Burlesque Suite (2014)

Program Notes:

Burlesque Suite is a set of three short dances inspired by American popular dance music styles from the 1920s and 1930s. Some groups of people were portrayed in these classic songs in a prejudiced and stereotyped way; the tone of my music in its burlesque quality is a reaction to this. Despite the fact that these songs and dance tunes sound light- hearted and lively, they carry with them a subtle and disturbing hint of a darker time in American history. The duality of these old pieces of music reflects a theme common to this frame of time — harmless and charming on the outside yet intrinsically flawed to the core by the “spirit of the time.”