The Wonder Years: Art And Music In America 1900 1950

At the turn of the twentieth century, American classical music was dependent on Europe, jazz was in its infancy and the musical did not exist.  American art rejected the latest trends from across the Atlantic but was struggling for an identity.  Yet within fifty years, images of the USA – both pictorial and musical – were ubiquitous: from its spectacular landscapes  to its burgeoning cities with their towering skyscrapers.  The creative outburst of the Harlem Renaissance put African-American culture on the map and jazz became the music of the age. Classical composers transcended the concert halls to create film scores for Hollywood while Broadway musicals were becoming an art form.  But not everything was so positive – the Wall Street Crash led to mass poverty and in the big, neon-lit cities glamour intermingled with squalor; artists like Edward Hopper captured the enveloping feeling of alienation.  Finally, as the 1950s approached, new ideas were germinating which would determine the future  of both American - and ultimately world - culture.

The Birth Of The Musical

Keeping It Real: US Art In The Early Twentieth Century

Jazz:  America’s Music  

Out Of The Cottonfields/The Harlem Renaissance

The Poets Of Tin Pan Alley - Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart

Reaching For The Sky: Landscape Art and Photography/Art Meets Engineering - The Skyscraper

Down To Earth: Art And Music In 1930s America

Duke Ellington: Harlem Renaissance Man Of Jazz

Broadway Originals - Harold Arlen, Composer, and Dorothy Fields, Lyricist

Edward Hopper: The Nighthawk

Classical Music, American Style

Roots To The  Future:  Gospel, R&B And The Origins Of Rock And Roll

Thursday afternoons