MUSIC FOR A WORLD IN CRISIS SESSION ONE THE STATE OF MUSIC IN 1919 March 13, 2015

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1 MUSIC FOR A WORLD IN CRISIS SESSION ONE THE STATE OF MUSIC IN 1919 March 13, 2015 WELCOME COURSE SUMMARY Session 1: The World of Music in 1919 Sessions 2-7: Music between the Wars 2 United States 3 Germany 4 Soviet Union 5 France 6 England 7 Other Nations Session 8: The World of Music in 1939 COURSE WEB SITE As you may know, this course has a web site. Its address is midcoastcollege.com/lemmel2 When you access this site, you will be viewing the front page, which is like the table of contents of a book or magazine. From the top, the front page includes My personal address, in case you want to contact me A Course Summary A link to each of our eight sessions By clicking on a session link, you will find a page about each of the class sessions. This page contains: The name of the session A few words about its contents Lecture notes for the session A list of recommended readings A list of recommended performance links. By clicking on one of these links you will find a performance of the piece. Below the picture of each performance you will find (from left to right) o an arrow that allows you to start or stop the performance o an loudspeaker icon for that allows you to adjust the volume o the length of the performance in minutes and seconds. 1

2 o A moving dot that shows you how far the piece has progressed and how far it has to go to the end o A rectangular icon that allows you to enlarge the image cover the full screen of your computer. TODAY S AGENDA 12:30 Introduction 12:40 World War I and its Aftermath 1:10 The State of Music in :30 Break 1:40 The Old Guard Generation 1:50 The Middle Generation 2:00 The Young Turks 2:10 The Rising Generation 2:20 Questions and Discussion INTRODUCTION This course discusses the music created in Europe and the Americas in the twenty years between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II the years 1919 to During this tumultuous twenty-year period nations struggled to recover from the first World War and to prepare for, or avoid, or defend against, the second war. In this process they tried, with varying degrees of success, to absorb the unparalleled financial, social and political upheavals of a world in crisis. As we will see, music written during these twenty years reflects national, musical, and personal struggles related to this crisis. So let s begin with some music. CASELLA PIC This dapper gentleman is Alfredo Casella, one of the leading Italian composers of this era. Casella was born in Turin into an affluent musical family. He began composing at a very early age and was sent to study at the Paris Conservatory, where he met all the leading French, German, and Italian composers of the day. In addition to composing he was active throughout Europe as a conductor. From 1927 to 1929 he was the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and was succeeded by Arthur Fiedler. In 1919 Casella was 36 years old and already a well-established composer. PAGINE DI GUERRA, 1918 As a background for looking at the war itself, we re going to listen to Casella s powerful war-time tone poem, Pagine de Guerra. The Pagine is a series of five orchestral pieces, each of which illustrates a different aspect of the war as Italy experienced it. 2

3 The first section of the Pagine is titled, In Belgium- the Parade of Heavy German Artillery. While this music plays, we ll see some images of World War I on the screen. (10 seconds per slide) You ll find links to performances of this and other recommended pieces in this lecture on our class website. MAP OF EUROPE IN 1919 (Point to Map) With the signing of the Armistice at eleven o clock in the morning on November 11, 1918, Germany was brought to its knees, and both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires disappeared from the map. Imperial Russia had left the war in In the year 1919 many, if not most, of the nations on this map were new: either newly created in the Treaty of Versailles, or restored to independence after a period of being partitioned or conquered by other nations. (Point to nations that are new or restored.) One source of the crisis of the inter-war period arose from the lack of experience and traditions of self-governance of these new nations. WAR CASUALTIES The number of dead and wounded from the war was staggering, far beyond the scale of any previous war. Between nine and ten million people were killed in the war, and more than twenty million more had been wounded. Country Population Casualties Austria-Hungary 52 million 7 million England 45 million 3 million France 40 million 6 million Germany 68 million 7 million Russia 166 million 9 million United States 99 million 300,000 STATE OF THE NATIONS As a result of this unparalleled death and suffering, a single question seemed to be on the lips, or in the hearts, of all people: What had the war been for? Instead of examining this question in any depth, England and France, the two winning nations that suffered the most, demanded revenge from the losing nations, especially Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in September 1919, made legal their demands for revenge and punishment. The United States, also in the winning side, participated actively in the drafting of the treaty, but President Wilson was widely seen by his allies as unprepared, uninformed, and far too idealistic, and was easily out-maneuvered. 3

4 As a result, enemy territories were divided into smaller, weaker, less threatening states. Germany, the only nation-state on the losing side, was forced to accept full responsibility for the war, and was weakened financially, politically, and militarily to the point where, it was thought, it could never again threaten its neighbors. (Tom Lehrer Song?) MAP OF EUROPE IN 1919 (HANDOUT) For the victors England, France, and the United States the war had been a horrendous experience: Even though the United States had entered the war late, only in 1917, our country had lost over 330,000 soldiers. For the first time in our history we had entered an overseas conflict. By 1919, many Americans came to believe that we had helped to win the war but had also helped to lose the peace. We ll look at America and American music in the interwar period in more detail next week. France had lost more than 6 million soldiers. Most of the northern France lay in ruins from which it would not recover for decades. National leadership was severely demoralized, the economy was in shambles, and national pride had suffered a severe blow despite France s being on the winning side. Session four will follow the development of music in France between the wars. England had lost more than 3 million soldiers in the War. As in France, the sight of badly wounded ex-service men - many missing arms and legs, others disfigured by poison gas attacks - was a daily reminder of what a severe price England had paid, and would continue to pay, for its victory. Weak national leadership and a harsh economic climate were important challenges to England s recovery. Session five will follow the development of music in England between the wars. For the nations that lost the war, the future looked even bleaker. Germany had lost more than 7 million soldiers and had suffered widespread damage to its towns, cities, and industries. As a nation it emerged from the war highly traumatized and demoralized by its defeat. A relatively young nation with no history of self-governance, Germany embarked on a misguided and short-lived experiment with democracy, The Weimar Republic. Another result was a sense of outrage over Germany s harsh treatment in the Treaty of Versailles, under which it was required to pay enormous reparations to the victorious nations while trying to recover its own damaged economy. This double burden led to the most severe inflation in the history of the world. Session two will follow the development of music in Germany between the wars. 4

5 The Austro-Hungarian Empire had also lost over 7 million soldiers in the war. This empire a vast, mostly rural, multi-ethnic territory held together by a huge standing army and a ruthless ruling family - disappeared at the stroke of a pen in 1919 and was replaced by a number of smaller, ethnically-based new nations, including Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia, none of which had any experience in economic management or political self-governance. We ll look at music in some of these nations in Session 7. The Ottoman Empire - also a vast, multi-ethnic empire held together by military force - also disappeared at the signing of the Treaty and was divided by the allies into the new nations of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. With the exception of Turkey, these new nations soon became pseudo colonies, highly dependent on European nations for economics, political guidance and technology. The Russian Empire had entered World War I on the side of the allies, suffered more than 9 million casualties under inept military leadership, and was wracked by political scandal and economic unrest. In February 1917 the Czar s government was overthrown in a revolution. The moderate new communist government led by Alexander Kerensky soon gave way to a more extreme government led by Vladimir Lenin. In 1917 Lenin signed a separate treaty with the Central Powers, thus taking the Russia out of the war. And so this nation, new in all but name, emerged from World War I economically weak, politically divided and industrially backward. Session five will follow the development of music in Russia and the Soviet Union between the wars. There were other nations as well, each with its own rich musical heritage, which had suffered varying degrees of loss during the war. Session seven will examine the music of composers in Finland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Brazil. After this summary, it is easy to understand that the interwar period was one of constant economic, political, and social unrest, culminating in a new and even more destructive war twenty years later. THE END OF AN ERA To the European nations, winners and losers alike, the end of World War I also seemed to signify the end of an era, the end of a way of life. Although these social and economic changes had begun long before, the end of the War seemed to accelerate them, or perhaps just to reveal their extent, as nothing else had done. Thus a pervasive sadness, a sense of lost glory, settled over Europe. 5

6 LOSS, CHANGE, AND SUFFERING The widespread feelings of loss and vulnerability were expressed in the great literature of the post-war era: In Germany, by Erich Maria Remarque s All Quiet on the Western Front (DVD) In England, by T S Eliot s poem The Waste Land, and by three great novels: Virginia Woolf s Mrs. Dalloway (DVD), Ford Madox Ford s Parade s End (excellent, recent DVD), and Robert Graves s Goodbye to All That In France, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline s Journey to the End of Night In Czechoslovakia, by Jaroslav Hašek s The Good Soldier Sweik In the United States, by e e cummings s The Enormous Room and Ernest Hemingway s The Sun Also Rises (DVD) I ve listed all these works on our class website and strongly recommend that you read one or more of them during our either-week class, both for background and for a better understanding of the complex effects of the war on individual people. The DVD s listed here are excellent and highly recommended. THE GREAT LIE But the most telling, and long-lasting result of the war was what came to be known in popular culture as the great lie - the belief, commonly held by people in all the nations, that, no matter how great the war s casualties and hardships, our nation had fought for something worth fighting for and thus, the millions of deaths and untold suffering were not in vain. Now, for the first time, many people began to question the truth of this belief. As this questioning spread across the nations, it provoked a variety of responses: from grief and despair to rage and rebellion; from hopelessness (France, Germany) to hyperactive busyness (United States); from the inability to express anything at all to the expression of deep and violent feelings; from intense patriotism in the newest nations to a belief that political and economic systems had failed utterly and must be replaced by new systems, such as social democracy or communism; from a belief in humanism or traditional religion to a belief that only machines could save us. (Oscar Wilde quote). SUFFERING AND DYSFUNCTION The end of World War I did not mark the end of suffering. During the early stages of World War I, soldiers began to report medical symptoms after combat, including tinnitus, amnesia, headache, dizziness, tremor, and hypersensitivity 6

7 to noise. While these symptoms might be expected after a physical wound to the brain, many of those reporting sick did not have head wounds. As early as December 1914, as many as 10% of British officers and 4% of enlisted men were suffering from what military doctors called "nervous and mental shock. Assuming these symptoms were caused by explosions from artillery shells, the term "shell shock" became the most popular way to refer to this condition. But as the War continued, an increasing proportion of men suffering shell shock had not been exposed to artillery fire. Soon an alternative view developed describing shell shock as an emotional, as well as a physical, injury Throughout the interwar period, entire nations, not just individuals, began to show symptoms of dysfunction and distress. Widespread strikes upset national economies; the class system itself was losing its power to protect each class from the demands of other classes. Finally, after a period of uncontrolled spending, a world-wide depression descended on the nations in DOWNTON ABBEY The events we have been discussing affected individuals, families, businesses, and society itself. Downton Abbey, it seems to me, does a creditable job in illustrating the effects of these various problem. So, if you need another reason to view this series again, I m providing you one: Series Immediate pre-war period Series Height of the war Series Beginning of the post-war period Series Social and economic unrest of the postwar period Long before World War I was over, long before the Treaty of Versailles was signed, composers began to express what the war meant to them and to their nations. Let s look at a comparative cheerful example. CHARLES IVES PIC Charles Ives was a genuinely original composer. His Father was leader of the Danbury, CT town band, in which young Ives played from an early age. He had studied music at Yale University but had rejected the German-influenced style favored by his teachers there. After college Ives worked for an insurance company in New York City By 1919 he was 45 years old and had risen to a high executive position in the insurance industry. He commuted to New York daily from his home near Danbury, but spent late nights and weekends composing. At this time Ives was virtually unknown as a composer. His music was a quirky mix of folk and patriotic tunes, harsh dissonance, and strange combinations of instruments. 7

8 IN FLANDERS FIELDS Today we consider Ives s 104 Songs, self-published in 1933, to be one of the touchstones of American vocal music. In it we find Three Songs of the War, which reflect varying responses to America s role in the war. Today we re going to listen to the best-known of the three, In Flanders Fields. Poem by John McCrae, a Canadian physician and poet who served and died in the war. Music includes fragments of several patriotic American songs Alternates between personal experience of soldiers and the big lie. TEXT In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. PLAY BREAK MUSIC IN 1919 By the end of the war the balance of political power in Europe had been greatly altered, but not settled. Most of the old issues of power, competition, and ethnic and national identity remained as unfinished business. In the world of music there was a similar ambivalence, and a great deal of unfinished business, too. 8

9 American composers were fighting for their independence from the German tradition that ruled music in east coast cities and Ivy League universities. Jazz was already popular, but still an expression of a small and marginalized minority. Tin Pan Alley produced popular ballads and dance music, but it was a world unto itself. Some few American composers began to study in Europe, but so far they had produced little that could influence American music as a whole. German composers were consumed with the question of whether the prewar avant-garde style of Arnold Schonberg - still very much alive - and his students, Alban Berg (already dead) and Anton Webern, would become the preferred method of musical expression in Europe as a whole. If not, could they embrace American jazz and Stravinsky s neoclassical style? And if neither of these, perhaps a style based on Germanic folk history, perhaps a worthy successor the operas of Wagner? French composers, long accustomed to living in Germany s shadow, were ambivalent about the direction music should take. They rejected the prewar modernism of German composers, but tried a variety of new methods, from American-influenced jazz to surrealistic creations, to rhythms and folk tunes from their large colonial empire. folk-based creations. But by far the strongest new influence was the neoclassical style of Igor Stravinsky, who lived in France for the entire inter-war period. Russian composers who were not yet the Soviet composers were mostly German-trained or influenced by German music. Tchaikovsky was dead; the Old Guard generation was producing nothing new. Younger composers had fled to France, England or America. What would happen to the strong Russian musical tradition? English composers, long immersed in their sweet and sentimental folk tradition, still seemed like distant followers, not leaders. Would they ever embrace the harsh realities of the 20 th century and produce music related to the real world? This course will attempt to answer these questions in some detail. In each session we ll look, first, at the musical traditions in which composers found themselves in 1919, then at the influences that affected the kinds of music they wrote, then at the leading composers of the interwar period and specific pieces that characterize it. 9

10 MUSICAL TRADITIONS Traditional Forms Music is a traditional art. It is influenced as much by its own traditions as by world events. Thus a composer is as likely to write a symphony because she heard one she liked at a concert, or because her teacher writes them, as she is to write a piece in response to a war or other event. Some composers of 1919 were traditionalists in this sense. Most often they were composers of the older generation, such as the Finn Jan Sibelius, the American Amy Beach, the Frenchman Gabriel Fauré, and the German Richard Strauss. Nationalism and Folk Music A second powerful influence in the period between the wars was nationalism. The participants in World War I were, first of all, nations independent political states, each with its own cultural, ethnic and folk traditions. Thus a Hungarian composer such as Bartok, or an English composer such as Vaughan Williams, would be drawn to, and might wish to carry on, the traditional folk culture of his nation. Compositional Style When we speak of a composer s style, we mean the way he or she uses the elements of music, such as melody, harmony, rhythm, orchestration, etc. How would you describe the style of the Pagine di Guerra? of In Flanders Fields? INFLUENCES Whatever musical traditions a composer is working within, his or her music is also subject to a variety of cultural, social, or political influences. Composers of 1919 were affected, one way or another by: Current Experience One major influence is the issues and events of a composer s immediate life. In this course we will find composers who create new types of music seemingly unrelated to the music that has gone before. In the trauma after World War I, some composers, like Ravel, were almost unable to write anything for a year of two; others wrote music about the war, while still others deliberately took the role of provocateurs: Igor Stravinsky above all, but also the American George Antheil, the French composers Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. Idealism Another strong influence that affected music between the wars was the pervasive issue of idealism. After World War I there was a widespread belief that the war reflected the failure, not just of nations, but of existing economic, social, and political systems. There must be a better way to govern and to manage the economy, many felt, and they were drawn to the promises of Communism, of new technologies, of social capitalism, of Eastern religions, of ancient cultures, real and imagined. 10

11 New Styles: Impressionism and Jazz Even though Claude Debussy died in 1918, his so-called impressionistic style of music was a powerful and widespread influence on many post-war composers, especially in France, England, and the United States. Just as powerful an influence was the new music being created in America, first called ragtime, then blues, and finally, jazz. This music was especially intoxicating to war-weary Europeans who saw in it a new energy and a new expression of the deep feelings of ordinary, even oppressed people, who until then had been outside the concern of classical music altogether. New Techniques Finally, composers of 1919 were influenced by new ways of organizing the composition of music itself. They were familiar with the new scales that Debussy had used in many of his compositions. And they were becoming familiar with Arnold Schoenberg s twelve-tone method of composition, especially through the popularity of his leading student, the Austrian composer Alban Berg, whose opera, Wozzeck, was perhaps the greatest single piece of music written during the war. THE GENERATIONS (Refer to 1919 Map) In any given year, such as 1919, there are usually three or four different generations of composers. In this course we will include music from all the generations. To distinguish among them, I have arbitrarily given the generations names. As I will use these names, they do not connote any disrespect or other value judgment, but only generational differences. The Old Guard - composers aged 50 and older, usually the most traditional and least likely to respond to the war or other events The Middle Generations well-established composers age 35-50, who respond both to musical traditions and to events The Young Turks (young people eager for radical change to the established order) - composers aged 25-35, likely to respond to the war or other events and to experiment with new kinds of music The Rising Generation, composers aged 25 and under, sometimes still students, but often already having their first public success. Let s listen to some music from each of these generations. 11

12 THE OLD GUARD In general but with important exceptions, the old guard s music of this time reflected nationalistic and folk traditions rather than new social, political or musical influences. For the most part their music shows: Little Direct Response to the War A continued focus on the orchestra or other homogeneous chamber groups with the big, blended sound. A continued preference for the traditional 19 th century forms: sonata, symphony, chamber music, opera, song Who were these composers? The Americans Amy Beach and Arthur Foote, the German Richard Strauss the Russians Alexander Glazunov and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov; the Frenchmen Gabriel Fauré and Paul Dukas, the Englishmen Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius. SIBELIUS PIC Jan Sibelius was one of this generation s finest composers. Fifty-four years old when the war ended, he was still a vigorous and masterful composer, and like others of his generation, a leading proponent of using Finnish history and folk music in his compositions. FIVE PIECES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, No reference to the war PLAY Sounds like late 19 th Century music Traditional genre (violin and piano) THE MIDDLE GENERATION In general but again with some exceptions, music of the middle generation reflects a mixture of 19 th century traditions and new influences. In music by these composers you will find: Both direct AND indirect responses to the war The use of traditional musical forms: sonata, symphony, song, opera AND new musical forms, including program music that responded to the war and its effects 12

13 Who were these composers? They include the Hungarians Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly; the Americans Charles Griffes and Charles Ives; the Germans Alban Berg, and Anton Webern; the Brazilian Heitor Villa- Lobos, the Englishmen Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst; the Russians Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nicolai Medtner; the Frenchman Edgar Varese, who had resettled in New York early in STRAVINSKY But Igor Stravinsky was by far the most famous, and the most influential composer of this middle generation. Today, many believe that he was the most influential composer of the 20 th century. Stravinsky is one of a great number of composers whose lives and music were repeatedly interrupted by world events, and who thus defy classification by nationality. We will meet many other composers like this during the next eight weeks. In 1919, the 37-year-old Stravinsky was living in Paris, having come there from his native Russia for in 1910, then spending a year in Switzerland, and moving back to France when the war broke out in Stravinsky was to spend the entire inter-war period in France and was indeed the most popular and influential composer in that country. In 1939 he left Europe for the last time to move the United States. L HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT, 1918 L Histoire du Soldat ( A Soldier s Tale ) is one of Stravinsky s most popular and influential compositions. It is not a traditional piece but experimental in many ways: It is a theatrical work "to be read, played, and danced" by three actors and one or several dancers, accompanied by a septet of (seven) instruments chosen because they do NOT blend together in the usual 19- th century way. The music is scored for a septet of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, and percussion. The themes and rhythms are highly influenced by early American jazz ( ragtime) but sounds more serious, more spare, than the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The piece was conceived jointly by Igor Stravinsky and the Swiss writer C. F. Ramuz as a work that could tour small towns and cities in Switzerland at a time when few musicians were available. The smaller group was also preferred because the author and composer could not afford to rent large concert venues even when they were available. The text is based on a Russian folk tale called The Runaway Soldier and the Devil. It relates the parable of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil in return for unlimited economic gain. (Is this anti-military 13

14 commentary the innocent soldier caught up on greater, more evil things than he could know about?), and the story is told by three actors: the soldier, the devil, and a narrator, who also takes on the roles of minor characters. A dancer plays the non-speaking role of the princess, and there may also be additional ensemble dancers. Many people consider L Histoire to be a strong anti-war statement - for what else except exhaustion, shell-shock, poverty and desperation might lead a young man to trade his beloved violin to the devil? THE YOUNG TURKS With some exceptions, the music of the Young Turk generation of composers is more like L Histoire do Soldat than like music of older generations. Makes direct and often personal responses to war Uses dissonance to express extreme emotion, conflict and loss Uses new musical forms: program music related to war and its effects Who are these composers? They include the Russian Sergei Prokofiev, the Germans Paul Hindemith and Karl Orff, the Englishmen Gerald Finzi and William Walton, the Americans George Gershwin and Roy Harris, the Frenchmen Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc. MILHAUD PIC Darius Milhaud was one of the leading composers of the Young Turk Generation. Born in France, he spent World War I as secretary to the French Ambassador to Brazil, where he fell in love with that nation s folk music. In 1925 he visited New York and fell in love again, this time with American jazz. These were the two major influences of Milhaud s musical compositions. Like many Jewish families in France, the Milhauds were forced to leave when Germany conquered France in the summer of Milhaud emigrated to the United States and settled in California. For many years he taught musical composition at Mills College and was one of the most influential teachers of composition in the United States. Among his students were Dave Brubeck and the songwriter Burt Bacharach, whom Milhaud advised, Don t ever be afraid to write tunes that people can whistle and will remember! LE BEOUF SUR LE TOIT, 1919 Among the most charming and best-known pieces written during World War is Milhaud s ballet score, Le Beouf sur le Toit ( The Ox on the Roof, ) a piece influenced both by jazz and by Brazilian folk rhythms. Big orchestra sound with lots of percussion instruments ( Sibelius!) 14

15 No lengthy 19 th century themes: the music changes often, with lots of small sections Includes jazz rhythms and fragments of thirty Brazilian folk songs. SURREALISM Le Boeuf is a famous example of Surrealism, an avant-garde movement in the arts beginning in the 1920 s. It promoted the release of creative potential of the unconscious mind, recently written about by Sigmund Freud. Surrealistic art features the surprising and irrational juxtaposition of ideas and images that are traditionally unrelated. Here are two examples from the world of art: MAX ERNST IMAGE SALVADOR DALI IMAGE THE RISING GENERATION The Rising Generation of composers in 1919 were born around the turn of the 20 th century. They were modernists from birth, one might say, except that they grew up knowing and listening to the music of older generations. In the music of these composers we will find: Little use of 19 th century sounds or forms Direct and personal responses to the war itself, and to the post-war feelings of loss, suffering, and the failure of institutions Nationalism focused, not on patriotism, but on pre-historical, ancient, and primitive cultures, including colonial cultures Style that incorporates dissonance, jazz, new forms, irony, surrealism, and experimental sounds Who were these composers? They include the Russians Dmitri Kabalevsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Aram Khatchaturian; the German Kurt Weill; the Englishman Benjamin Britten; the Frenchmen Francis Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen; the Americans Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Duke Ellington; the Italian Luigi Dallapiccola. ELLINGTON PIC Duke Ellington emerged as a jazz composer at the age of 15. Later, and more important, he was one of the first jazz musicians along with George Gershwin - to combine elements of jazz with elements of classical music. For right now, let s listen to his very first known composition. 15

16 POODLE DOG/SODA FOUNTAIN RAG, 1915 The teenage Ellington s first after-school job was at the Poodle Dog soda fountain and café, in Southeast Washington, DC. This rag, his very first composition, was written to celebrate being hired at this neighborhood café. PLAY 16