Americana

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Genre

Americana is an American sound that emerged in the concert hall in the 1930s and entered film via documentaries. In 1936 Virgil Thomson wrote the music for The Plow That Broke the Plains, a government documentary about the Dust Bowl, with hymns, cowboy songs and simple harmonies. Aaron Copland followed with Of Mice and Men (1939) and Our Town (1940). His style consists of open fifths and fourths, clear woodwinds and a calm tempo. In this way he evokes wide landscapes and ordinary people, without the heavy Romantic orchestra of Hollywood. For The Heiress Copland received an Oscar in 1950. Westerns and later film composers took over this sound.

Listening

• 
  The Plow That Broke the Plains: Cattle · Virgil Thomson, 1936
• 
  Music for Movies: II. Barley Wagons (from Of Mice and Men) · Aaron Copland, 1939
• 
  Our Town · Aaron Copland, 1940

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Film Music Map^NL Map
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 2^NL Reader

See also

• Leonard Bernstein
• Nationalist schools
• Appalachian folk (mountain music)
• Hollywood Western