Lawrence Levine

Lawrence W. Levine

Looks at the development of a split between serious and popular culture in America and discusses drama, opera, orchestral music, art, and literature

The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America

Highbrow/Lowbrow

Scordatura

Fascinating stories on American cultural life in the 19th century, specifically on how a very broad audience enjoyed areas of culture that we would now classify as strictly highbrow: opera and classical music were frequented by people of all walks of life. Concerts often mixed operatic arias with popular music, folk songs, etc. with the result that opera, albeit in a different from than now, enjoyed a much wider audience. It's almost a pity that this form of music performance died out, especially as it could easiy exist next to our current, more reverential, form of concerts.
Levine is quite critical about this process (the changing of orchestras, concert halls, performance practices towards a much more highbrow set of standards) although I think he forgets the role played by composers themselves: Wagner and Beethoven, for instance, were definitely what in cinema would be called an auteur ( they were very precise about how their work was being performed, had huge and temperamental egos, and were very critical of their audiences). Levine, however, focuses more on how Americans came to sacralize art (through wealthy benefactors paying for symphony orchestras, desiring them to play only what they liked, etc. 
Still, a wonderful study of art and culture - and I haven't even read the chapters on literature, museums, paintings...

Highbrow/Lowbrow The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America

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