Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

II. Traditional music.

1. European American.

2. Black American.

3. Hispanic American.

4. Amerindian.

5. Asian American.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

USA, §II: Traditional music

1. European American.

(i) Introduction.

(ii) Western.

(iii) Eastern.

USA, §II, 1: Traditional music: European American

(i) Introduction.

The music of European American ethnic groups is very diverse and has a variety more representative of American history and culture than of pre-immigration experience in Europe. Both the musical style and the cultural settings of a repertory are altered, often dramatically, by immigration. Despite this shift of cultural orientation from the many nations of Europe to the single locus of the USA, European American musics have tended to increase in variety and number, and they continue to thrive generations after transplantation to American soil.

This article deals with the music of immigrant groups from Western and Eastern Europe. For convenience, traditions are discussed under geographical headings, although this organization may not always reflect modern political boundaries. Hispanic and Portuguese traditions, because they are the result of immigration from Latin America as well as from Iberia, are treated separately (see Hispanic-American music). See also Folk music.

(a) Historical influences.

The music of European American ethnic groups often reflects patterns of historical change in both the USA and Europe. On arrival in the USA most immigrants sought those areas that afforded the greatest economic opportunity (as well as living conditions akin to those from which they came). Immigrants tended to form groups and build up new ethnic communities, postponing, sometimes indefinitely, assimilation to the supposed Anglo-Saxon national culture. European historical developments shaped the ways in which American ethnic groups were formed. Throughout the centuries of European immigration the boundaries of European nations have been in flux. Many immigrants to the USA had an ethnicity more regional than national, often defined by customs and even languages that are no longer found in Europe. But to acquire a German ethnicity in the American Midwest during the mid-19th century was to do so before a German nation existed in Europe.

Most theories of ethnicity stress either homogeneity (assimilation) or heterogeneity (pluralism). The great variety of European American ethnic musics attests pluralism, the many forms of which bear witness to the complex factors affecting the ethnicity of individual groups: place of origin, language, religion and common history since departure from a homeland, for example. There has been greater mixing of European ethnic groups in the USA than in Europe, producing patterns of consolidation that break down cultural barriers and often yield new groups. These may be unified by geographic proximity, a shared religion or a common – sometimes new – language. Consolidation often produces a new musical repertory drawn from the different constituents of the larger group. It has, moreover, been a major factor in the ethnic regionalism of the USA: certain groups concentrated in specific regions soon after arrival and have continued to attract new immigrants.

(b) Institutions of ethnic culture.

As immigrant groups redefined their ethnicity in terms of the American cultural environment, they found new means and established new institutions (local, national, and international) for organizing their ethnic culture. Music has been one of the most pervasive elements in these institutions, through whose activities it often acquired new functions. Religion, too, has consolidated ethnic groups. Groups from central and northern Europe that settled in the Midwest during the mid-19th century formed denominations along ethnic lines, many of which persist in the early 21st century. Religious music acquired specific ethnic connotations and thereby strengthened the sense of ethnicity.

Music also played a central role in the new secular organizations of European immigrants. The Polish Falcon, the Welsh Eisteddfod and the Czechoslovak Sokol, for example, provided a web of nationwide contact for their respective immigrant groups while supporting activities in the local community through meeting halls or lodges. Some groups, such as eastern European Jews, have maintained their own theatres through several generations. Singing societies have consolidated and disseminated ethnic musical traditions.

The recording industry has been a major influence on folk music. Recordings of ethnic groups were made in the USA long before similar efforts were undertaken in Europe, and they usually drew on many genres, thus presenting a cross-section of the group’s musical culture. Publication of music has also flourished in some groups. Although it ostensibly establishes written traditions, publication of ethnic music also provides a core that bolsters oral traditions. The media of the American environment have stimulated musical professionalism as a response to the new audiences that traditional performers found in the USA.

(c) Genres.

The new institutions of European American culture and the mass media have caused a blurring and shifting of traditional genres and styles of ethnic music. Changes in function have also been caused by acculturation; for example, the distinctions between urban and rural folksongs, quite marked in European cultures, are less obvious in the USA. Some previously rural ethnic groups, such as the Slovaks, settled in industrialized urban centres and thus lacked the context for songs referring to agricultural activity. American cities have, in fact, proved to be among the most important crucibles for the maintenance of European American folk music.

Religious music has also undergone changes of function in ethnic communities. In some cases, it has proved to be one of the most important conservators of language. For those groups whose motivation to emigrate was primarily religious, the music of the church is often bound to other genres and thus serves to strengthen the entire musical culture. This has especially been true of enclaves like the Amish and Mennonite sects, virtually all of whose music is in some respect religious (see §(ii)(g) below).

Certain ethnic groups contributed to art music. In many areas of the USA during the mid-19th century, ‘art music’ meant German music, and it was performed almost exclusively by German American musicians. Operetta and light classical music were also performed by ethnic ensembles; such ensembles further contributed to musical professionalism within the group.

Through the blurring of boundaries between musical genres, some music has come to represent an ethnic group itself, stripped of old-country trappings. The klezmer band, for example, is a symbol of Jewish culture in general in the USA rather than only of eastern European Jewish communities. The meaning of tradition is thus recast according to an ethnic group’s relationship to American culture.