The twentieth century will go down in history as the century that radically changed our society: two devastating world wars and an economic system that was to take hold, at staggering speed, of the philosophy, aesthetics, and moral values on which humanity had hitherto been founded. As a result, the arts in general and the musical world in particular were so powerfully affected that, today, we can find no parallel in past centuries. Thus the twentieth century will be remembered as the century of diversity, when the confluence of so many different schools of thought gave birth to the most varied techniques and compositional styles, unhesitatingly burying all vestiges of post-Romanticism. Inevitably, the American musical landscape, consistently inheriting European trends, was imbued with this ‘experimental’ feel, leading to a diverse musical scene that breathes the air of Nadia Boulanger’s Paris with Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter, ‘moves away’ from sound with John Cage, and employs the full range of stylistic possibilities with John Corigliano; an America that adapts the old language to derive completely new and fresh music from elements inherited from the past. In a country where ‘classical’ music is not a native art, it became imperative to create music with an identity of its own that would reflect the thoughts and feelings of a people and to develop a school of American composers.