AMS NEWSLETTER THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY CONSTITUENT MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES VOLUME XLII, NUMBER 1 February 2012 ISSN 0402-012X AMS/SEM/SMT New Orleans 2012: “Do You 2011 Annual Meeting: Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?” San Francisco AMS New Orleans 2012 New Orleans can be a performance: from jazz By all reports, the meeting of the AMS in 1–4 November funerals to Mardi Gras parades, brass bands “the city” was a huge success. 1,563 delegates www.ams-net.org/neworleans to zydeco to bounce, music is in the very air converged on San Francisco from 10 to 13 of the city. As a port city with a multicultural November for the annual event, greeted by Apparently many of you do know what it heritage, New Orleans is a perfect place to fabulous weather, a friendly youthful vibe, means to miss New Orleans: I’ve heard that, have a joint meeting with our colleagues in the and a range of world-class culinary and cul- after the 1987 meeting, some began to question Society for Music Theory and the Society for tural opportunities to choose from. We were why the Annual Meeting needed to be held in Ethnomusicology. You should be aware that grateful that threats of labor unrest at the ho- a different city each year. In any case, those Halloween is a major holiday for some New tel did not materialize, allowing us to enjoy of you who have been awaiting a return to Orleanians, so, if you’re planning to come a a luxurious facility replete with a grand “city the Crescent City and those who missed that day or more ahead, book early! of lights” lobby familiar from the Mel Brooks meeting now have your chance! (By the way, November is a terrific time to visit southern parody High Anxiety. Even the nearby Oc- locals don’t actually call it “new or-LEANS,” Louisiana: the heat has broken, and the peak cupy San Francisco site was peaceful. except if they’re singing that song; it’s “or- of hurricane season is past. (One local me- I’m exceedingly grateful for all the hard LEANS” parish but “new OR-leans,” often teorologist emphasizes that no hurricane has work that members of the Program Commit- slurred into the two-syllable “N’AW-lins.”) ever struck Louisiana in November, so there tee—David Brackett, Andrew Dell’Antonio, The capital of French colonial Louisiana, New should be no reason to worry on that score.) Emma Dillon (2012 Chair), Judy Lochhead, Orleans is a cultural crossroads, with musical Average highs are around 70, lows around 50, Michael Marissen, and Roberta Marvin—put traditions going back to the eighteenth cen- but the weather may go through wide mood tury. It was the first city in North America to swings; last November ranged between 85 and into evaluating the record number of submis- 2011 boast a permanent opera company, and it is 30. We’ll be based at the Sheraton on Canal sions we received. When we met in April well known as the birthplace of jazz. More re- Street (www.sheratonneworleans.com), but for our marathon committee meeting, excite- cently, it is home to the first musician-owned you’ll want to get out: the river levee is just ment was high as we began the final task of full-time orchestra in the U.S. But life itself in a few blocks away, and the French Quarter assembling the raw data into workable ses- is right across the street. Early arrivers may sions. During this crucial stage, David’s wry want to take a wetlands tour or another trip interjections added a regular dose of levity. In This Issue… with the AMS Ecocriticism Study Group Amid intense concentration leavened with (www.ams-esg.org), or participate in SEM’s laughter, such session title names as “Mad, 2 President’s Message ............... pre-conference symposium “Crisis and Cre- Bad, and Lewd on the Seventeenth-Century 3 Ora Frishberg Saloman Endowment .. ativity” (www.indiana.edu/~semhome/2012/ Italian Stage,” “Mourning and Purging in Treasurer’s Message ...............4 special.shtml). Individual tourists can visit the Renaissance,” “Also Sprach Weber und Executive Director’s Message .......4 the National World War II Museum (www. Riemann,” “Highbrow/Nobrow,” and “Hip News from the AMS Board ........4 nationalww2museum.org) or the Ogden Mu- Hop to Honky Tonk” began to emerge, all AMS-Sponsored Lectures ..........5 seum of Southern Art (www.ogdenmuseum. calculated to draw members to sessions in Awards, Prizes, Honors ............6 org), both within a short streetcar ride from spite of the enticements of the host city. AMS Studies Editor’s Message ..... 11 the Sheraton. Of course, you can also simply Once the sessions and chairs were lined AMS Elections 2012 . 12 stroll through the Quarter, people-watch over up, the delicate balance of programming the News Briefs ...................14 café au lait and beignets at Café du Monde, four-day meeting commenced. Which panels 14 Conferences, CFPs .............. take the streetcar through the Garden District, to program up against one another? Which 15 Committee & Study Group News .. or just sit on the levee and watch the river go ought to be in a larger venue versus a smaller 18 Post-Conference Survey Report .... by. Those who are interested in assisting with one? How to accommodate the various needs 19 Papers Read at Chapter Meetings ... the continued recovery of the city may also and wishes of individuals against those of Financial Summary 2011 ..........25 Obituaries ....................26 continued on page continued on page President’s Message: Covering the AMS As I reflect with great satisfaction on our For Straus, performance was his entrée— ams-net.org/feeds/news for links). Fasci- rich and stimulating meeting in San Fran- and, through him, his readers’ introduc- nated by the concept of “music in society,” cisco, I’m struck by a rare occurrence: The tion—to the field of musicology that was Smoliar attended our Thursday session gathering was covered in the media. This quickly gaining a foothold in America. on “Institutionalizing Music.” Here, Leta captured my attention, not least because Fast-forward almost sixty years. When Miller’s paper on Ernest Bloch’s years at the one of the important questions for the James R. Oestreich attended our Boston San Francisco Conservatory led Smoliar to Board at its upcoming retreat in March meeting in 1998, he fully expected to wit- recall the composer’s works that are most 2012 is how the AMS can reach out to ness an academic “donnybrook” on several closely associated with this institution. On non-specialists who love music, want to fronts (NYT, 2 November). After describ- the same session, Smoliar was intrigued by learn more about it, and are interested (al- ing the skirmish between Joshua Rifkin and Michael Mauskapf’s discussion of the reor- though they may not know it) in the ques- Robert Marshall over whether or not Bach’s ganization of the New York Philharmonic tions that we consider daily. In short, how works were performed with one singer to a in light of the rise of the city’s elite class in can we do “public musicology” better? Al- part, he turned to the session “most likely the early twentieth century, which helped though press coverage is by no means the to explode.” The papers here centered on to align the orchestra’s musical and eco- only gauge for this issue, the reporting in music and politics, as engaged through nomic objectives. And the John Cage ses- San Francisco was noteworthy because it Solomon Volkov’s Testimony (1979), the sion on Friday morning elicited both praise happens infrequently. A brief look back on purported memoir of Shostakovich. Allan from Smoliar for the “theorizing [that is] four instances of media notice, spanning B. Ho and Dimitry Feofanov spoke for the now taking place around the work of Cage more than seven decades, is both interest- missing Volkov, while Richard Taruskin and his colleagues,” and lament about the ing and instructive. and David Fanning represented the absent dearth of performances of Cage’s music Heralding the International Congress Malcolm H. Brown and Laurel Fay, author these days. For Smoliar, music in its social of the AMS (11–16 September 1939) on of Shostakovich: A Life (2000). This was context is a compelling paradigm, and he the eve of its opening, music critic Noel found much at our meeting to nourish his Straus published a substantial piece about How can we do “public interest. the upcoming activities in the New York musicology” better? Music performance, music and politics, Times. What caught my eye is what Straus music in society and culture: the press chose to discuss: the music. In particular, coverage of AMS meetings, not surpris- he describes an upcoming concert of then- gloves-off musicology at its best, although, ingly, parallels the trajectory of our work unpublished works by Handel, includ- as Oestreich remarked—with a bit of re- as a Society over almost eighty years. If our ing “four vocal cantatas, three sonatas for gret, I think—“no blows were struck.” primary purpose is cutting-edge research, various combinations of instruments, two At the joint meeting of the AMS, SMT, then understanding music in all its con- arias and an operatic duet, all of which and SEM, inter alia, in Toronto in 2000, texts follows on immediately. This comes were unearthed by Dr. [J. M.] Cooper- Edward Rothstein (NYT, 11 November) as no surprise, but it is worth noting as we smith.” Announcing the Handel concert detected a “four-line counterpoint” of embark on a process of strategic thinking was more important to Straus than detail- themes, consisting of “politics, art music, that will, in part, include raising the profile ing the paper sessions that would also be ethnomusicology and pop.” Recalling that of public musicology.