reviews new teaching and performance scores. Additionally, Dr. Bruning maintains an interest in helping students address issues of performance anxiety. She has conducted many workshops on the topic at summer music festivals and conferences such as the International Music Festival and Sigma Alpha Iota’s Province Day. In demand as a collaborative artist, Dr. Bruning has performed with well-known brass players such as Ron Barron (retired principal trombone for the Boston Symphony) and Joseph Alessi (principal trombone for the New York Philharmonic). In Fall 2015 she will record a CD of trombone music written by female composers with Dr. Natalie Mannix of Towson University. Currently, Dr. Bruning is Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. She has also been on the faculty of Shepherd University, Anne Arundel Community College, and Trinity University. Dr. Bruning is an active member of the Music Teachers’ National Association (MTNA), the Music Teachers’ Association of Greater Baltimore (MTAGB), and the College Music Society (CMS). Acknowledgments 1 Michael V. Pissani, “The Indian Music Debate and ‘American’ Music in the Progressive Era,” College Music Symposium 37 (1997): 83. RECORDING ENGINEERS: Progressivism is a term used to describe the encouragement of progressive change such as from Jake Mossman at Sheffield Recording Institute rural to urbanized culture. Tim Mitchell at Brooklyn Aloha Recording 2 Ibid. 3 RECORDED: Michael V. Pisani, “I’m an Indian Too: Creating Native American Identities in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Music,” in The Exotic in Western Music, ed. Jonathan Bellman January 20-22, 2015 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998), 239. 4 Pisani, “The Indian Music Debate,” 73. RECORDING INSTRUMENT: 5 2004 Mason and Hamlin BB Margaret Osman, “The American ‘Indianist’ Composers: A Critical Review of Their Sources, Their Aims, and Their Compositional Procedures” (D.M.A. thesis, University of South Carolina, 1992), 1–3. 6 PRODUCER: Pisani, “The Indian Music Debate,” 73. Sara Jones 7 Quoted in Pisani, “The Indian Music Debate,” 74. 8 Michael Broyles, “Art Music from 1860 to 1920,” in Cambridge History of American Music, ed. PUBLISHERS: David Nicholls (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 251. Cadman: Ludwig Masters Publications 9 Michael V. Pisani, “Exotic Sounds in the Native Land: Portrayals of North American Indians in Grunn: Southern Califnornia Music Company Western Music,” (Ph.D. diss., Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, 1996), 327. Farwell: Wa-Wan Press 10 Ibid, 344. Beach: Arthur Schmidt Co. 11 Osman, “The American ‘Indianist’ Composers,” 75. Strong: Edition Ad. Henn 12 Tara Browner, “Breathing the Indian Spirit: Thoughts on Musical Borrowing and the ‘Indianist Busoni: Ludwig Masters Publications Movement’ in American Music,” American Music 15, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 280. 13 Ibid. Special thanks to my family and friends for all of their love, 14 Nicholas E. Tawa, Mainstream of Early Twentieth-Century America: The Composers, Their Times, support, and donations to help make this recording a reality! and Their Works (Westport, CT & London: Greenwood Press, 1992), 7. 15 Charles Wakefield Cadman, introduction to Thunderbird: Suite for Piano, op. 63 (Boston: White-Smith Publishing Co., 1917), 6.