Third Stream
| Third Stream | |
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| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1957, United States |
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Third Stream is a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller, in a lecture at Brandeis University, to describe a musical genre that is a synthesis of classical music and jazz. Improvisation is generally seen as a vital component of Third Stream.
In 1961, Schuller defined Third Stream as "a new genre of music located about halfway between jazz and classical music". Schuller insisted that "by definition there is no such thing as 'Third Stream Jazz'".
Schuller noted that while purists on both sides of Third Stream objected to tainting their favorite music with the other, more strenuous objections were typically made by jazz musicians who felt such efforts were "an assault on their traditions." Schuller writes that "by designating the music as a 'separate, Third Stream,' the other two mainstreams could go about their way unaffected by the attempts at fusion." Because Third Stream draws on classical as much as jazz, it is generally required that composers and performers be proficient in both genres.
Critics have argued that Third Stream—by drawing on two very different styles—dilutes the power of each in combining them. Others reject such notions, and consider Third Stream an interesting musical development.
In 1981, Schuller offered a list of "What Third Stream is not":
Schuller suggested that a similar fusion was made by Béla Bartók, who earned great acclaim after incorporating elements of Hungarian folk music into his music, which had earlier been heavily influenced by Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss.
Attempts to integrate jazz and classical music began in the early 1900s almost as soon as the former became recognised as a distinct style of music. Some ragtime music drew upon classical music, and symphonic pieces such as George Gershwin's 1924 Rhapsody In Blue blended jazz and symphonic music. The piece La création du monde by French composer Darius Milhaud includes jazz-inspired elements, including a jazz fugue. Igor Stravinsky drew upon jazz for several compositions, such as Ragtime, Piano-Rag-Music and the Ebony Concerto (the last composed for jazz clarinetist Woody Herman and his orchestra in 1945). Other notable composers who utilized jazz elements in at least a few compositions include Maurice Ravel, Bohuslav Martinů, Paul Hindemith, William Grant Still, George Antheil, Aaron Copland, Ernst Krenek, Kurt Weill, Dmitri Shostakovich, Morton Gould, and Leonard Bernstein. Though few of these examples can be strictly classified as Third Stream as they do not involve improvisation, they do demonstrate that there was widespread mutual interest and appreciation between the jazz and classical traditions.
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