ROCCO PRIOLETTI
Staff Writer
At 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater, pianist Lara Downes will join linguist and scholar John McWhorter in a music-fueled conversation detailing prevailing optimism through American song.
Downes, a lifelong musician, said she often experiences the world through music and the stories that help tie notes together.
“I often feel like the core of my music-making is storytelling,” Downes said. “My very first teacher, when I was 4 years old, really instilled this deep sense of context for me. I’m never making music without thinking about the backstory. … Most of the way that I understand the world is through music and the stories behind the music.”
Experiencing the world through music is a perspective that McWhorter also shares, according to Downes. The music from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1940s will serve as Downes and McWhorter’s shared timeline for the discussion. She described this period as being rife with change.
“This particular theme is about how music has been from the beginning of our [country’s] history. But certainly, in those years when American music was really coming into its own, [American] music has been always this insistence and persistence of optimism and hope and shining light in dark times,” Downes said.
Downes spotlighted the adverse nationwide circumstances that backdropped the musical canon of The Great American Songbook’s curation. From the 1920s until the 1950s, the United States experienced events such as the Great Depression and World War II, and yet, the country’s musical outlook remained undying with a joyful perseverance.
“When you look at the songs and the movies and the Broadway shows, and the role that they played — it was almost like a machinery, you know? To keep the American people going,” Downes said.
For instance, she noted Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” It was initially written during World War I and was broadcast nationwide via radio during World War II.
“You look at the history of the American 20th century, and you look at the songs and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is not a coincidence, right?’” Downes laughed.
Downes will once again take the stage at 8 p.m. tonight, during her concert, “Get Happy,” with jazz singer Kurt Elling. She noted that she is excited to explore the topic in two different mediums with McWhorter and Elling.
“To start this conversation with John and then to really expand it in the evening with Kurt — letting the music come to the foreground — that’s a rare opportunity,” Downes said. “I think we’re all lucky; artists and audiences at Chautauqua are really lucky to have that kind of deep dive opportunity.”
