The institutionalisation of “Uptown”: Contemporary orchestral music practices in New York City 1960–1975

Kirjoittajat

  • Lucy Abrams-Husso Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37453/tj.120916

Avainsanat:

orchestra, orchestral practice, programming, contemporary music, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, New York City

Abstrakti

The aim of this paper is to investigate how contemporary music composition aesthetics and performance practices in orchestral music came to be defined and institutionalised in New York City through the 1960s and 1970s. The geographic distinctions commonly referred to as Uptown and Downtown identify separate networks of American contemporary music that sprouted in New York City already in the 1950s and developed across the United States in the second half of the twentieth century. I propose that the division of contemporary music practices and the ultimate institutionalisation of Uptown is inextricably linked to changing orchestral practices in New York City in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Using the digital programme archives from the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall, I analysed contemporary programming in orchestral and large ensemble concerts from 1960 to 1975. Using this data, one observes that contemporary music programming decreased in this period, that the performance of contemporary music became less stylistically diverse, and that “contemporary music”, as a genre, came to be increasingly defined as European and modernist. I therefore conclude that changing orchestral practice was a major contributing factor in the division and institutionalisation of contemporary musical practices in New York City.

Kirjoittajan esittely

Lucy Abrams-Husso, Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki

Lucy Abrams-Husso is an American clarinetist and artistic researcher based in Helsinki, Finland since 2013.

Lähdeviitteet

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Performance History from New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives. Accessed 5 June 2020. https://archives.nyphil.org.

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Images

Concert program, 9 Jul 1960, Program ID 11344, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/c5f81973-0deb-46b2-

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Concert program, 12 Jun 1963, Program ID 6314, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/cfad058f-03e4-41bca009-

ff00fd477b6e-0.1

Concert program, 20 Jun 1968, Program ID 483, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/e01856bd-99dc-4b0e-

cf-db163a7075a9-0.1

Concert program, 2 Aug 1966, Program ID 6529, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/a64ef35c-9325-49ceb638-

fbc68012ea19-0.1

Concert program, 1 Oct 1971, Program ID 3983, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/6da6e61a-f329-4871-

de2-8dd654935044-0.1

Concert program, 30 Mar 1973, Program ID 1592, New York Philharmonic Shelby White &

Leon Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/0d8fc2d4-50d1-

ccc-83c2-838971feb439-0.1

Concert program, 5 Dec 1975, Program ID 1729, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/193c3c2f-524f-403b-

b-0c5d2826d156-0.1

Concert program, 29 Feb 1972, Program ID 4491, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/f41f510b-9a2a-459b-

c7b-c61eed248ab3-0.1

Concert program, 11 Feb 1974, Program ID 6262, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/f2ba3d04-0370-4dbabee5-

a0666faec08-0.1

Concert program, 17 Jun 1973, Program ID 4206, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives. https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/89470457-2c68-47d5-

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Concert program, 26 Jun 1975, Program ID 3047, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon

Levy Digital Archives.

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Julkaistu

2022-12-29

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