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*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Soundtrack of the American West The Other Artists   With a few exceptions, previous posts have explored the musical context of paintings by either Charlie Russell or Frederic Remington; in the last two posts, we even listened to their “playlists.”   In this blog, we’ll return to the “Soundtrack of the West”, but we’ll listen to paintings by the other artists represented at the Sid Richardson Museum.   We have heard from three of these artists before: William G. [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Soundtrack of the American West The Artist’s Playlists Frederic S. Remington's Playlist   Self-Portrait On A Horse | Frederic Remington | c. 1890 | Oil on canvas | 29.1875 x 19.375 inches Frederic S. Remington, At Work   Remington stayed up-to-date with currently popular music; after all, his home wasn’t far from New York City and Tin Pan Alley.  So for him, painting was not a silent activity, and visitors to his studio commented on his vocal [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Soundtrack of the American West The Artist’s Playlists   So far, the Symphonies in our “Soundtrack of the American West” have explored the music of Native America and the songs of the cowboys.  We have heard the actual sounds and music of the West, and also how this music was later interpreted, adapted, and arranged. This time, we’ll take a different approach.  Take a seat, unnoticed in a corner of each artists’ studio.  But instead of listening to their [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* A Cowboy Chorale Movement 3 Song of the New Hero   In this third Movement of our Cowboy Chorale we will explore the ascension of the lowly cowboy as the symbol of virtuous American manhood in the early twentieth century, and hear the songs (hymns?) of this unlikely apotheosis.  We begin with the cowboy on stage, then follow his development as the star of the silver screen and the subject of Tin Pan Alley song writers.  Two excellent references [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* A Cowboy Chorale   Movement 2   Cowboy Composers In this second Movement of our Cowboy Chorale we will explore the influence of cowboy songs on American composers in the early 1900s.   Cowboys and Indianists While the unfortunate soul being dragged in Remington’s The Ambushed Picket is most likely a military man, he would probably still suffer the same fate as any dying cowboy – i.e., a burial on the lonely prairie. While listening to the various arrangements [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* A Cowboy Chorale   From the wildflower covered plains of south Texas, the sounds and songs of the cattle trails stampeded out of the sunset, into the Soundtrack of the American West.  In the years after the Civil War, the nation, both North and South, was exhausted – and hungry.  Eastern farms and ranches that had been ravaged or raided during the war years, couldn’t provide enough cattle to satisfy the craving for beef.  But in Texas…  Ahh, the [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Symphony of Native America Movement 4   The Southwest   Apache Medicine Song  &  Geronimo Frederic Remington wrote about his trip to the San Carlos Apache Reservation in southeast Arizona in “On the Indian Reservations,” for the July 1889 issue of Century Magazine (Vol 38, p. 399-400).  In the article, he appears to describe the scene in Apache Medicine Song: “It grew dark, and we forbore to talk.  Presently, as though to complete the strangeness of the situation, the [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Symphony of Native America Movement 3 The Buffalo Hunt   Music has always been a part of Native American life, with songs and ceremonies surrounding everything of importance.  In this movement of our ongoing “Symphony of Native America,” we’ll hear the melodies and drumbeats from several Plains tribes that commemorate one of their most important events: the buffalo hunt. Lyrics in Native American songs are most often vocables (syllables without meaning), or sometimes just a few words with implied [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Symphony of Native America   Movement 2   Four American Indian Songs by Charles Wakefield Cadman   Searching for Sounds of the New World Charles Wakefield Cadman, Four American Indian Songs, 1909 By the close of the 19th century, the search for a distinctly “American” musical sound was well underway; but oddly, its most ardent advocate was a Bohemian.  While serving as the Director for the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York, Antonín Dvořák [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Mark Clardy, SRM Docent and independent scholar.* Listen to the paintings of Charlie Russell, Frederic Remington, and other artists of the West!  Listen carefully, and you might hear dusty cowboys serenading restless cattle, or maybe a harmonica just over the horizon.  Brush strokes pulse with the beat of Native American drums.  Staccato clouds gallop across the sunset, echoing the ochre trills of a distant flute.  Bugle calls and saloon pianos, pow-wow dances and tribal medicine songs, even las canciones de la frontera – they’re all clamoring [...]