A Study of Jazz Influences in Jonathan Newman's My Hands Are a City

Now popular across the globe, jazz is regarded as a uniquely American musical art form. Its roots trace back to African folk songs that were brought to America during the slave trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A product of both social and musical factors, jazz has grown in popularity and is now accepted as its own musical style; one that is indigenous to the United States.Early in the twentieth century, as jazz was beginning to popularize, composers in the Western art music tradition began to incorporate elements of jazz, especially ragtime, a forerunner to jazz, into their music. One of the first examples of this was Erik Satie. In his 1917 ballet, Parade, for the Ballet Russe, Satie used ragtime rhythms. Igor Stravinsky also employed ragged rhythms as found in his L'Histoire du Soldat (1918), which includes a movement entitled "Ragtime." Other examples showing an influence of jazz include Darius Milhaud's La Creation du monde (1923), Ernst Krenek's Jonny Spielt auf (1926), George Antheil's Jazz Symphony (1924), and George Gershwin's classic Rhapsody in Blue (1924), to name a few. Even Aaron Copland integrated jazz into his music as illustrated in Music for Theatre (1925).The integration of jazz has also been a growing trend in wind band literature over the last fifty years. This article examines how elements of jazz have been successfully incorporated in My Hands are a City (2008) by Jonathan Newman. The analysis focuses on five criteria: 1) Harmonic or scalar usages traditionally found in jazz. 2) Improvisational qualities in melodic writing or solo sections. 3) The inclusion of rhythms normally associated with jazz. 4) Instrumentation and scoring, with particular attention to the use of instruments normally associated with traditional jazz band scoring. 5) Special effects or notation associated with jazz.Relevant BiographyJonathan Newman was bom in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1972. He holds the Bachelor of Music in Composition from Boston University's School for the Arts (1994) where he studied composition with Richard Cornell and Charles Fussell and conducting with Lukas Foss. He earned the Master of Music in Composition from The Juilliard School (1996). While at Juilliard he studied composition with John Corigliano and David Del Tredici and conducting with Miguel Harth-Bedoya. In 2001 he was a recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a founding member of the composer-consortium BCM International that also includes Eric Whitacre, Steven Bryant, and Jim Bonney. Newman writes for many genres including orchestra, winds, chamber, solo, and vocal.1Newman grew up in a non-musical family but one who faithfully supported his musical pursuits. He had a diverse interest in music that included studying piano, singing in the choir, and playing trombone. His interest in jazz started early and was particularly influential. "In high school I did everything. I sang in chorus, I played piano, and I was quite serious about playing trombone in orchestra, in the bands, and in jazz bands. I was very into jazz in high school. The first theory I learned was jazz theory. Music camps in the summer and even high school I started writing [sic]."2 The influence of jazz, especially the theoretical aspects, was a strong part of his early education in music and continues to impact his writing today. "It (the study of jazz) was so early (in my musical training) that I still think in terms of jazz chords now."3After graduation from high school, Newman pursued composition. His study at Boston University included a very conservative approach and was focused on learning the conventions of the major composers in the Western art music tradition. Thus, his interest in jazz was subdued, but never went away. Jazz was never discouraged, however, it was not a part of the training. At Juilliard jazz began to become a part of his compositional voice and remains so today. …