This book offers a wide-ranging exploration of Amram’s work and influence, situating the composer in the context of today’s international culture. It shows how Amram’s proficiencies in spontaneous, on-stage music creation enriches his formal classical composing.
In a career spanning 70 years, composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist David Amram is hailed today as the creator of symphonic works, chamber music, and two operas; as a brilliant jazz and vocal improviser; and the composer of memorable stage and film scores. He has collaborated with many leading musicians, playwrights, artists, actors, and writers, including Jack Kerouac, Woody Guthrie, Leonard Bernstein, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Elmira Darvarova, Paul Newman, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, and hundreds more. An innovator who blended jazz and global folk styles with classical traditions, Amram’s career also emphasizes the creative potential of joyful collaboration. This new book offers a fascinating and wide-ranging picture of Amram’s work and influence, from the rich, pioneering days of 1950s America to today’s embrace of international cultures. It shows how Amram’s gift as an on-stage spontaneous creator enriches his formal classical composing. With multi-media links for readers, it is possible to see and hear film and audio highlights and adventures described in this book by important conductors, musicians, performers, scholars, and journalists. This book is the essential guide to a major figure in contemporary music.
Arvustused
"To do justice to the extraordinary depth and breadth of the art of the incomparable David Amram, one would need an encyclopedia--but this amazing book comes close. In essays of musicians from all over the globe a mosaic of this polymath emerges in vivid color. From chamber music to folk songs, from opera to the Jewish tradition, from jazz to Afro-Cuban culture, Davids music glows with absolute genius and his radiant love of humanity. A beautiful must-read volume, brilliantly curated by Dean Birkenkamp."
JoAnn Falletta, Grammy Award-winning Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Praise for David Amram:
"Amram is a one-man folk festivalwho was multicultural before multiculturalism existed."
The New York Times
"Amram dazzled with his versatility .... One could be but awed by his range."
The London Times
"David Amram is a musical catalyst and leader on a par with Leonard Bernstein, Pete Seeger, and Dizzy Gillespie."
Minneapolis Star & Tribune
"A Godsend to those who believe in the power of music to change lives and inspire."
Wynton Marsalis
"David Amram is one of the most versatile and skilled musicians America has ever produced."
Washington Post
"David Amram is the Renaissance man of American music."
The Boston Globe
"Truly American music. Amram, through his genius has built a marvelous musical tapestry, full of wonderful sounds and colors."
Eugene Ormandy
"David Amram is a man of great humanity, wisdom, and generosity. A great story- teller. His music is magic. It takes you to another universe."
Barbara Kopple, Academy Award-winning film maker
{Amram has} engaged with almost every identifiable genre jazz, folk, rock, country, blues, Latin, the many variants of native America, to name only some. This composers lifelong romance with music of all colours, creeds and cultures has been a passionate affair. It has seen him promiscuously cross-fertilise the sounds of every continent in a simmering pot of melody and lyric, rhythm and rhyme, and I think Dean Birkenkamps engrossing, many-layered overview does fine justice to this many-faceted man and his diverse attainments.
Simon Warner, Research Fellow, University of Leeds, U. K., in Rock and Beat Generation
Part I: Introductions
How to Explain David Amram? by Dean Birkenkamp
"All Joy" An Introduction to the Life-Artistry of David Amram, by Gary
Lippman
Part II: David Amrams Symphonic and Chamber Compositions
Amrams Concert Hall Compositions, by Dean Birkenkamp
David Amrams Chamber Music, by Elmira Darvarova
Premiering New Amram Compositions, by Kenneth Radnofsky
This Land: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie, by Laura
Schulkind
Sir James Galway: Commissioning and Premiering Giants of the Night, by Keith
Marshall
Conducting Amrams Violin Concerto, by JoAnn Falletta
Letting an Orchestra Feel Free and Inspired: The Art of Amrams Conducting,
by Howard Wall
A Promising Old Composer: The Power of Creativity in Later Life, by John
Leland
Beethoven to Boxing: Artistry in Two Worlds, by Larry Merchant
Part III: Opera and Theater Contributions of David Amram
From Theater to Opera, by Dean Birkenkamp
David Amram: A Jewish Life in Music: The Final Ingredient and other Important
Compositions, by Jeff Janeczko
The Essence of David Amram, by Keir Dullea
Remembering the Premiere of Amrams Opera Twelfth Night, by Christopher Alden
and David Alden
Filming Twelfth Night, by Lawrence Kraman
Part IV: Amram the Jazz Performer and Composer
A Lifetime in Jazz, by Dean Birkenkamp
David Amrams Early Jazz Years and Collaborations, by Marc Myers
Amram and Cuba: Varieties of Afro-Cuban and Latin Musics, by Arturo
OFarrill
Innovations: Jamming with Amram Across the Decades, by Mark Morganelli
David Amram is a Musical Instrument, by Malachy McCourt
Now is the Time as Creative Manifestation of Consciousness,
by Hugh Ragin
No More Walls: The Ever-Wider World of David Amram, by David Cole
Part V: The Songs of David Amram
From Orchestral Compositions to Spontaneous Lyrics, by Dean Birkenkamp
A Composers Way with Words, by Hassan Melehy
The Songs of David Amram: Jazz, Classical, Film, and Operatic Compositions,
by Gerald Bieritz
Scat and Make-Up Songs: The Art of One-Time Only Rap Reporting, by David
Amram
Bourbon is Vegetarian, By Kurt Elling and David Amram
Part VI: The Whole Wide World of Amrams Folk Performance
Performing the Worlds Music, by Dean Birkenkamp
Melding Folk and Symphonic: Commissioning This Land, by Nora Guthrie
Remembering Odetta: 40 Years of Midnight Adventures, with Kris Kristofferson,
Ramblin Jack Elliot, and Others, by David Amram
Peforming Folk Music in Many Venues, by John McEuen
The Dean of Hangout-ology at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, by Deana
McCloud
A Unique Performer in the Folk World, by Barry Ollman
Musical Adventures with David Amram, by Radoslav Lorkovic
David Amram Doesnt Play Music, by John Cooper
Part VII: Amram the Authorand His Collaborations with Writers
David Amrams Literary Endeavors, by Dean Birkenkamp
Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, David Amram, by Ronald Martinetti
Let Us Remember: Review of the Cantata by Langston Hughes and David Amram, by
Paul Hertelendy
Vibrations, Musical Differences, Life with Others, by Charles Lemert
On Amrams Book Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat, by Frank McCourt
"Life is Even More Fun at 90" Amram and the Kerouac Legacy, by Holly George
Warren
Part VIII: Hollywood and Beyond: Amrams Film Scores
From the Village to Hollywood, by Dean Birkenkamp
Frankenheimer, Sinatra, and the Scoring of The Manchurian Candidate, by Neil
Hickey
The Manchurian Candidate: The Novel, the Film, the Music, by Geoff Wills
Cinemas Elusive Musical Poet: Scoring Splendor in the Grass, by Steve
Vertlieb
Part IX: Amrams Legacy: Mixing Musical Styles and Performance Traditions
Hearing a Singular Sound in the Universe, by Dean Birkenkamp
Amrams Musical Bouillabaisse, by Larry Kirwan
At Home Around the World, by David Amram
David Amram and Native American Musical Performance, by Matoaka Little Eagle
Native Flutes and Friendship, by Louis Mofsie
Diamonds in the Sidewalk: Kerouac, Amram, and the Bells of Hell, by Robin
Hirsch
The Village and the Man Who Makes It Live On, By Elizabeth Thomson
An Icon of Inclusion and Pioneer of World Music, by Douglas Brinkley
Part X: Coda
You are Only as Old as You Make Other People Feel, by David Amram
Dean Birkenkamp has worked for 44 years in book publishing. Currently he is a Senior Editor with Routledge Publishers. He was the Founder and President of Paradigm Publishers, where he and his staff were fortunate to publish more than 800 books by leading scholars, journalists, musicians, and public intellectuals. An amateur pianist, he studied anthropology and music theory and composition at the University of IllinoisChampagne-Urbana. His previous book is Uncommon Sense from the Writings of Howard Zinn, with Howard Zinn and Wanda Rhudy.
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