A term coined by Gunther Schuller, in a lecture at Brandeis University in 1957, for a type of music which, through improvisation or written composition or both, synthesizes the essential characteristics and techniques of contemporary Western art music and other musical traditions. At the heart of this concept is the notion that any music stands to profit from a confrontation with another; thus composers of Western art music can learn a great deal from the rhythmic vitality and swing of jazz, while jazz musicians can find new avenues of development in the large-scale forms and complex tonal systems of classical music.
The term was originally applied to a style in which attempts were made to fuse basic elements of jazz and Western art music – the two mainstreams joining to form a ‘third stream’. This style had been in existence for some years, and is exemplified by such pieces as Red Norvo’s Dance of the Octopus (1933, Bruns.), Ralph Burns’s Summer Sequence (recorded by Woody Herman’s band, 1946, Col.), George Handy’s The Bloos (1946, Jazz Scene), Robert Graetinger’s City of Glass (recorded by Stan Kenton’s orchestra, 1951, Cap.), Alec Wilder’s Jazz Suite (1951, Col.) and Rolf Liebermann’s Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra (recorded by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, ?1956, Vic.). Since the late 1950s the application of the term has broadened, notably through the work of pianist Ran Blake, to encompass fusions of classical music with elements drawn not only from African-American sources but also from other vernacular traditions, including Turkish, Greek, Hindustani, Russian and Cuban music, among others.
The third-stream movement attracted much controversy and has often erroneously been allied with the symphonic jazz movement of the 1920s; symphonic jazz, however, lacked the essential element of improvisation. Other critics have seen the movement as an inevitable outcome of postwar eclecticism and stylistic and technical synthesis. Third stream, like all musical syntheses, courts the danger of exploiting a superficial overlay of stylistic exotica on an established musical idiom, but genuine cross-fertilization has occurred in the work of musicians deeply rooted in dual traditions.
Composers and performers associated with the third-stream movement include J.J. Johnson, André Hodeir, Milton Babbitt, Bill Russo, Gunther Schuller, Don Ellis, Bill Smith, Jimmy Giuffre, Larry Austin, Mike Mantler, Ran Blake, Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, Steve Lacy and Dave Douglas. A large number of third-stream works have been published by Margun Music; others have been issued by such publishers as MJQ Music, C.F. Peters and Cireco Music.
G. Schuller: ‘Jazz and Classical Music’, in L. Feather: The Encyclopedia of Jazz (New York, 1955, enlarged 2/1960/R)
G. Schuller: ‘“Third Stream” Redefined’, Saturday Review, xliv (13 May 1961), 54–5
G. Schuller: ‘The Future of Form in Jazz’, The American Composer Speaks, ed. G. Chase (Baton Rouge, LA, 1966), 216–25
G. Crane: Jazz Elements and Formal Compositional Techniques in Third Stream Music (thesis, Indiana U., 1970)
C.J. Stuessy: The Confluence of Jazz and Classical Music from 1950 to 1970 (diss., Eastman School, 1970)
M. Harrison: A Jazz Retrospect (Newton Abbot, 1976, rev. 2/1977)
A. Lange: ‘Ran Blake’s Third Stream Visions’, Down Beat, xlvii/2 (1980), 24–6
E. Santosuosso: ‘Third Stream: a Label for an “Anti-label” Music’, Boston Globe (19 July 1980)
G. Schuller: ‘Third Stream Revisited’, Musings: the Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller (New York, 1986)
GUNTHER SCHULLER