Classical Music in America is a pioneering history by an award-winning scholar and leading authority on American symphonic culture. Joseph Horowitz argues that classical music in the United States is peculiarly performance- driven, and he traces a musical trajectory rising to its peak at the close of the nineteenth century and receding after World War I. He defines the decades of ascendancy as the quest for an American compositional voice, painting vivid vignettes of America's most celebrated performers and such path breaking institutions as the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. He explores a century of decline characterized by illustrious orchestras, conductors, and virtuosos, mostly foreign born, and in a final chapter he exposes a crisis of leadership and suggests new musical directions in our postmodern age. As with his acclaimed cultural histories, Horowitz here fashions a sweeping narrative--packed with personality and incident, textured by literature, sociology, and intellectual history--that freshly illuminates the American experience. Stating that classical music in the United States is largely performance driven, a chronological history documents its rise at the end of the nineteenth century and decline after World War I, covering such topics as the quest for an American compositional voice, the nation's top performers, and the author's recommendations about a postmodern musical direction.