Description
African Americans have a rich musical heritage that has greatly enhanced Western “classical” music. This course will describe the important and under-appreciated role that African American music had in developing the sound of American classical music, including spirituals, blues, and jazz found in well-known composers, including Antonin Dvorak, George Gershwin, and Aaron Copland. The course will combine history and biography with many performance clips. A later class will focus on the contributions of African American composers.
(For a related class on African American composers, see class #625)
