Making Music in Los Angeles

Download or read book Making Music in Los Angeles written by Catherine Parsons Smith and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-10-16 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fascinating social history of music in Los Angeles from the 1880s to 1940, Catherine Parsons Smith ventures into an often neglected period to discover that during America's Progressive Era, Los Angeles was a center for making music long before it became a major metropolis. She describes the thriving music scene over some sixty years, including opera, concert giving and promotion, and the struggles of individuals who pursued music as an ideal, a career, a trade, a business--or all those things at once. Smith demonstrates that music making was closely tied to broader Progressive Era issues, including political and economic developments, the new roles played by women, and issues of race, ethnicity, and class.