The Americanist: An American Cultural Myth to Partner with the Album, The Americanist

Art Style | Art & Culture International Magazine Abstract The Americanist is a musical album and essay. Set in the interwar period, the album features orchestral works arranged for solo piano by George Gershwin, William Grant Still, and Maurice Ravel. The partnering essay places the composers within a larger context of American cultural aims and production. More importantly, it credits the cultural brilliance of the age, as well as the success of a globally recognized American sound, to the guidance and inspiration of the philosophies of the transcendentalist and New Negro movements. Confirming this achievement was the positive reception from the American public, in which this ‘American accent’ was widely accepted as a sonic representation of a shared American identity. The works of Gershwin and Grant Still utilize a range of popular idioms which serve to express a personal and authentic sentiment within a general expression of American optimism and character. Yet, the European acknowledgment and utilization of this contribution were equally important. Ravel provides this affirmation both through his tour of the United States in 1928, as well as with a quasi-American compositional style that he employed following La Valse. Crucial to this development was the cultivation of local inspiration as it was assimilated into a global expression. Among many of the tools that could illuminate philosophical insight, I called forth the myth to articulate this story. The implicit inquiries within this narrative showcase the necessity of the myth; how vital philosophical coordination is for virtuous civic attitudes; and the startling differences in cultural production when that philosophical coordination is present versus when it is not. In the essay, I compose an “American cultural myth,” capturing the sentiments and dualities of an American cultural heroine, as she stands alongside the sole American myth, the American Dream.Art Style, Art & Culture International Magazine is an open-access, biannual, and peer-reviewed online magazine that aims to bundle cultural diversity. All values of cultures are shown in their varieties of art. Beyond the importance of the medium, form, and context in which art takes its characteristics, art is considered the significance of socio-cultural, historical, and market influence