More Than Music: Native American inspirations

There’s a growing list of successful composers who proudly identify their heritage as American Indian. It’s renewing interest in the “Indianist movement” which flourished at the turn of the 20th century.

How does this forgotten and complicated musical genre resonate with composers today? And what does an old TV ad for Hamms beer from the 1950s tell us about that journey?

Our latest “More than Music” installment looks at the ways in which Native and non-native American composers, have attempted to incorporate Native American music and lore into our mainstream concert tradition.