Book Reviews: The New York Composers' Forum Concerts, 1935-1940

In so doing, de Graff's book builds upon Carol Oja's groundbreaking research on modern music in the United States during the 1920s and invites future scholarship that considers the importance of institutions and the many ways they shape U.S. musical life. 1De Graaf's narrative is thoroughly grounded in primary source research, including both meticulous work with the Composers' Forum archive (housed in the National Archives II, College Park, Maryland) and detailed research in collections housed at the New Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, among other institutions. [...]appendices list composers and works, student composers and works, and selection committee members. In their works, composers applied these methods in ways that were quite nuanced and often interconnected. [...]de Graaf's approach invites new methods for structuring required music history coursework that move beyond a survey, which tends to stereotype the music and ideas of historical times and places as period style history.