Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

New wave.

A term encompassing a range of pop music styles from the mid-1970s onwards. ‘New wave’ and ‘punk’ were initially synonyms used interchangeably between 1975 and 1977. However, Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) used ‘new wave’ to draw a comparison with the left-field anti-establishment practices of the French Situationist movement of the 1960s. From early 1978, new wave began taking on a more specific meaning as a generic description of certain styles of post-punk music. Groups as diverse as the Stranglers, the Boomtown Rats, Blondie and Talking Heads were promoted as ‘new wave’ acts in that they had developed beyond punk's guitar-based fetishisation of incompetence; thus, acts such as Elvis Costello and the Attractions carried some of punk's angry attitude alongside a more well-crafted, politically informed lyricism. The Stranglers, who had in fact preceded punk, used keyboard runs inspired by progressive rock and unusual time signatures, while Talking Heads utilized disco and ethnic musics. New wave also reaffirmed more traditional methods of promotion and visual presentation: whereas the rhetoric of punk had been constructed around subverting the star system and usurping gender stereotypes, Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats) and Deborah Harry (Blondie) became sex symbols. Musically varied, new wave acts spawned many artists who built long-lasting careers, with the Police emerging globally as the most commercially dominant.

The impact of punk and new wave was also felt in Europe, Canada and Australasia. The most significant reaction was seen in Germany's ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’, a phrase coined by Alfred Hilsberg, one of the editors of the German rock magazine Sounds, in October 1979. Among the leading groups were Der Plan, DAF and Palais Schaumburg. However, it was the more conventional pop of Nena with her UK number one hit 99 Red Balloons (1984) and the synthesizer pop of the quasi-novelty record Da Da Da by Trio (1982) which became crossover European hits.

Since the late 1970s, the term has become an imprecise signifier for renewal and generational angst. For example, in late 1993 ‘the new wave of the new wave’ was used by the music press to describe British guitar groups such as Elastica, S*M*A*S*H and These Animal Men, who were seen by the music business as re-creating the energy of late-1970s punk.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. Hebdige: Subculture: the Meaning of Style (London, 1979)

D. Laing: One Chord Wonders: Power and Meaning in Punk Rock (Milton Keynes, 1985)

J. Savage: England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (London, 1991)

S. Reynolds and others: ‘Sham 94?’, Melody Maker (26 March 1994)

D. Buckley: The Stranglers – No Mercy: the Authorised and Uncensored Biography (London, 1997)

DAVID BUCKLEY

New York.

American city. It is the largest city in the USA and the cultural centre of the country. The fine natural harbour and waterways and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 quickly made New York the nation’s principal commercial centre. As the most important port until after World War II, the city has been the gateway for both visitors and immigrants to the USA, bringing a density and variety of cultural influences that have created a dynamic and varied musical life. The heart of America’s music industry is in New York, and the city is a showcase for individuals and organizations from other parts of the continent and from abroad. For the American musician a New York recital is the prerequisite of professional status.

1. Before 1800.

2. Concert life.

3. Concert halls and other performance venues.

4. Opera and musical theatre.

5. Orchestras and bands.

6. Chamber music.

7. Choral societies.

8. Religious music.

9. Avant-garde music.

10. Ragtime and jazz.

11. Ethnic and popular music.

12. Education.

13. Associations and organizations.

14. Publishing, instrument making, broadcasting and recording.

15. Criticism and periodicals.

16. Libraries.

IRVING KOLODIN, FRANCIS D. PERKINS/SUSAN THIEMANN SOMMER/ZDRAVKO BLAŽEKOVIĆ (1–8, 12–16: 2 with J. SHEPARD and SARA VELEZ; 3 with J. SHEPARD; 4 with PAUL GRIFFITHS; 12 with J. SHEPARD and N. DAVIS-MILLIS; 14 with JOHN ROCKWELL and PAUL GRIFFITHS) JOHN ROCKWELL/ZDRAVKO BLAŽEKOVIĆ (9) EDWARD A. BERLIN, J. BRADFORD ROBINSON, JOHN ROCKWELL/ZDRAVKO BLAŽEKOVIĆ (10) SUSAN T. SOMMER, JOHN ROCKWELL/ZDRAVKO BLAŽEKOVIĆ (11)

New York

1. Before 1800.

The first documented concert in New York was given on 21 January 1736 by the German-born organist and harpsichordist C.T. Pachelbel, son of the renowned Johann, at the house of Robert Todd, a vintner, next to Fraunces Tavern; an announcement of the event refers to songs and instrumental music with harpsichord, flute and violin. Apparently the first organ was installed in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1724, followed in 1741 by an organ built by J.G. Klemm for Trinity Church. 46 concerts were advertised in New York between 1736 and 1775, more than in any other American city; they included a charity concert at City Hall after the installation of an organ in 1756 and, about 1766, the performance of a march from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus ‘accompanied with a side drum’ at the City Tavern.

Visiting musicians, usually from London, rarely remained long in New York; W.C. Hulett, who taught the violin and dancing in 1759 and was still in the city directory in 1799, was an exception. The arrival of William Tuckey in 1752 to become clerk of Trinity Church from 1 January 1753 marked a turning-point in New York’s musical life. Tuckey promptly took over the Trinity choir and became a champion of Handel’s works; he organized subscription concerts and balls in the 1760s, and on 16 January 1770 sponsored a benefit at ‘Mr Burns’ New Room’ with the first New York performance of the overture and 16 numbers from Messiah. Works by Haydn appeared on programmes after 27 April 1782.

Various groups of New York musicians sporadically announced series of subscription concerts. ‘City Concerts’ begun in 1793 by Henri Capron, James Hewitt and G.E. Saliment lasted until 1797, and included music by Pleyel, Haydn, Grétry, Gyrowetz, Hewitt and Benjamin Carr; outdoor summer concerts initiated in 1765 by James Jones in the Ranelagh Gardens continued to be popular. Vocal and instrumental music by Haydn, Arne and Stamitz, as well as popular ballads, could be heard at Ranelagh Gardens and at Joseph Delacroix’s Vauxhall Gardens in the late 1790s.

New York music organizations in the 18th century combining social and choral activities included the Harmonic (1773–4), Musical (1788–94), St Cecilia (1791–9), Harmonical (1796–9), Columbian Anacreontic (1795–?), Uranian (1793–8) and Philharmonic (1799–c1816) societies. The repertory usually consisted of hymns and, occasionally, anthems. Few societies survived their good intentions.

Theatre flourished and ballad opera was popular. Opera could be heard at the Nassau Street Theatre from 1750; The Beggar’s Opera was one of the first performed there. In 1753–4 a troupe from London directed by Lewis Hallam performed operas and plays; David Douglass reorganized it under the name of the American Company (later Old American Company), and it performed at the John Street Theatre and in other coastal cities from 1767 to 1774. During the British military occupation (1776–83) plays or ballad operas were occasionally performed, but it was not until 1785 that Lewis Hallam jr and John Henry reopened the Old American Company, which they operated more or less regularly until the turn of the century. The musical repertory consisted largely of pasticcio arrangements of such popular works as Thomas and Sally, Rosina, Love in a Village, Lionel and Clarissa, The Adopted Child, The Duenna, No Song, No Supper and The Flitch of Bacon. Operas by Grétry (Zémire et Azor) and Duni (Les deux chasseurs) also served as a basis for local adaptation. For a short time in the 1790s French immigrants performed such works as Les deux chasseurs, Audinot’s Le tonnelier and Rousseau’s Le devin du village in French.

Native musical theatre came into its own in the last quarter of the 18th century. Among the earliest examples was May Day in Town (18 May 1788) with ‘music compiled from the most eminent masters’. Hewitt’s Tammany, or The Indian Chief (from which only one song survives), the first opera on an Indian subject, was produced on 3 March 1794; the libretto, by Anna Hatton, succeeded in its intention to arouse Federalist opposition, and Tammany had only three performances. The pantomime The Fourth of July, or Temple of American Independence, with music by Victor Pelissier, had one performance (4 July 1799), as did his Edwin and Angelina, based on Goldsmith (19 December 1796). More successful was Carr’s opera The Archers (1796), from which only the introductory rondo and a single song survive.

J.J. Astor opened New York’s first music shop in 1786, before concentrating on the fur trading business. Carr and Hewitt were both important figures in the growth of music trades in the city: Carr arrived from England in 1793 and set up a music shop in Philadelphia in 1794 and in New York in 1795; he sold the latter to Hewitt in 1797. English popular music and American patriotic songs were the mainstay of their sheet music sales.

New York