The Indian Character Piece

Pianist Stephanie Bruning notes that the Indianist Movement is a title many music historians use to define the surge of compositions related to or based on the music of Native Americans that took place from around 1890 to 1920. Hundreds of compositions written during this time incorporated various aspects of Indian folklore and music into Western art music. The character piece was a very successful genre for composers to express themselves. It became a natural genre for composers of the Indianist Movement to use as an outlet for portraying musical themes and folklore of Native American tribes. Eventually this enthusiasm died out leaving a large body of piano literature collecting dust, out of print, and virtually unrecognized. Bruning offers a selection of some of these works with this recording offering a glimpse of each composer's style and a look into musical and social issues America was grappling with at the end of the century. Stephanie Bruning is a graduate of Drake University and the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. She is on the faculty at Morgan State University and serves as a reviewer for Clavier Companion.