The Bulletin o f t h e So c i e t y f o r Am e r i c a n Mu s i c f o u n d e d in h o n o r o f Os c a r G. T. So n n e c k

Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 Spring 2008

SAM’s Mission Statement Rationale and Discussion

for recognition, that was enough of a task of South America. Is a study of their tours The Board, taking into account the SAM to contemplate. Over the years, with a not appropriate for a SAM conference? listserv discussion on the new proposed mis- steady growth of Canadian members, the Our current mission statement, while sion statement, has approved a new version that combines aspects of both the current Society quietly redefined the meaning of providing an umbrella for much of what and proposed statements. SAM President “American” to mean “North American” the Society does, relegates South America John Graziano explains the thinking music. This change allowed the inclusion to “cultures everywhere in the world.” This behind the new statement below; selected of Canadian topics. omission has created some concern from comments from the SAM listserv follow. It has become increasingly clear over prospective and current members. In an SAM members are asked to vote for their the last decade that American music is effort to respond to stated concerns, the preference by 15 June, on the SAM web- not limited to North America. As was Board requested our past President to pro- site: http://www.american-music.org/ demonstrated at our last conference, there pose a new mission statement. It is briefer were, and are, many kinds of “music(s) and somewhat more general, and at our Since the inception of our Society, there in America.” Some is from Mexico, and last meeting in San Antonio, the Board felt has been a continuing debate among its some from South America. There are very that it would better serve the Society in its members about the scope and inclusiveness strong musical connections between the future endeavors, by encouraging research of our organization. One indication of our Americas today; for example, jazz musi- in an expanding world culture. earliest grappling with this issue can be cians from Brazil and the States are influ- Several respondents are concerned that seen on the Sonneck Society’s earliest bro- encing the stylistic developments in both papers may not be given in English or chures, as well as in its journal, American countries. Do we not want to be able to that they may focus on topics that do not Music: “all aspects of American music and hear a paper on this fascinating phenom- directly deal with music of the United music in America.” It was clearly the aim enon because it involves a South American States. That is not our intention. As in the of many of the Society’s founders to limit country? During much of our history, indi- past, the mission of SAM is to encourage the meaning of America to the United vidual performers and companies toured research that demonstrates the connection States. And perhaps, in our initial struggle the Caribbean, Central America, and parts between music in the States and other countries. I do not believe that our confer- ences will be open to presentations of, for n e w s t a t e m e n t example, a South American, European, or The mission of the Society for American Music is to stimulate the continued on page 26 appreciation, performance, creation, and study of American musics of all eras and in all their diversity, including the full range of activities and institutions associated with these musics throughout the world. in this issue: c u r r e n t s t a t e m e n t New JSAM Editor | 29 The mission of The Society for American Music is to stimulate the appreciation, performance, creation and study of American music in all Conference Report | 31 its diversity, and the full range of activities and institutions associated with that music. “America” is understood to embrace North America, Remembrance | 44 including Central America and the Caribbean, and aspects of its [cultures everywhere in the world. ] Book Reviews | 44 continued from page 25 and Portuguese books in our journal and but do not need to exclude what comes accept articles in Spanish and Portuguese from Central and South America. Asian composer or group who has had no as well. There would be similar challeng- I have lived through the development direct and significant connection to the ing issues if we were to be inclusive of of many mission statements, and I find States. Our revised mission statement is an other languages at the conferences held that the broader, more inclusive ones usu- attempt to address our actual practices over in countries where English may not be ally fare the best. Since I was president the past several years. the “official” language. I realize that other when the previous mission statement was societies may hold conferences in other crafted – and as I remember it, it was seen – John Graziano countries and with various tongues repre- as a compromise and a temporary solution sented, but this is more problematic in our (and was also the result of a meeting in The following comments were first pub- Society because of the focused nature of Texas!) – I fully endorse moving on to a lished on the SAM listserv. They appear in the music and culture that is at the core of new one. chronological order and with the author’s our Society’s history and identity. permission; all were written before 27 April. Finally, I have a personal conflict that I From Paul Wells: SAM members are encouraged to join the am unable to resolve at present. I cherish Many thanks to Ron for initiating dis- listserv in order to participate more fully in the cultures north and south of the United cussion on this issue. He provides much this discussion. To join, go to http://list.pitt. States, but I also cherish the origins, his- good food for thought. edu/mailman/listinfo/sonneck. Comments tory, and personality of the Society for All other considerations aside, I feel are archived. Alternatively, you can post American Music. I am afraid that as we that a much higher priority than trying comments on the SAM website. try to expand our notion of who we are, to expand our geographic scope (as is we will lose the distinctive sense of who implied, if not stated, in the proposed new From Ron Pen: we were and who we are. I believe that we statement) is working to do a far better At this busy time towards the end of have managed to negotiate a fine balance job of embracing the musical and cul- the spring semester, please allow me a brief between the United States and other cul- tural diversity within our own borders, and moment to intrude into your lives to note tures by focusing on the ways in which our expanding our membership accordingly. a few of my thoughts concerning the pro- culture manifests itself elsewhere and ways At times it seems as though we are making posed new mission statement. in which other cultures function within good strides in this direction, but at others I endorse the simplicity and directness our borders. I’m not so sure. of the new mission statement. It is very I like the bold new mission statement On the plus side, one colleague remarked difficult to say more with less, but I think that our Society’s mission transcends all that the San Antonio conference seemed that this version succeeds admirably in that time (“in all eras”). However, I fear that if “more like an SEM meeting,” and it was regard. we continue to expand our notion of the wonderful to have the chance to hear so I endorse the “concept” of expanding space that we delimit within our mission, much good music from the local Hispanic the spatial and cultural reach of the Society we will lose the focus of our Society. In culture. But at the same time it seemed to to include our North and South American attempting to embrace every culture in the me to be one of the whitest conferences neighbors. The recent meeting in San hemisphere, we may lose the distinctive we’ve had in a long time. My perceptions Antonio was a most successful bridge to sense of self and identity that has histori- may have been skewed since I missed the an inclusive mission that includes all of our cally propelled our Society. first half of it, but I missed seeing a num- neighbors to the north and to the south. I would greatly appreciate hearing other ber of African American friends and col- On an idealistic level, I appreciate this voices in this conversation. Thank you all leagues. expansion. for your consideration. The number of African American mem- I am afraid that the pragmatist in me bers in SAM remains low, and the numbers observes a tension, however, between the From Anne Dhu McLucas: of Asian and Hispanic members are even concept of the mission and the reality of My theory of mission statements is that lower. I wish I had some brilliant ideas of its implications. If we are to really seek they are the umbrellas – and that who how to accomplish change. Change will, to embrace South and Central America actually gets under those umbrellas is part of course, come only when the academic as well as North America in our Society, of a long process that develops through disciplines we draw on for our membership that implies that we must advocate hold- people knowing people, the development change as well. But it seems to me that we ing conferences in the countries north and of the field of itself, and many other fac- ought to be putting our energies in this south of U.S. borders. This seems possible, tors. I like the new mission statement for direction, rather than trying to establish in the case of Canada, but challenging if its brevity and inclusivity – it allows for all networks of colleagues in nations thou- not fiscally impossible to do so south of kinds of papers to be offered (as happened sands of miles away – which is a pragmatic our borders. The only example we have as in San Antonio), but it does not require it. consideration that would have to happen a model was the delicious Trinidad con- The focus of the Society will be lost only if if we do, indeed, want to expand our geo- ference, but this was an anomaly since it we stop accepting good papers, publishing graphic scope. occurred during “vacation” time and did good articles, and planning good meetings. not replace the “regular” meeting because There are societies in the southern hemi- From Phil Gentry: of our Mega Conference participation. sphere, and they will continue their activi- I can’t speak to the Board’s motiva- I also see issues associated with lan- ties. Our membership and our activities tions, but for myself, the problem lies not guage as we initiate reviews of Spanish focus mainly on the Northern hemisphere, so much with SAM’s scope, but with the

26 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 disjuncture between our name and our probably wouldn’t have read such postings there is something that other organizations mission. If we wish to focus on music in the at all, given that I was still just starting out cannot offer – needs or services or energies United States, our name ought to reflect in the field. But since you – our graduate – that is unique to the SAM experience. that. “American” is a title that the entire students – are the ones who will have the So what is the nature of this uniqueness? Western Hemisphere, above and below most far-reaching interest in and, ulti- Wherein do we find our intrinsic value? us, can lay claim to, and I’m sure we’ve all mately, impact on the course of Society, I So much of what I have felt myself has experienced the annoyance of friends and hope you’ll make yourselves an active part revolved around issues of academic culture. colleagues from other such countries at the of the conversation as well. Looking back I know which conferences leave me feeling appropriation of the word in the U.S. I sus- 40 years from now, you’ll realize that SAM enriched, encouraged, and reinvigorated; I pect nobody wants another name change, was what you chose to make of it.) also know which organizations have con- so perhaps making our official mission a The current online thread – and the ferences that leave me feeling as though bit more open-ended has the effect of, at proposed amended Mission Statement, I’d lost a quart of plasma and make me the very least, not enshrining such rhetoric obviously – are clear indications of SAM’s ponder abandoning the field entirely. I in SAM policy. current questions of identity. When the know the settings in which as a graduate Society was founded in the 1970s, of student I could find easily senior scholars From Ralph Locke: course, the central tenet of its mission who were personable and supportive, or Regarding Phil Gentry’s posting: The was the much-needed banner-waving for in which independent scholars mingled name Society for American Music is, I American music in response to a long- naturally with academics, music librarians, would say, quite consistent with standard standing and aggressive disinterest in and performance-oriented professionals in usage in academia (Professor of American such topics on the part of the American what has struck me throughout my career History; ENG 201: History of American Musicological Society. Now, some thirty as an ideal environment for music scholars. Literature; “the impact of the Beatles years later, the Society’s position has been (This, I’ll admit, is a purely personal reac- on American popular music – and the vindicated entirely, and history will record tion, as I tend to value quite highly person- reverse”) and in international affairs (“Pax that the Sonneck Society, later renamed able collegiality and intellectual bonding Americana,” “America out of Iraq!” and so the Society for American Music, consti- and am prone to eschew the haughty, the on). “America” is a distinguishing part tuted the vanguard of what ultimately pretentious, the egotistical, and the inap- of the name of our nation, and so this exploded into the musicological study of propriately hostile – but that’s just me.) shorthand has developed, parallel with the a subject once openly denigrated by a So what would be missing if there were shorthand of “United States” (or U.S. or European-centric profession. In short, we no Society for American Music? I’ve given USA). There is nothing prejudicial or won. Consequently, though, we are now my personal answer; others will have opin- exclusionist in saying that SAM is a soci- dealing with the irony that because the ions of their own. But these answers in ety for the study of American (meaning topic of American music has become so their totality will reveal, I think, the cen- USA) music and directly related areas. I accepted into the mainstream, the original tral goals of our mission for the future. I certainly can’t see Phil’s argument that purpose of – and in fact, the very need have no doubt that the proposed revisions we should use the vagueness in the name for – our Society might be the subject to the Mission Statement for SAM will of the Society as a reason to change the of debate today. As one SAM member garner a good deal of discussion – which Society’s mission and mission statement. recently said to me, “We are the victims of is marvelous. The more discussion that (Nor, I agree, should we change the name our own success.” ensues, the greater the level of interest that of the Society – again. … I strongly prefer In less optimistic moments, I myself can be documented, I say. It is also clear going back to the previous mission state- have wondered if there was really a need that we cannot rest solely upon the goals ment, with its elegantly worded inclusion for the Society for American Music any- originally set in the 1970s, since those of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean more. Papers on American music topics are goals have been more than well met, to the (and its nuanced inclusion of the rest of part and parcel of AMS conferences now, credit and honor of the Society’s founders the world, to the extent that develop- not to mention (although we should men- and other American music scholars of the ments there show evidence of “aspects of tion it – and much more often) SEM con- past 30 years. its [North America’s] cultures”). Unless, ferences. Is SAM, therefore, anachronistic? Ultimately, in our discussions, I am gen- that is, there are significant practical rea- How is our Society anything more than uinely excited because there is an all too sons, as has been suggested by Kay Norton, redundant to what is already being done in rare opportunity here – opportunity to for (say) broadening the Society’s scope in the central professional societies that boast discuss and plan and readjust and secure a order to (for example) increase member- much larger memberships and far more vibrant future for the Society for American ship. substantial operating budgets? Music. Indeed, and just as in the past, The answers for me are immediately the key selling points of the Society for From David Patterson: evident when I try to picture a future American Music today are not so much It has been intriguing to read the recent academic climate without SAM. Consider how it copies the practices of other orga- postings related to the proposed Society this: If there were only AMS and SEM, nizations but how it is distinctive from for American Music’s amended Mission and SAM were to have been dissolved, them. In our efforts toward self-definition, Statement. My own “two cents,” as it were, where would be the loss? Who among us then, we must emphasize these unique and follow, and I hope that they are useful in even needs to reflect on that question? innovative aspects of the Society – some stimulating further discussion. (I’d also No Society for American Music? The loss of which are immediately evident, and add that when I was a graduate student, I would be beyond tremendous. Apparently, continued on page 28

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 27 continued from page 27 process as well. By way of “full disclosure,” I’ll con- some that remain to be discovered as the clude by noting that I’m also writing in The Society for American Music is Society itself develops and our conversa- part as the new chair of the Development pleased to welcome these new members tions ensue. Committee – a kind of task that I’ve never My own response to the proposed undertaken before, and in fact would never Mission Statement revisions, therefore, is undertake at all except for an organiza- another series of questions. (We need not tion as important to me as the Society for Students: draw any conclusions this very week, fortu- American Music. In the near future, you Jacqueline Avila, Norwalk, CA nately, and I look forward to our continu- can be sure that this committee will be Barbara Taylor, Santa Barbara, CA ing conversation.) putting together carefully crafted missives Roger Zylstra, Lansing, MI What is our ideal constituency? meant to cajole you into supporting the Samuel Baltimore, West Hollywood, CA What can we offer that is not obtainable Society beyond your basic membership, Michael Mauskapf, Ann Arbor, MI via any other professional organization? using whatever rhetorical devices and clev- Luis-Manuel Garcia, Chicago, IL Are we at all distinctive in our openness er ploys might best state the Society’s case. Cara Wood, Princeton, NJ to membership beyond the ivory tower of But in the long run, quite frankly, these John Spilker, Tallahassee, FL the academy? If so, how have we reached will all prove to be variations on the same Katy Leonard, Nashville, TN out to these communities to date? How simple theme – what does the Society for might we do so in the future? In what ways American Music mean to you? Imagine Matthew Thomas, Los Angeles, CA have we been or might we be appealing as what it would be like if SAM were not Matthew Wittman, Ann Arbor, MI a resource to these communities? here; then recognize how different things Emily Grannemann, St. Louis, MO Are our conferences to be re-creations are because it actually exists. Calculate the León García, Tallahassee, FL of every other kind of conference that difference between those two scenarios Rebecca Meador, Evanston, IL one attends, or is there the possibility for and let your donations do the talking. This Lynn Julin, Oxford, PA novel approaches in this area? (Kudos to is really what it all boils down to; I’ll give Karen Wicke, Chapel Hill, NC Kay Norton and her San Antonio confer- you more thorough details later. In the Kelly Huff, Lawrence, KS ence committee for starting off this line of meantime, contributions can be sent to: Hsun Lin, Lawrence, KS thinking with poster sessions. What else Sarah Wells, Baton Rouge, LA can we come up with?) Mariana Whitmer What would make our conferences more Executive Director, Society for American Music Cutler Edwards, San Diego, CA essential to SAM members? I’m absolutely Stephen Foster Memorial Ryan Oldham, Kansas City, MO delighted that Ralph Locke is contributing University of Pittsburgh Heidy Ximenes, Campbellsville, KY in such a valuable way to this discussion – Pittsburgh, PA 15260 Jonas Westover, Astoria, NY without putting him on the spot, I wonder, Andre Mount, Goleta, CA candidly, what would actually make the If you are interested enough in the Charity Chan, Oakland, CA Society important enough that it might Society for American Music that you’ve John Wriggle, New York, NY bring him back to the conferences them- read all of this response up to this point, Michael Conklin, Ewing, NJ selves. We miss him. What could we do to you can be sure I’m speaking directly to you John Gabriel, San Diego, CA bring J. Peter Burkholder back as a regular as an individual. Regardless, we wouldn’t Brian Jones, Salt Lake City, UT (one of my personal favorite scholars), or be engaged in such an in-depth discussion any of the other key Americanists we see of the amended Mission Statement if the Svetlana Nagachevskaya, Brooklyn, NY far too infrequently? Again, what need Society for American Music itself were not David Moschler, Davis, CA can we satisfy that cannot be met by other so essential to each and every one of us. Travis Allen, Goleta, CA organizations? Where can we enhance our May our mutual faith in the fundamental Elizabeth Clendinning, Tallahassee, FL appeal in this regard? importance of our organization always be As I said, these are all points to con- the lynchpin as we develop our vision of Individuals: sider in what I’m sure will be an extend- the SAM of the future. Sterling E. Scroggins, Washington, DC ed process of healthy re-definition, and I Helena Simonett, Nashville, TN look forward to reading other responses to Jean Dickson, Buffalo, NY the proposed Mission Statement amend- ment. We could, I suppose, define this as David Harnish, Bowling Green, OH a moment of self-doubt and weakness for Marva Duerksen, Salem, OR the Society; on the other hand, I’d much Roland Carter, Chattanooga, TN rather appreciate it as a rare opportunity of Tina Murdock, Dallas, TX flexibility in which we might re-strategize. Carole Blankenship, Memphis, TN I’m confident that the Board will be doing this in its own careful and concentrated efforts at long-range Strategic Planning in the coming year. But our general member- ship will need to be an essential part of this

28 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 Meet JSAM’s new editor

On 1 September 2008 JSAM says farewell to editor Ellie Hisama and welcomes Leta The Society for American Music Miller, who will edit the journal for the next The Society for American Music promotes research, educational projects, and the dissemination of infor- four years. mation concerning all subjects and periods embraced by the field of music in American life. Individual and institutional members receive the quarterly Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM), the Bulletin, and the annotated Membership Directory. Direct all inquiries to The Society for American Music, Stephen Foster Memorial, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; (412) 624-3031; SAM@ american-music.org. Officers of the Society President...... John Graziano President elect...... Thomas Riis Vice-president...... Mary DuPree Secretary...... Carol Hess Treasurer...... Paul Laird Members-at-large ...... Sandra Graham, Charles Hiroshi Garrett, Beth Levy, Gayle Sherwood Magee, Michael Pisani, Howard Pollack Editor, Journal of the Society for American Music ...... Ellie Hisama Editor, SAM Website...... Patrick Warfield Executive Director ...... Mariana Whitmer Standing Committee Chairs: Finance: Paul Laird; Long-Range Planning: John Graziano; Development: David Patterson; Honors and Awards: Mary Wallace Davidson; 2007 Lowens Award (Book): Neil Lerner; 2007 Lowens Award (Article): Bonny Miller; Housewright Dissertation 2007: Jane Riegel Ferencz; Cambridge University Press Where do you teach, and what’s your back- Award: Amy Beal; 2009 Mark Tucker Award: Theo Cateforis; Membership: Karen Bryan; Conference ground in American music studies? Site Selection: Carol Hess; Nominating: Larry Worster; Public Relations: Vacant; Book Publications Subvention (Johnson Bequest): vacant; Sight and Sound: Kip Lornell; Silent Auction: Student Forum; I am a professor at the University of Publications Council: Michael Broyles; Cultural Diversity: Steven Swayne. California, Santa Cruz; my research over the Appointments and Ad Hoc Committees: past 15 years has focused on the 20th-century ACLS Delegate: Michael Broyles; Archivist: Susan Koutsky; Committee on Publication of American avant-garde. I have published two books and Music: vacant; SAM History Project: Denise Von Glahn; US-RILM Representative: Denise Von Glahn; a critical edition (in MUSA) on the life and Registered Agent for the District of Columbia: Samuel Brylawski. works of Lou Harrison, as well as about a Interest Groups: dozen articles on Harrison, Cage, Cowell, American Band History: Susan Koutsky; American Music in American Schools and Colleges: Christine Ives, and other topics in various journals and de Catanzaro and James V. Worman; Connecting Outside the Academy: Joseph Horowitz; Dance: Renee essay collections. I am currently working on a Camus; Early American Music: Nicholas Butler; Folk and Traditional Music: Ron Pen; Gay/Lesbian/ book on music in San Francisco from 1906 to Bisexual/Transgendered: David Patterson; Gospel and Church Music: Roxanne Reed; Historiography: 1945. A preliminary article on that topic (on Michael Pisani; Music of Latin America and the Caribbean: Paul Laird; Musical Theatre: James Lovensheimer; Popular Music: Philip A. Todd; Research on Gender and American Music: Melissa De racial segregation in the SF Musicians’ union) Graaf; Research Resources: Alisa Rata; Twentieth-Century Music: David Patterson appeared in JSAM vol. 1.

Electronic Resources Who else will be on the JSAM editorial staff Listserv: [email protected] when you become editor? Website: http://www.american-music.org Book review editor: Amy Beal; recordings review editor: Daniel Goldmark; and multi- media review editor: Jason Stanyek. Annual Conferences 35th Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado When will the change in editorship take place? John Koegel, Program Committee Chair On 1 September, but Ellie Hisama and I Larry Worster, Local Arrangements Chair are in close contact in the interim. Prior to 1 September continue to send submissions to 36th Annual Conference, Ottawa, Canada Michael Pisani, Program Chair Ellie at [email protected]. After that, sub- James Deaville, Local Arrangements Chair missions should be sent to me at jsam@ucsc. edu. Ellie is keeping me updated on articles in the pipeline.

Is there a back-log in terms of publication? At present, volume 2 (2008) is complete.

continued on page 30

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 29 continued from page 29 by the end of my term only a single hard copy my term, for the Society to provide financial Volume 3(1) is a special issue on Bernstein in will be needed. Reviewers of articles will be support for the graduate student assistant Boston, spearheaded by Carol Oja and Kay encouraged to receive material electronically, editor. I am extremely grateful to Lisa Sloan, Shelemay, with Sarah Adams as guest editor. and to submit their reports in the same way. Dean of Graduate Studies at the University We are thus currently accepting articles for the I am aware of some pitfalls of this approach, of California, Santa Cruz, for providing an remaining three issues in volume 3 (2009). of course, and will be sure to maintain a annual stipend in the form of a research There are a number of articles in various blind review process, with the identification assistant for three years. At the same time, this stages of the review process at present. of authors and reviewers kept confidential. support is not the responsibility of the editor’s academic institution, and I thus hope that the What is your feeling about publishing special What about the journal’s areas of coverage? Society will eventually be able to assume this issues? One of the notable aspects of JSAM – and obligation. Since JSAM publishes four times a year, one that has elicited strong praise from those The assistant editor beginning 1 September there is certainly room for an occasional spe- outside the Society – is what Lou Harrison will be Mark Davidson, a Ph.D. student at cial issue. At the same time, these issues reduce would have called its “inclusivity.” The jour- UCSC. He will handle routine business, but the space available for individual submissions. nal’s breadth of coverage in terms of geo- will not have a voice in deciding whether I do welcome such proposals, but intend to graphical areas, musical styles, and genres, as articles are accepted. Furthermore, in order to publish no more than one special issue per well as its embrace of diverse methodological protect confidentiality, reports from external year. Those wishing to propose a special issue approaches, is impressive. I will uphold the reviewers will be seen only by me. should contact me ([email protected]), and I mission statement: “The Journal of the Society will send detailed instructions about submit- for American Music will deal with all aspects Any closing remarks? ting a proposal (which should include an of American music and music in America, I am truly humbled and honored by the overall description, list of contributors, article focusing on its transformations in the field Society’s expression of trust in me, and am abstracts, bios, and other material). Ellie estab- at home as well as its complex transnational grateful for the path set by the previous edi- lished excellent procedures for evaluating such interactions. JSAM is dedicated to support- tors. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Ellie proposals, which I intend to follow. ing scholarship that transcends disciplinary Hisama for bringing the journal through a boundaries, cutting across historical musi- difficult period. She handled this demanding Will you institute any changes in the submission cology, music theory, ethnomusicology, cul- assignment with integrity and grace, and the procedures? tural theory, identity studies, and American result is two outstanding volumes of scholar- For reasons ecological as well as financial, Studies. Our aim is to encourage a dialogue ship. The model set by Ellie (and before her I am committed to moving as much as pos- as broad-ranging as possible in terms of disci- by David Nicholls) is one I aim to match. It is sible toward electronic manuscript handling. pline and geography.” my hope to make JSAM a vital and indispens- (Such procedures also speed up the review able voice in scholarship on the music of the process.) Beginning 1 September, authors will What other goals do you have for the journal? Americas. need to send only two, rather than three, hard I hope that the financial picture of the copies of submitted articles. I’m hoping that journal will make it possible, by the end of

f r o m t h e p r e s i d e n t

friends, or go to the book exhibit, or take a society a donation, large or small, which will Friday afternoon tour, or bid at the silent auc- demonstrate to the outside funding sources tion, or sit through the business meeting – but that we intend to approach that SAM is to diligently attend all sessions and listen to supported by a significant percentage of its and absorb the details of the many presenta- membership. We would like to be able to say tions selected by the Program Committee, that 85% of SAM’s members have shown chaired this year by Kay Norton. A record their commitment to our cause. You will number of attendees – more than 350 – were be hearing more about this initiative from not disappointed. This year’s conference also David Patterson, who is the new chair of the marked the beginning of a new role for our Development Committee. Society, as we broadened our historic mission Finally, plans for our Denver conference to include the musics of all the Americas (see are moving along at a rapid pace. The date article on p. 25). has been changed from 11–15 March to the We also launched a fundraising initiative following week, 18–22 March, to afford us One of the most important functions of to increase our endowment, so we can have the opportunity to attend many more events, the Society for American Music is our annual more year-to-year financial stability and fund including the annual Denver March Pow- meeting. This past March we met in San more activities for the society. We have raised Wow. If you would like to present a paper at Antonio, where Carl Leafstedt’s Texas hospi- $110,000 during the silent phase of our ini- the conference, the deadline for submission of tality provided us with many happy memories tiative as the foundation of a matching cam- abstracts is 15 June. that will linger for a long time. Of course, the paign. We hope to be able to double it by our — John Graziano main reason for attending our conferences is conference next March in Denver. I ask every not to talk and gossip with your old and new member to join in this effort by giving our

30 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t

President’s Welcome are also engaging in a dialogue with our American music and culture that was in neighbors to the north. In 2010 we will danger of being forgotten – the songs, sto- Welcome to the SAM conference here in be meeting in Ottawa, Canada, and I am ries, legends, and myths of the American San Antonio, for our Society’s second visit sure our program will once again reflect West. Their saddlebags were loaded with to Texas. In 1999 we were here for a great our interest in music of the Americas. To an impeccable sense of harmony; supe- conference in Forth Worth. Although the encourage the presentation of research in rior musicianship; a knack for storytelling; final tallies are not yet complete, it appears these areas, I am pleased to announce that comic timing of the highest order; con- this meeting is going to set an attendance Cambridge University Press, the publishers summate professionalism; inventive and record for us – almost 400 attendees. It of our present journal, JSAM, is sponsor- compelling songwriting; an intelligent and is gratifying to see how the Society has ing a prize for the best paper delivered at informed approach to their material; and grown; at our earliest meetings, we wor- our conference by an international scholar. the best yodeling this side of the High ried that we could attract 100 people. In This is an exciting time for the Society Sierras. And after Joey the Cowpolka King those days, we ran single sessions. What a of American Music. We are in the midst wandered into camp, with his trusty “stom- difference from this meeting; as you can of an American “boom” that is enlarging ach Steinway” – his “belly Bösendorfer” – see in your program, we are running four the knowledge and understanding of the slung around his neck, the sound and the simultaneous sessions for most of the con- music of our country and of the Americas. legend was complete, for he squeezed fresh ference. And then there are all the “extras” The many presentations you will hear dur- bellows of mesquite-scented wind devils – the various interest groups, meeting on ing the next four days demonstrate our into the melodies and sprinkled new cow- Thursday and Saturday at lunchtime and depth of inquiry into areas of music study wit into the entertaining stew simmering on Thursday evening; the poster sessions, that only a few years ago would have been away down there on Harmony Ranch. which we have recently added to our offer- greeted as unattainable. Let’s have a great More than thirty years later, we are ings; and five longtime traditions of our conference! here as evidence that the nation’s love for society – the Sacred Harp sing; the Brass — John Graziano Western music is alive and well. And we Band concert; the Friday afternoon trips; are here to honor Riders In The Sky – the the silent auction, which supports our reasons for that abiding health. student members; and our fabulous thirty- Riders In The Sky Receive Honorary Their accomplishments would fill a third banquet, a tradition that was begun Membership whole train of Conestogas: by Raoul Camus in New York in 1976. • Over 5500 concert appearances in all fifty The growth of the Society has mir- Citation read by John Graziano, American states and ten countries, from rored the phenomenal growth of interest written by Dale Cockrell county fairs to Carnegie Hall to multiple in American music. When this society was appearances with the San Antonio Symphony formed, very few articles and books on Who’d have thought that when Riders Orchestra. American music were being published, and In The Sky first climbed into the saddle • Coveted membership in the Grand Ole Opry sessions devoted to American topics were they’d be getting back into it again and in 1982. again and again, 30 years in a row now. rare. Our first journal, American Music, • Weekly television shows on TNN and CBS. was published to respond to that problem. And not yet a single saddle sore! In 1977 the “western” part of “country • “Woody’s Round Up” in Toy Story 2 (ask Over the past two decades, the increase your kids or your grandkids about the impor- in research has been phenomenal, and and western” had shriveled on the cactus. tance of that!). the study of American music is no longer That was the year that fearless cowhands Ranger Doug, Too Slim, and Woody Paul viewed by the scholarly establishment as continued on page 33 an exotic frill. There is even a series of vol- first came riding to the rescue of a form of umes, MUSA, which is co-sponsored by the Society, that publishes critical editions of American music. At this conference, in addition to the presentations that have defined our Society over the past decades, we are pushing the envelope once again by expanding the scope of our mission to include the music of the Americas, both north and south of our country’s borders. Our first plenary session is devoted to the music of New Spain, and later this morning, a session on pan-American music making is scheduled. Throughout the remainder of the week- end, several other sessions will be devoted to Latin and South American topics. We

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 31 f r o m t h e e d i t o r Journal of the Society for American Music New Bulletin Editor Appointed Volume 2, Number 2 (May 2008) This is my last issue as editor of the Special issue on Technology and Black Music in the Americas Bulletin. Profound thanks to the many SAM members who have contributed the articles, Guest Editor George E. Lewis Standpoints, Counterpoints, book reviews, and conference reports that make the Bulletin worth reading. Please keep them coming as Foreword we welcome our new Bulletin editor: Kendra After Afrofuturism – George E. Lewis Preston Leonard. Kendra is a musicologist with interests Articles in the music and musical culture of twenti- “That Ill, Tight Sound”: Telepresence and Biopolitics in Post-Timbaland Rap Production – Dale eth-century America, France, and Britain; Chapman women and music; and music and film. Her History, An Exit Strategy: The RetroFuture Fabulations of kara lynch – first book, The Conservatoire Américain: A Gascia Ouzounian History, was published in 2007, and she is “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”: Anthony Braxton’s Speculative Musics – Mike Heffley currently at work on projects involving music The Avenging Angel of Creation/Destruction: Black Music and the Afro-technological in the Science in Shakespearean film adaptations; music in Fiction of Henry Dumas and Samuel R. Delany – Salim Washington fantasy and science fiction television and film; and American composer Louise Talma. She Reviews has worked both inside and outside of aca- demia in scholarly and educational publish- Books ing, and often serves as a publishing consul- Michael E. Veal, Dub: Soundscapes & Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (Louis Chude-Sokei) tant for editors and presses. Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954–68, I am delighted to hand the Bulletin editor- ed. John Corbett, Anthony Elms, and Terri Kapsalis and The Wisdom of Sun Ra: Sun Ra’s Polemical ship to such capable hands. Effective immedi- Broadsheets and Streetcorner Leaflets, ed. John Corbett (Brent Hayes Edwards) ately, please send articles, personal news, and Herman S. Gray, Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation (Ajay Heble) communications regarding the Bulletin to Mark Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music (Vijay Kendra at [email protected]. Iyer) Alexander Weheliye, Phonographies: Grooves in Sonic Afro-Modernity (George Lipsitz) Web Reviews Recordings In order to provide more timely reviews of books and media of interest to our members, Pamela Z, A Delay Is Better (Ellen Waterman ) we are now publishing original reviews on the Morgan Craft and DJ Mutamassik, Rough Americana (Fred Moten) SAM Website in addition to JSAM and the Multimedia Bulletin. JSAM Book Reviews Editor Amy Wave Twisters, dir. Syd Garon and Eric Henry (Joseph Schloss) Beal decides how to distribute the reviews, and Bulletin Reviews Editor Brian Moon High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music, dir. Gary Bredow (Rebekah Farrugia) oversees publication of book reviews in the Bulletin and on the Web. Laura Pruett will be indexing the reviews on the Web (by reviewer, title, and author); and Patrick Warfield will The Bulletin of the Society for American Music oversee the physical Web publication, which will coincide with publication of the Bulletin The Bulletin is published in the Winter (January), Spring (May), and Summer (September) (three times a year). Web reviews will be by the Society for American Music. Copyright 2008 by the Society for American Music, indexed in RILM and announced via list- ISSN 0196-7967. servs. This new policy creates a large demand for reviewers, so when Brian calls on you, Editorial Board please say “yes” if you possibly can! And please Editor...... Sandra Graham ([email protected]) read the Web reviews! Thank you. Reviews Editor...... Brian Moon ([email protected]) Design and Layout...... Allison Gallant ([email protected]) — Sandy Graham Indexer...... Laura Pruett ([email protected]) Beginning 1 June 2008 items for submission should be addressed to Kendra Leonard, 5216 Oleander Road, Drexel Hill, PA 19026, or, preferably, submitted as an attachment to e-mail: [email protected]. Photographs or other graphic materials should be accompanied by captions and desired location in the text. Deadlines for submission of materials are 15 December, 15 April, and 15 August.

32 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t , c o n t . continued from page 31 Report for calendar year 2007, which, he (CUP) brings multimedia capacity to its • “Ranger Doug’s Classic Cowboy Corral” on said, held “good news and bad news.” The journals: through the internet, all articles XM Satellite Radio. good news was that the Society had more are available, plus contents alerts, citations, • Grammies for the music to Toy Story 2 and members, including more institutional and abstracts, and it is able to track the Monsters Inc. members now that the journal is published most the frequently read articles including • The long-running “Riders Radio Theatre” on by Cambridge University Press. There is reviews. She noted a forthcoming issue to public radio. more cash in, but the bad news is that the be guest-edited by George Lewis, and that, • More than two dozen released recordings. Society still could not make the year’s final so far, senior scholars and junior scholars, • And rumor has it that the author of the payments to the Press and to its Executive including grad students, have received a definitive “History of the Singing Cowboy,” Director. He then appealed to the mem- balanced representation in the journal. She titled Singing in the Saddle (published 2002), bers by recalling that SAM is a volunteer also noted a 50-50 balance between men Douglas B. Green, is some blood relation to organization with one paid staff member. and women authors, and a significant con- “Ranger Douglas B. Green.” He noted three kinds of income that an tribution by authors of color. She noted active membership can generate: member- that the current number of 151 institution- No singers, songwriters, musicians, or ship dues, institutional memberships, and al subscribers has exceeded predictions, cowpokes are more deserving of the spe- conference profits. Members can help the and that the journal has more than 2200 cial attention we pay Riders In The Sky Society in several ways: by renewing their total subscriptions. Now in the last year tonight. By their talent, hard work, accom- membership and perhaps joining with a of her 3-year term, Hisama thanked the plishments, dedication, compassion, and lifetime or five-year membership (for a 6 review editors and 36 editorial board humanity are we all blessed. The Society slightly reduced fee), by encouraging their members with whom she has worked, and for American Music is deeply honored to home institution’s librarian to subscribe to singled out assistant editor Ben Piekut for welcome Riders In The Sky into member- JSAM, by attending the conference, and by fine service. President Graziano thanked ship in our society of lovers of America’s making a donation. Hisama for her unusually hard work in face music, whether Northern, Southern, Reporting on behalf of Nominating of the special challenges raised by the jour- Eastern, or – especially – Western! Committee chair Larry Worster, President nal’s transition to a new publisher. He also Graziano thanked outgoing board mem- thanked outgoing book review editor Ron Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting, bers Michael Broyles (past president), Pen. Both received a plaque recognizing San Antonio Jeffrey Magee (secretary), Kay Norton their work on behalf of the Society. (member-at-large), and Larry Starr Graziano then introduced Leta Miller (member-at-large), and committee chairs as the JSAM’s new editor. Miller noted Judith McCulloh (SAM representative that she welcomes new submissions when to the Committee on the Publication of she begins her term on 1 Sept. 2008. She American Music) and Jeff Taylor (Book has already commissioned the first issue Publication Subvention). He then wel- of vol. 3, which will contain articles on comed new members of the board Tom Bernstein in Boston that grew from the Riis (president-elect), Carol Hess (secre- panel organized last year by Carol J. Oja tary), Charles Garrett (member-at-large), and Kay Shelemay. and Sandra Graham (member-at-large). Sandra Graham stood to report on As Ellie Hisama stepped forward to the Bulletin, from which she is stepping report on JSAM, she touched a computer down as editor. She thanked contributors key that summoned a rich bass voice sing- for helping make it a “must read” among ing the words “I’m just an Irish, Negro, members of the Society, and singled out President John Graziano called the Jewish, Italian, French and English, the recent tribute to H. Wiley Hitchcock meeting to order at 4 p.m. on Saturday, 1 Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Polish, Scotch, (co-written by Richard Crawford, Carol J. March. The minutes to the 2007 annual Hungarian, Litvak, Swedish, Finnish, Oja, and Judith Tick) and a “Standpoint” business meeting, printed in the Bulletin, Canadian, Greek and Turk and Czech article by Susan Key as notable recent con- were approved without comment or cor- and Double Czech American.” It was Paul tributions. She also invited all members rection. Graziano began by announcing Robeson singing “Ballad for Americans,” to submit articles and relevant announce- that the conference had witnessed record Hisama noted, and she used the excerpt – ments and photographs. She announced attendance (352 registrants). He then read highlighted in a recent article by Lisa Barg that Laura Pruett has just begun working as the names of the SAM members who – to call attention to a new feature of the the Bulletin’s indexer and that Brian Moon had passed away in the year since the JSAM: audio links in the online versions of is the new reviews editor. She reminded last meeting: Oscar Peterson (Honorary some articles. She continued by saying that members that the Bulletin can be read Member), H. Wiley Hitchcock, Henrietta JSAM continued to be on schedule, with on the SAM website. She recognized the Yurchenko, John Kressler, Rosemary vol. 2, no. 1, now available, nos. 2 and 3 Bulletin as a kind of “nerve central” of the Killam, and Patricia Norwood. already submitted for publication, and no. Society and has enjoyed working on it. Paul Laird stood to deliver the Treasurer’s 4 almost set. Cambridge University Press continued on page 34

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 33 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t , c o n t . continued from page 33 dition of wacky, unexpected theater pieces exploring local culture, and a Saturday New Bulletin editor James Deaville then designed to raise awareness of – and cash night banquet featuring a hoe-down. stood, thanked Graham for her work and for – the student travel fund. Sarah Gerk, as The following conference will be in expressed the hope that he can follow her co-chair, with Vilde Aaslid, of the Student Ottawa, the capital of Canada. James excellent example. [James Deaville has since Forum, then came forward to review the Deaville, Local Arrangements Chair, declined the position as editor because of students’ recent activities. She noted that announced that the conference would be his duties as Local Arrangements Chair for eleven new members had joined the Forum held in late March 2010. Michael Pisani, the Ottawa conference in 2010.] this year, that the group (established last Program Chair, described a new format Mark Katz came forward to deliver year by Ryan Bañagale) had its first meet- for the meeting, based on a model rec- what he said would be his last report from ing, and that Douglas Shadle was the new ommended by the American Council of the Website Committee after 5 years. He co-chair. She thanked Carol J. Oja, Mark Learned Societies and successfully featured thanked current committee members Ryan Clague, and Ellie Hisama for speaking to by other societies. Building on the the- Bañagale, Drew Massey, Joan O’Connor, the Forum this year about publication. She matic focus of the 2008 and 2009 confer- Mark Porcaro, Mariana Whitmer, and reminded the Society that the students ences, the Ottawa meeting will go one step Patrick Warfield, who will serve as the new have now assumed responsibility for the further by featuring a seminar format over committee chair. He noted that Warfield Silent Auction after many years of service one or more days, including thematically was a long-time webmaster for American by Dianna Eiland. With more students linked papers submitted in advance and Musicological Society’s Capitol Chapter, becoming involved (and thus attending more discussion about them. He noted and that the website will be more con- conferences), she urged members to bid on that more about this would appear in the tent oriented, including reviews and some the Silent Auction. fall 2008 issue of the Bulletin. multimedia features. He again invited all Carl Leafstedt, Local Arrangements The Honors and Awards segment of members to make suggestions, since it is Chair, briefly reviewed some highlights the meeting began with the Sight and “your website.” of the conference, including the barbeque Sound Award. For the committee, Gillian The Development Committee report and mission tours. He also plugged the Rodger announced that the winner was came from Deane Root, who announced banquet, which would feature music by the Harmony Ensemble, for its New York that $110,000 marks the end of the “silent local stars of conjunto. President Graziano performance and recording of Gershwin phase” of a campaign to raise money for thanked him for his hard work. pieces (including some rare arrangements the Society. He urged members to double Program Chair Kay Norton thanked for Paul Whiteman) to appear on Bridge that amount by the time SAM meets in her committee, including Dale Cockrell, Records. Denver next spring. Bill Everett, Sondra Wieland Howe, John The book subvention (Johnson Denise Von Glahn reviewed the history Koegel, and Leonora Saavedra. She also Bequest) came next, with Jeff Taylor thank- of the History of Society project, which thanked Carl Leafstedt for finding babysit- ing committee members Naomi André, was charged to collect memories from ters for members who had brought their Mark Clague, Evan Rapport, and Michael founding members, who were sent a ques- children. She noted that the program had Saffle, encouraging more submissions, tionnaire, and others, who have offered demonstrated “the many Hispanic accents drawing attention to the information and written memories and oral testimonies. At of American music,” and that many new- criteria listed on the SAM website, and the meetings of 2004–06,­ panels of mem- comers had introduced new areas of study announcing that this year’s winner was bers presented their memories, fears, and to the Society. She also noted that many Mark Zobel, for his edition of Ives’s Third hopes for the Society’s future. Last year’s senior scholars had served as session chairs, Symphony to be published as Volume 6 “open mic” session drew fifteen mem- and she thanked Michael Broyles for ask- in the CMS Sourcebooks in American bers in a two-hour videotaped session. ing her to be Program Chair. Music, published jointly by Pendragon and Assistant Sarah Nodine has transcribed Looking ahead to the 2009 conference the College Music Society. all of the sessions, and a DVD will be in Denver, Program Chair John Koegel The Mark Tucker Award for outstand- made available to members. All materi- invited papers, panels, performances, and ing student paper went to Loren Kajikawa als collected as part of the project will be posters by the deadline of 15 June 2008. (UCLA) for “Eminem’s ‘My Name Is’: stored in the Society’s archives and will He noted that the call for papers would Signifyin(g) Whiteness, Representing ultimately go to the Library of Congress. appear on the Society’s website soon and Race.” Cecilia Sun noted that Kajikawa’s She asked members to stay mindful of their that the Program Committee encour- paper stood out among nine submissions, own history-making activities, and closed aged papers addressing themes linked to and thanked committee chair Steve Baur, with the notion that “history is what gets the American West. Speaking for Local and fellow committee members Sally Bick, recorded,” and thus urged members to take Arrangements Chair Larry Worster, Joice Theo Cateforis, and Annie Randall. part in the project lest someone else write Gibson described Denver as an “intersec- The Wiley Housewright Dissertation the Society’s history for them. tion” of many currents in American life. Award went to Drew Davies for “The As Von Glahn sat down, Catherine She also highlighted several amenities of Italianized Frontier: Music at Durango Parsons Smith stood and began talking the conference, including a hotel in the Cathedral, Español Culture, and Aesthetics loudly on her cell phone about the Silent center of the city near a pedestrian mall of Devotion in Eighteenth-Century New Auction, thereby continuing the great tra- with shuttle service, potential activities Spain” (University of Chicago). Chair

34 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t , c o n t .

Patrick Warfield thanked committee mem- stands in inverse relation to the length of Bill C. Malone Receives 2008 Lifetime bers Jane Ferencz, Brian Harker, and Carol its mission statement, and (b) its implicit Achievement Award from SAM Hess. He said the committee considered inclusion of South America as part of the 22 submissions from several fields, includ- Americas, an embrace of more music south Citation written and read by Paul F. Wells ing musicology, ethnomusicology, music of the border that is reflected in this year’s theory, and history. Three of the disserta- conference. He noted that the new state- Each year the Society for American tions were about Charles Ives, and the most ment is “not cast in stone,” and that the Music honors an individual who has made submissions came from Indiana University Board wants Society members to comment a “substantial lifetime achievement in and University of North Carolina. on it through the website or listserv. The scholarship, performance, teaching, and/or The Lowens Article Award went to Board will then revisit the statement at its support of American music.” For 2008, the Leta E. Miller (University of California, September meeting in Pittsburgh. Society is pleased to present its Lifetime Santa Cruz) for her article “Henry President Graziano then introduced Achievement Award to Bill C. Malone. Cowell and John Cage: Intersections and Tim Brooks, who appeared on behalf Few individuals have had as much Influences, 1933–1941,” in the Journal of of the Association for Recorded Sound impact on developing scholarship in their the American Musicological Society (vol. 59, Collections (ARSC) to explain its recom- areas as has Bill Malone. His seminal work, no. 1). Committee Chair Mary Jane Corry mendation for changes in U.S. copyright Country Music, U.S.A., was the first serious congratulated Miller and thanked her com- law, which, he noted, puts up barriers history of what was, at the time, a genre of mittee members Nic Butler, Bonnie Miller, to the legitimate academic study, pres- American music that sat far on the fringes and June Ottenberg. ervation, and dissemination of recorded of academic respectability. That it came The Lowens Book Award went to Anne sound. Brooks has spoken to members from the mind, heart, and pen of a his- Danielsen (University of Oslo) for Presence of Congress about this, and is seeking torian rather than a musicologist should and Pleasure: The Funk Grooves and support from related societies, including surprise no one. What is perhaps most James Brown and Parliament (Wesleyan SAM, the Music Library Association, and important to realize about the book is not University Press). Committee chair James several others. Graziano noted that the simply that it was the first in its field, but Deaville noted that Danielsen’s book ARSC recommendations will be posted that it set a standard for all subsequent emerged as the best in a final round of 8 on the website and comments will be wel- work on country music. Country Music, books, chosen from 35 submissions from comed. Unless there is unforeseen opposi- U.S.A., immediately became the founda- 12 different publishers. He thanked com- tion, he noted that the Board will probably tional work in the field, and remains so mittee members Tammy Kernodle, Neil approve it. today, 40 years and two revisions after its Lerner, Jocelyn Neal, and Lloyd (Chip) A few comments from the floor ended initial publication. It was the first book on Whitesell. the meeting: Two members (Kitty Preston country music that I read, and is still the Paul Wells then stood to introduce and Carol Baron) praised the conference default choice of “first book” for anyone the winner of the Lifetime Achievement and conference site as one of the best in interested in the history of country music. Award: Bill C. Malone. A native Texan, the Society’s history. Adrienne Fried Block Country Music, U.S.A., helped put me on Malone is a pioneering scholar of coun- also suggested that program committees my own life path, and there are many other try music whose many publications and continue to include a session on local his- scholars who will say the same. projects include his book Country Music tory in each conference. The meeting was Having given the field of country music U.S.A., a standard-setting work published adjourned at 5:30 p.m. scholarship its foundation, Bill Malone has 40 years ago and revised twice since. – Jeffrey Magee continued to produce an impressive body Three items of new business arose: (1) of work. In 1975 he and Judith McCulloh Amy Beal announced the establishment of collaborated on Stars of Country Music: the Cambridge University Press Award for Uncle Dave Macon to Johnny Rodriguez, and best conference paper by an international Southern Music, American Music followed scholar. (Details appear on the SAM web- in 1979. Lectures that he gave at Mercer site.) She noted that there were no submis- University were published in book form sions this year, and that the award was cre- in 1993 as Singing Cowboys and Musical ated in line with efforts to internationalize Mountaineers. These served as something the Society’s activities and membership, of a prelude to his most recent book, Don’t efforts reflected also in the Journal and in Get above Your Raisin’, published by the the growing number of scholars around the University of Illinois Press in 2002. world working on music in America; (2) In addition to his books and many Michael Broyles discussed the new mission articles, Bill has compiled and annotated statement that he had drafted, compar- some of the best reissues of historic record- ing it (with Power Point slides) to the ings of country music. This includes The earlier mission statement. He highlighted Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country two points: (a) its brevity, reflecting his Music, a set of eight LPs of material select- belief that the quality of an organization continued on page 36

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 35 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t , c o n t . continued from page 35 Acceptance Remarks from Bill C. our house in 1939, and which introduced ed and annotated by Malone in 1981. Malone to us the vast world that lay far beyond There is no doubt about the fact the our little cotton tenant farm in East Texas. he loves what he writes about and writes Above all, I remember such entertain- about what he loves. As he notes in the ers as the Callahan Brothers, the Shelton introduction to the most recent revision of Brothers, the Chuck Wagon Gang, Ernest Country Music, U.S.A.: “My affection for Tubb, Roy Acuff, and other radio hillbil- the music has never been hidden, and, for lies who played their music on stations in good or ill, that emotional attachment has such cities as Dallas, Fort Worth, Tulsa, colored my scholarship.” Malone comes Shreveport, and Nashville. The radio hill- by this affection naturally. He was born in billies that I heard early each morning, at 1934, on a farm in Smith County, in East noon, and over the Saturday night barn Texas, in the community of Galena, which dances were in one sense larger than life he notes has now disappeared. Country to me, and embodiments of the alluring music has always been a part of his life, as myths of faraway places – the remote and he was listening to it, and performing it, isolated glens of Appalachia, and the lonely long before he ever made it the focus of expanses of the Western Plains. But they his academic work. He continues to carry were also virtually members of our family, this affection far beyond his academic life. almost siblings or cousins, and they culti- He remains an enthusiastic and skilled per- vated that sense of family with their friend- former of his favorite music, often in part- ly stage patter and downhome humor and nership with his wife, Bobbie. He hosts a songs. We willingly bought the products weekly, three-hour radio show, “Back to they sponsored, and embraced the music the Country,” produced by WORT-FM in I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to that they dispensed. Madison, Wisconsin, where he has made the Society for American Music for giv- I don’t think that we can overemphasize his home since retiring from his post at ing me this award, and to Paul Wells for the sense of security and warmth that these Tulane University several years ago. his generous remarks. My appreciation for entertainers brought into the lives of peo- This abiding and unabashed love for his this honor was such that I even missed the ple like my own family, as they negotiated subject matter does not hinder his ability basketball game between the University of their way through the shoals of the Great to write about country music with remark- Wisconsin Badgers and the Michigan State Depression, World War II, and the mass able clarity, objectivity, and just plain Spartans in order to be here! migrations that took them away from the good sense. His vision of country music is While the award is of course personally farms and into the uncertain existence of refreshingly free of romantic notions of the rewarding, I also view it as a recognition life in the cities as blue collar or industrial music’s origins. To again quote from the of country music’s growing acceptance in laborers. The music accompanied these man himself: “Public perceptions of coun- American culture. Country music long people as they moved into new locales and try music around the world are still clearly ago demonstrated its commercial power new occupations, and it changed as they influenced by visions of southern moun- in American life, but it continues to strug- changed. In my published works I have taineers, cowboys, or Celtic minstrels, gle for recognition of its artistic worth. tried to document these transformations and even the most intelligent performers This award from the Society for American with accuracy and objectivity. My read- are still prone to assertions of romantic Music, to me, is a validation of both my ers and critics can decide how well I have nonsense concerning their music’s alleged work and the subject that I have chosen succeeded. I’m sure that some critics have Celtic or Appalachian ancestry.” to study. always thought that it was the height of It is particularly appropriate that for I’ve always been quick to acknowledge chutzpah for me to attempt to write the our San Antonio conference we bestow that I was a fan long before I became a entire history of country music long before the Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award scholar of country music. I feel the need, studies of local and regional manifesta- upon a native Texan, one who writes about then, to pay tribute, to those people and tions and individual styles had been writ- a genre of music in which Texans have fig- forces that introduced me to this music, ten, or before the pertinent biographies ured prominently from the very beginning, and who instilled in me an affection for it had been assembled. I hope, though, that and who himself is a product of the very that has never wavered. First, I remember my work has inspired other scholars to working-class culture from which country my mother – the first “country” singer follow their own paths in documenting music emerged. That this also comes in the I ever heard – who not only introduced the details of this vital music. Some of year of the 40th anniversary of the publica- me to a cherished storehouse of gospel them, such as Joe Weed with his pioneer- and sentimental parlor songs, but who tion of Country Music, U.S.A., is icing on ing analysis of the ways that fiddle tunes the cake. Please join me in congratulating also revealed to me just how integral this have evolved, and Tracy Laird who has Bill C. Malone. music could be in addressing the longings given us a fine account of the development and frustrations of poor and working class of the Louisiana Hayride, are in the audi- people. And I also remember the Philco ence today. battery-powered radio, first brought into

36 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t , c o n t .

Again, in accepting this honor, I want Century New Spain.” Dr. Davies’s study Mark Tucker Award 2008 to Loren Y. to make it quite clear that I do it also on expands our understanding of American Kajikawa behalf of all those working class musicians music geographically, temporally, and who brought joy into my life, and who aesthetically, all while challenging stan- have bequeathed to the world the fruits dard conceptions of eighteenth-century of their musical talents. This one is for the European music. Using Durango Cathedral hillbillies! as a case study, this outstanding disserta- – Bill C. Malone tion shows how Italian theatrical music Madison, Wisconsin was anything but a distraction to new forms of interior devotion. Rather, oper- Leta A. Miller Wins Lowens Article atic music was used to dramatize religious Award scenes even on the frontiers of New Spain. The scholar’s unprecedented access to cha- The committee’s task was especially dif- pel archives allowed him to reconstruct the ficult because the articles in 2006 showed Cathedral’s mid-eighteenth century reper- that research on American music subjects toire and link it to contemporary religious has reached a high level of scholarship. iconography. By writing compellingly We chose Leta A. Miller’s article “Henry about the music itself, our winner paints a Cowell and John Cage: Intersections vivid picture of religious and musical life in and Influences, 1933–1941,” Journal of a part of the Americas that remains under- the American Musicological Society, 59/1 explored during a time when it remains (2006), 47–110. Miller’s subject is of great undervalued. The study is a tour de force of importance: by sharing ideas, two eminent American musicological scholarship, and composers inspired innovation in musi- it, like so many of the other dissertations submitted this year, demonstrates that our cal composition. Miller showed a thor- There was a diverse array of high quality field is not only strong and expanding, but ough knowledge of the lives and works of papers, but of the nine excellent submis- remains fertile ground. her two subjects, John Cage and Henry sions one clearly stood out, being ranked Cowell, and made a detailed study of the first or second by every committee mem- newly accessible Cowell collection at the ber. The winner of the Mark Tucker Award New York Public Library. Miller’s presen- is Loren Y. Kajikawa, author of “Eminem’s tation was comprehensive, clear, and amply ‘My Name Is’: Signifyin(g) Whiteness, illustrated by musical examples, program Rearticulating Race.” excerpts, and, in the appendix, a chronol- The committee was impressed by ogy of the “intersections” discussed. Kajikawa’s nuanced analysis, which moved The Lowens Article Award Committee convincingly from broad social and politi- members were Mary Jane Corry, Chair; cal issues to specific musical details and June Ottenberg, Bonny Miller, and back again. While his reading of whiteness Nicholas Butler. We read all the articles in Eminem’s music is provocative, it also is on American music published in 2006 in firmly grounded in a deep understanding of JSAM and American Music, plus 32 articles hip-hop history, and its repertory and cre- from other journals. ative practices. With clear, highly polished prose, Kajikawa addresses the work of a Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award notoriously controversial artist, tackling to Drew Davies an array of highly fraught issues with both sensitivity and sophistication, contribut- The Society’s Wiley Housewright ing valuably to our understanding of how Dissertation Award Committee (Jane music can act to inform our experience Ferencz, Brian Harker, Carol Hess, and and perception of racial identity. By deftly Patrick Warfield) was thrilled to receive 22 blending musical analysis and cultural cri- submissions from our newest colleagues, tique, Kajikawa allows us to hear Eminem but unfortunately we could choose only with a fresh pair of ears. one for the award. The winner was Drew Committee members were Steven Baur, Davies, who completed a dissertation at chair; Sally Bick, Theo Cateforis, and the University of Chicago entitled “The Annie Randall. Italianized Frontier: Music at Durango Cathedral, Español Culture, and the Aesthetics of Devotion in Eighteenth- continued on page 38

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continued from page 37 strong Texas singers including a grandson 15th Annual Sonneck Sacred Harp of the Denson family. Although there were Student Forum – San Antonio Singing some scattered earlier singings, this marks Conference Report the fifteenth continuous annual Sonneck For a brief shining moment, the Minuet Sacred Harp Singing. Many thanks to all of Participation in Student Forum con- Room of the Menger Hotel in SAM you who joined in this wonderful musical tinues to grow, and this enthusiasm was Antonio was the epicenter of the shape celebration of our national heritage. apparent at this year’s annual meeting. noted musical universe. Thursday after- It is traditional custom to record the The Student Forum panel, entitled “Opus noon at 5:30 p.m. Sacred Harp singing tunes sung during the course of a singing. No. 1: Publishing as a Graduate Student exploded in full-throated celestial harmo- On 28 Feb. 2008 members and guests of Today,” addressed current trends in pub- ny with members of the Society joined the Society for American Music convened lishing with the hope of providing advice by enthusiastic local and regional singers. for the 15th annual Sonneck Singing from for graduate students in American music. The singers’ ranks were swelled by guests the 1991 . The tunes sung Sacred Harp Panelists Mark Clague, Ellie Hisama, and including Matt Hinton (co-director/pro- included 73, 159, 192, 299, 503, 172, 64, Carol Oja presented many helpful sugges- ducer of the Sacred Harp documentary 67, 86, 340, 341, 49, 47b, 47a, 512, 268, tions, both pragmatic and philosophical, screened at the confer- 345b, 49b, 209, 333, 99, 163b, 358. The Awake My Soul, from their experiences as editors, advisers, ence later that evening), John Plunkett singing concluded with 267. and publishing scholars. Student Forum (longtime singer associated with the vener- Respectfully submitted, also conducted a survey of faculty mem- able Chattahoochee Convention and col- Ron Pen bers, aiming to gather specific advice on laborator on ), as well as Awake My Soul where students should be focusing their publishing efforts. Results of the survey American Band History Group Report nessed a flurry of advancement between will soon be available on the Student 1925 and 1935. Eventually fostered by Forum website. Thank you to everyone The American Band History Interest homegrown leaders, the state saw its first who participated. Group explored the Texas band tradition high school band and first director-training Many students were able to travel to at the San Antonio meeting in 2008. We program. Memoirists’ accounts reveal that San Antonio with the help of the Student were updated on Lavern Wagner’s research with civic pride on the line, this environ- Travel Fund. The amount of money avail- on band music in the Benjamin Grierson ment was ripe for unscrupulous individuals able for student travel is directly depen- Collection. General Grierson is today who made a practice of selling instruments, dent on how much is raised by the Silent famous for his part in Grant’s Vicksburg beginning a program, then moving on with- Auction. For the first time, this year’s auc- Campaign during the Civil War, but he out providing adequate instruction. Public tion was coordinated entirely by Student was also a devoted musician and promoted pressure eventually led to the formation of Forum. We are always hoping to expand the band at the two Texas installations the Texas Band Teachers Association and and improve the auction, so if you have under his command (Fort Concho and its greater emphasis on education, rather ideas for next year’s event or would like Fort Davis). The surviving music from his than profit. As always, we thank Craig to help in procurement of items, please Youngstown, Ohio, band from the 1840s Parker for organizing and conducting the contact co-chair Doug Shadle (dshadle@ is likely the earliest documentation of an Society’s Brass Band, which played some email.unc.edu). American wind band’s repertoire. While music from the Grierson Collection. SAM This year’s meeting marked the end of Lavern was unable to attend the meeting members working on projects related to Sarah Gerk’s two-year term as co-chair himself, we were grateful for his paper. band research and interested in joining or of SAM Student Forum. We would like The Interest Group also heard from Gary speaking to the Interest Group are encour- to thank Sarah for her outstanding ser- Barrow on the early band movement in aged to contact Craig Parker (cbp@ksu. vice and helping continue the growth of Texas. Starting with an infusion of ideas edu). Student Forum. At this year’s Forum busi- from outside bandsmen, Texas bands wit- ­– Patrick Warfield

38 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 c o n f e r e n c e r e p o r t , c o n t . ness meeting, the group elected incom- $55,200.46 to $78,379.00. Given the won- ing co-chair Doug Shadle. Last year, we derful attendance at our San Antonio con- STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL established a volunteer committee whose ference, one can hope that this is the start CONDITION members helped immensely with broaden- of a positive trend. Journal costs are down Society for American Music ing the functions of the Student Forum. since we have launched JSAM, but it is Year Ending December 31, 2007 We would like to thank outgoing commit- too early to know how this will impact on tee members Jessica Bisset and Phil Gentry our long-term financial health. Cash flow GENERAL FUND for their service. This year our committee problems do continue, however, and we Income expanded to seven members: Anna Ochs, were unable to meet some major expenses Jeff Wright, Sarah Gerk, Ryan Bañagale, related to the final journal payment and Mailing List Sales $200.00 Elizabeth Yackley, Judy Brady, and Kevin salary for the executive director at the end Directory Ads 850.00 Kehrberg. Co-chairs Doug Shadle and of 2007. These expenses were easily met Bulletin Ads 377.50 Vilde Aaslid are already looking forward with the infusion from cash from our fine to next year’s Student Forum events. To membership numbers for 2008, but clearly Conference Income 0.00 join in during this exciting time you can in the long run we need to be able to pay Membership Dues and Assessments join our listserv by sending an email to major expenses for a year with that year’s 78,379.00 [email protected] with income. Mariana Whitmer has continued Interest Group Donations 98.00 “subscribe” in the subject field, or contact to work closely with our accountant on our RILM Donations 52.00 Vilde directly for more information. We books, and we have a much better handle Interest and Dividend Income look forward to seeing you in Denver! on what happens with our money than we 1,152.95 did a few years ago. TOTAL INCOME $81,109.45 – Vilde Aaslid, [email protected] 1996 $258,208.32 Amounts in various funds: 1997 $261,777.97 Unrestricted funds: $48,758.88 Expenses Treasurer’s Report – Calendar Year 2007 1998 $276,629.58 ED Endowment 2,453.24 I. PROGRAM Society for American Music JSAM $23,829.14 Paul R. Laird, Treasurer 1999 $272,878.19 Lowens Award 23,443.12 Bulletin 5,859.83 25 February 2007 2000 $293,859.73 Sight and Sound 23,876.42 2001 $295,062.99 Johnson Publ. Subventions Directory 3,061.78 111,865.13 RILM Donation 1,260.00 2002 $270,380.91 Housewright Diss. Endowment Other Outreach 717.33 20,624.07 SAM History Project 1,725.00 2003 $311,129.66 Student Travel Endowment Total Awards 10,486.59 37,775.41 TOTAL PROGRAM $46,939.67 2004 $315,519.11 Life Membership Fund 18,038.61 2005 $307,481.45 Mark Tucker Award Fund 8,612.84 II. MANAGEMENT 2006 $299,956.24 TOTAL $295,447.72 Executive Director 10,019.00 2007 $295,447.72 Office 933.15 Board Expenses 2,053.19 These two pages, to be distributed to Treasurer Expenses 1,784.77 the membership at the Business Meeting, Membership Services 1,328.28 contain more detailed information about Bank Fees 7,061.30 the Society’s finances during 2007: Development 2,562.77 1. Statement of Financial Condition Insurance 945.00 2. Statement of Financial Income and Expense ACLS Dues 550.00 for 2007. TOTAL MANAGEMENT 3. Balance Sheet for accounts as of December $27,237.46 31, 2007. Sincerely, TOTAL EXPENSES $74,177.13 Paul R. Laird, Treasurer INCOME MINUS EXPENSES The Society for American Music has $6,932 some reasons for celebration as we look at the 2007 budgetary results. Membership dues are up substantially over 2006, from

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 39 i m a g e s f r o m t h e c o n f e r e n c e

40 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 i m a g e s f r o m t h e c o n f e r e n c e

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 41 c o n f e r e n c e anouncements

SAM Conference 18–22 March 2009 Denver, Colorado Call for Proposals 2009 Program Committee: John Koegel, Chair

The Society for American Music invites proposals for papers, panels of 2–3 papers, concerts, lecture-performances, and scholarly posters for its 35th Annual Conference. The conference will be held in Denver, Colorado, 18–22 March 2009, at the Marriott City Center Hotel. Concerts and other special events will be offered as part of the conference, including a Friday afternoon visit to the Denver March Pow- Wow. The online and postmark submission deadline for all proposals is 15 June 2008. We welcome proposals involving all fac- ets of musical life throughout the Americas, and American music and aspects of its cul- tures anywhere in the world. We especially welcome proposals addressing: • Musical life in the West: The western United States, western Canada, and in Mexico, the equivalent of the U.S. West – Mexico’s north- ern states • Music and shifting geographic images of the West, related to westward expansion and changing political borders • Local and regional identities in the West: Denver and the Inter-Mountain West, the Southwest, Pacific rim, California • Composers and performers of art music look- ing westward toward Pacific Asia • Connections between the music of native peoples and Euro-American musical cultures in the West • Native American musical traditions (3) either presentation format, the latter to ute session, distributes abstracts, and • Asian American, Latino/Latina, African be determined by the Program Committee answers questions. Supporting sound and/ American studies as it builds sessions. Individual or joint or video examples (on personal comput- papers should be no longer than twenty ers and utilizing battery, rather than A/C Guidelines minutes. Concerts and lecture-perfor- power) will be coordinated with other Presenters are required to register for the mances should be no longer than thirty presenters once sessions have been formed entire conference. The committee encour- minutes. For complete session proposals, by the Program Committee. ages proposals from those who did not the organizer should include an addition- present at the 2008 San Antonio meeting, al statement explaining the rationale for Concerts and Lecture-Performances but all proposals will be judged primarily the session, in addition to proposals and Proposals for concerts and lecture-per- on merit. With the exception of concerts abstracts for each paper. formances of music from anywhere in the and lecture-performances, all proposals Americas are particularly welcome. should be submitted through the online Research Poster Sessions Include the following for all submis- electronic submission process. The poster format provides an opportu- sions: Proposers for all except concerts or lec- nity for SAM members to meet informally 1. 250-word proposal. with authors and discuss research. Each ture-performances must specify whether 2. 100-word abstract suitable for publication in the proposal is for (1) paper, (2) poster, or author attends her/his respective 90-min- the conference program booklet.

42 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 3. Panels must include proposals and abstracts All materials must be electronically date- Honors & Awards Committee for each paper. stamped by 15 June 2008. Postal submis- Call for Nominations 4. Audio and visual needs selected from the sions for concerts and lecture-performance The Honors & Awards Committee following list only: CD and audiocassette materials only should be addressed to: welcomes nominations for the following player, overhead projector, VHS/DVD player, awards: LCD projector. Due to logistics and the high John Koegel cost of renting this equipment, we cannot Chair, SAM 2009 Program Committee 1. Distinguished Service Award (to be accommodate AV changes once a proposal Department of Music announced in Denver 2009), given by the is accepted. California State University, Fullerton Board to a current member of the Society 800 North State College Blvd. who has given exemplary and continued ser- 5. Proposer’s name, address, phone number(s), Fullerton, California 92831-3599 vice to the Society and its mission. e-mail address, and institutional affiliation or city of residence Questions about the submission process 2. Lifetime Achievement Award (announced may be sent to: [email protected] in Denver 2009), given by the Board in recognition of the recipient’s significant and For lecture-performances and concerts substantial lifetime achievement in scholar- please include the above-mentioned mate- Interest Groups ship, performance, teaching, and/or support rials, plus: Interest Groups with a guaranteed slot of American Music. for 2009 are requested to convey a brief 6. Seven copies of a recording related to the pro- 3. Honorary Member (announced in Ottawa posed concert or lecture-recital (CD, cassette description of their plans to the Program 2010), given by the Board to a well-known, tape, DVD, or VHS) Committee using the online submission prominent senior figure normally not a cur- 7. An addressed, stamped mailer if you would system not later than 5 August to ensure rent member of the Society who has made like the recordings returned proper scheduling and room assignments. important contributions to the field of Interest Groups without a guaranteed slot American music. 8. A list of special needs (e.g., piano, music stand, space for dance demonstration, choral for 2009 may submit panel proposals via Previous winners of these awards will risers) the online submission system if they wish, but acceptance or rejection of these pro- be found in the Society’s Membership Directory. Nominations may be sent by The online and postmark submis- posals will be at the discretion of the e-mail or mail, within ten days of receipt sion deadline for all proposals is 15 June Program Committee. of this , to Mary Wallace Davidson, 2008. For online submission see: http:// Bulletin Chair, Honors & Awards Committee, 201 american-music.org/conferences/Denver/ Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742, DenverCallForPapers.php mda- [email protected].

TO: music professionals, and educators from scholarship and free speech, compromising - American Civil Liberties Union: Kelly around the world. and harming our cultural and intellectual Goss at [email protected]. The resolution was presented before the democracy, - Amnesty International: Angela Wright membership of the Society for American Now, therefore we call upon the Supreme (International Secretariat, London) Music with the understanding that the Court and Congress to restore the constitu- at [email protected]; Joshua signees were acting as individuals, not rep- tional right of habeas corpus to aliens. Rubenstein (Northeast region) at resenting SAM as a whole. Ayden Adler, Philadelphia Orchestra [email protected]. We, the undersigned members of the Amy Beal, University of California, Santa Cruz - Center for Constitutional Rights: Society for American Music, acting as Adrienne Fried Block, City University of New York Shane Kadidal at SKadidal@ccrjustice. individuals, publicly support the following Wilma Reid Cipolla, SUNY at Buffalo org; Gita Gutierrez at GGuitierrez@ statement: ccr-ny.org; Emi Maclean at Emaclean@ Text of Resolution Dale Cockrell, Vanderbilt University ccr-ny.org. Whereas habeas corpus is the bed- Ron Cohen, Indiana University - Alliance for Justice: Lanae Erickson at rock principle set out in Article I of our Elizabeth Craft, Harvard University [email protected] Constitution to protect individuals against Charles Hiroshi Garrett, University of Michigan - Human Rights Watch: Jennifer Daskal indefinite imprisonment without trial, Harlan Jennings, Michigan State University at [email protected] Whereas the Congress in the Military Raymond Knapp, U.C. L. A. - Constitution Project: Virginia Sloan at Commissions Act of 2006 has authorized the Kay Norton, Arizona State University [email protected]. Executive Branch to seize at any time and Beth Levy, University of California, Davis - Human Rights First: Devon Chaffee at any place and imprison indefinitely any alien [email protected]. characterized as an “enemy combatant,” Paul Machlin, Colby College, Maine Whereas, we, who are members of the William Mayer, composer, Composers Recordings, In February 2007 at its annual meeting, Society for American Music, which consists of Inc., NYC the Board of Directors of the Society for scholars and musicians who are both citizens Richard Mook, ASU School of Muisc American Music voted to present a resolu- and aliens, believe the Military Commissions Carol J. Oja, Harvard University tion concerning habeas issues before its Act has an intimidating and chilling effect David Patterson, independent scholar membership. The membership of SAM on free discourse, both within our Society Larry Starr, University of Washington includes international scholars, musicians, and without, and further, that it constrains Judith Tick, Northeastern University, Boston

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 43 remembrances Patricia Norwood tury. Norwood presented the fruits of this – Katherine K. Preston work several times at SAM conferences; she also published a booklet titled “Music in Patricia P. Norwood – known to her Mr. Monroe’s Fredericksburg, 1786–1789.” many friends as Pat – died suddenly on She was working on producing a compact Tuesday, 22 Jan. 2008, in Fairfax, VA, as the disc recording of marches and other com- result of a stroke. Her death shocked and positions related to James Monroe at the saddened her colleagues at the University time of her death. She had also planned of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, to present a poster session on another VA, where she had taught for over 30 American topic at the San Antonio confer- years. The greater Washington, DC, musi- ence of the Society (Feb. 2008); her poster, cological community, of which she had titled “The Stage: Opera, Vaudeville, and been a productive, supportive, gracious, the Ziegfeld Follies: Operatic Life in 19th- and warm member for many decades, was Century Fredericksburg” was mounted also stunned by the news. “She was an posthumously in her memory. incredibly kind, generous person,” Grayson from instructor to full professor, and served Pat Norwood was quiet, unassuming, Wagstaff (of Catholic University) wrote to two terms as Chair of the Department of and loyal to her friends, family, students, the AMS Capital Chapter list upon hearing Music. Her service to Mary Washington and colleagues; she was, as one colleague the news of her death. “When I moved to was both generous and unstinting; her put it, “a class act.” She was also consis- Richmond in 1995, with a very meager job, dedication was recognized in 2005 when tently upbeat and optimistic: Her glass was she made me feel at home and encouraged she received an outstanding faculty service always at least half-full. She had suffered me to participate actively in the chapter. award from the university. from cancer in recent years, but – in typical She gave me the sense that I was respected Pat Norwood’s areas of scholarly interest Pat fashion – consistently downplayed any in the chapter as a colleague, although I ranged widely, from medieval vocal music possible negative prognosis. As her long- was only a [visiting] faculty member. Her to nineteenth-century Lieder. Her diverse time friend and colleague Martha Fickett importance in our discipline, especially in interests were reflected in her membership told me on the day of Pat’s memorial ser- the region, cannot be measured by those in professional societies, which included vice, “if Pat had suffered a medical setback, traditional benchmarks we throw around. the American Musicological Society, those of us close to her would have been She encouraged [her] younger colleagues the Medieval Academy of America, the the last to know. She never complained and was, I am sure, a fantastic teacher.” Hagiographical Society, and the Southeast – she always looked on the bright side of Pat was born in Brooklyn, NY, and Medieval Association, in addition to the things.” grew up in Nutley, NJ. Her academic Society for American Music. In recent years She is survived by her husband, Gyles degrees were from Wheaton College (BA, she had turned her attention to the study P. Norwood of Fredericksburg, and their Music) and the University of Texas at of music in America during the Federal son, R. Kyle Norwood of Wilmington, Austin (Master’s, Ph.D). She taught at Period, especially in relation to President NC. She will be sorely missed by all who the University of Mary Washington from James Monroe, who worked and lived in knew her. 1977, rising through the academic ranks Fredericksburg in the early nineteenth cen-

b o o k r e v i e w s

CageTalk: Dialogues with & about John Cage. Ed. by Peter Dickinson. Eastman Studies in Music, 38. University of Rochester Press, 2006. 296pp. ISBN-13: 978-1580462372 (hc).

complex impression of the composer left one-hour BBC broadcast. The remaining – Charles Madsen after reading Peter Dickinson’s CageTalk is interviews are from diverse BBC programs University of Arizona highly successful. The book is primarily a centering on Cage and his works that collection of transcripts from interviews, were broadcast between 1966 and 1988. In Perhaps the most vivid portrait of Cage most of which were undertaken as part of addition to discussions with Cage himself, is one that respects the multifaceted nature a 1989 BBC radio documentary entitled many notable friends and colleagues of of his life and philosophy and does not John Cage: Inventor of Genius. Of the 21 the composer are interviewed, including attempt too much in the way of catego- interviews that form the main text, 14 Merce Cunningham, Bonnie Bird, David rization and conclusive analysis. If this is were conducted in 1987 and early 1988 Tudor, Jackson Mac Low, Virgil Thomson, the case, then the almost overwhelmingly and comprise the source material for the Otto Leuning, Karlheinz Stockhuasen,

44 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 Earle Brown, Kurt Schwertsik, La Monte questions asked in most of the interviews the other hand, conspicuously omits this Young, John Rockwell, Pauline Oliveros, include the relationship between Cage’s detail but credits the prior work of Henry and Paul Zukofsky. works and Zen philosophy, the relation- Cowell as inspiration for the creation of The stated purpose of publishing these ship of Cage and his audience, his prob- the prepared piano in his account in Empty interviews was “to make this material avail- able legacy, and the potential longevity of Words (7). able both as an introduction to Cage and his compositions. Dickinson explains that Like the interview with Bonnie Bird, his context and as a resource for scholars of reiteration of these same questions was a that with pianist David Tudor reveals many the future.” The book will likely be more conscious part of his plan in creating the details that are absent in other sources. valuable in regards to the latter function: BBC documentary and states he devised One example is his informative commen- It does make previously inaccessible first- the questions based on the subjects he and tary on the genesis of 4’33”. Tudor reveals hand accounts of the composer available Cage covered in their interview of 1987. that the immediate impetus for compos- for study but does not make for a trouble- While this approach may have facilitated ing the piece was Cage’s realization that a free introduction to Cage for those unfa- editing together the documentary, it also completely silent piece was one possible miliar with the composer and his works. benefits the continuity of the collected result of the same I Ching procedures used The individual commentator’s perspective text in that it allows the reader to gain a in composing Music of Changes. Tudor and opinions all inform certain aspects of nuanced and multifaceted perspective of further reveals that the original score Cage and his work, but together they form Cage as the same topics are interpreted for 4’33” consisted of measured silences a rough mosaic rather than a sharp por- through the eyes of the various commenta- obtained from the I Ching and notated trait of the composer. The great strength tors. on a traditionally staffed manuscript. This of CageTalk is that it gives the reader the While much of the actual information document has since been lost and Cage opportunity to see Cage through the eyes presented in CageTalk is available else- replaced it with a version that does away of those who knew him without the added where, the first-hand accounts related by with reference to a traditional score. This filter of interpretation or explanation aside Cage’s colleagues offer new insights and information, in itself, demands an amend- from that given in the copious footnotes. a palpable vibrancy that makes revisiting ed account of Cage’s compositional proce- Even without a great deal of edito- this material well worthwhile. Notable in dures and the ultimate significance of this rial commentary, the breadth and depth this regard are Bonnie Bird’s effusive and seminal composition. of Dickinson’s knowledge is evident in theatrical recollections that include the If one were to make a detailed compari- the footnotes, where he frequently eluci- early association of John Cage and Merce son of all the opinions regarding Cage’s life dates the interviewees’ comments by cross- Cunningham, the invention of the pre- and work expressed in this collection of referencing them with both the writings pared piano, and the early experiments interviews, a contradictory and conflicted of Cage and relevant studies concerning with turntables and tone records that ulti- image of the composer would result. For the composer. The book is obviously tar- mately resulted in Imaginary Landscape the most part, Dickinson lets these indi- geted for an interdisciplinary audience and No. 1. While there is nothing new or star- vidual opinions stand with no additional while it may be useful for certain readers tling in the substance of Bird’s interview evaluation or commentary. There is no to reference a brief description of Anton there is a sense of intimacy and richness of attempt made to reconcile the many view- Webern’s compositional style or to note anecdotal detail that deepen her remarks points offered or paint a sharply defined the importance of Wassily Kandinksy as a in a manner that a more or less objective portrait of the composer. Perhaps Cage pioneer in abstract painting, the usefulness description cannot. Through Bird’s recol- himself would most value this approach. of footnoting, for example, the dates and lection the youthful Cage emerges as a At one point during the interview with representative writings of Karl Marx or vibrant creator with boundless energy and Cage, Dickinson felt the need to defend Sigmund Freud may be somewhat exces- enthusiasm. Even though her commen- a question concerning the possible expres- sive. This, however, is a small complaint tary convincingly captures the essence of sion of Zen philosophy in a performance of as the footnotes are instructive to readers the youthful composer, certain aspects of Roaratorio. About this question Dickinson in various fields and their inclusion at the her recollections are fanciful and may be says: “I wasn’t being frivolous; I’m trying to bottom of each page makes them emi- apocryphal. Her rather elaborate account understand.” Cage replies: “Well, I know. nently readable as a generally indispensable of how Cage came to the idea for the And I’m trying to keep it misunderstood!” gloss on the text. prepared piano, while highly entertain- While CageTalk will do little to dispel the The interviews themselves are expan- ing, includes questionable details, such as enigma of John Cage, it does merit study sive in their range of topics. Nevertheless, Cage’s “eureka moment” when a piece of by all with an interest in the composer. Dickinson does repeat many of the ques- metal pipe accidentally falls into the piano tions from one interview to the next. Core and gives him the idea (71). Cage, on

The Conservatoire Américain: A History. By Kendra Preston Leonard. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2007. 312pp. ISBN-13: 978-0810857322 (pb).

cal ability arrived in the small town of Aaron Copland, who had discovered the – Elizabeth Bergman Fontainebleau, some 70 kilometers south summer program from an advertisement Princeton University of Paris, for the inaugural session of the in Musical America; among the instructors In late June 1921, a motley crew of newly created Conservatoire Américain. was Nadia Boulanger, a teacher of har- Americans ranging widely in age and musi- Among the students was the 20-year-old continued on page 46

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 45 continued from page 45 one so devoted and gracious as Copland ing a bandmasters school in the waning admitted that there was a case to be made years of World War I or the impetus after mony and counterpoint (not yet composi- against Boulanger, given her problematic World War II for cultural exchange – the tion). The Conservatoire will forever be “pet ideas” and troublesome “maternal story unfolds as a series of crisis concerning remembered as the place of their meeting, means.” In responding to Thomson’s typi- low enrollment (17 students for a 2-week Fontainebleau as the fountainhead of the cally biting criticisms of their former teach- session in 1994), tight finances (never sat- Boulanger line extending from Copland er in 1931, Copland concluded, “There is isfactorily explored here), and timeworn through Virgil Thomson, Elliott Carter, no matter where or how a pupil learns his facilities (the school no longer has any Louise Talma, Quincy Jones, Philip Glass, stuff just so that he learns it.”2 Thus the appreciable ties to the Palais). It is never Andrew Imbrie, and even – fancifully – question arises whether the Conservatoire clear why donors and backers provided Ali McGraw as Jennifer Cavalleri in Love itself matters as a place where students the financial support necessary to keep Story. (“I’m going to Paris to study with learned their stuff. From its very first year the program afloat, nor why Boulanger Nadia Boulanger,” she haughtily informs the Conservatoire struggled to attract capa- cared so much about the place, nor even the smitten but benighted Ryan O’Neal.) ble musicians, with a longstanding practice what actually went on within the prac- As Virgil Thomson once quipped, “every of providing scholarships for the more tice rooms, concert halls, and classrooms. town in the United States could boast talented by accepting full tuition from the The talk of French approaches to playing, two things: a five-and-ten cent store and less. And how seriously are we to take a changes in repertoire, and shifting styles a Boulanger student.”1 Also on the faculty summer program remembered by students of interpretation inspires less interest than of the Conservatoire were pianist Isidor in the early 1950s “as one whirlwind social seemingly more mundane – but in fact Philipp and the family Casadesus, includ- event after another” (83)? more substantial – issues of funding and ing conductor Francis, pianist Robert, and The most compelling material in the the relationship between the French and his wife Gaby. In the history of American volume is the first of the three interludes: American administrative offices that here music, however, the Conservatoire is best personal accounts by student Elizabeth receive scant attention. known for the presence of Copland (in Saylor, and pianists Gaby Casadesus and In her epilogue, Leonard adopts a more 1921) and Boulanger (from that same year Emile Naoumoff. Saylor recalls her frantic critical tone, challenging the assumption to her death in 1979). Kendra Leonard’s attempt to flee France in late summer 1939 that the Conservatoire is important per lively but light account of the summer as war spread across the continent. Her tale se, and strikes the pose of advocacy. She program, The Conservatoire Américain: A recounts daily life in Fontainebleau, the takes the institution to task for lacking History, raises the question whether they sights and smells of French life (the local “the focus, energy, and status of its heyday” are the reason we remember Fontainebleau marché was “fun, but the fish smell clung to and blames its “decline” in recent decades at all. my clothes for hours” [42]), piano lessons on the absence of a compelling mission In twelve short chapters punctuated by with Robert Casadesus and Isidor Philipp, and competent administration (172). But three “interludes,” Leonard chronicles the as well as a growing sense of dread. She her own research reveals that there never summer program from its initial concep- sailed home to the States on September was a heyday, no high point from which tion in 1918 as a school for American 2, 1939 – the day after Germany invaded to decline beyond the occasional presence bandmasters, conceived by conductors Poland. During the war years, Leonard of a few people who would later become Walter Damrosch and Francis Casadesus, asserts that the Conservatoire operated in famous. Fans of Fontainebleau, Boulanger, through its present-day incarnation as a exile, but in reality the Casadesuses simply and the Casadesuses may find much of month-long session for up to 40 students offered piano lessons and master class- interest here, to Leonard’s credit. And that pursuing piano, harmony, violin, viola, es in Newport, Rhode Island, and Great there is little of substance for scholars is not and cello. The focus falls on a few domi- Barrington, Massachusetts, as they waited necessarily Leonard’s fault. Fontainebleau nant personalities, Boulanger chief among out the war. may never have much mattered. them. As first a teacher of harmony and Ultimately Leonard’s claim that the musicianship, later of composition, and Conservatoire Américain was “one of the Notes director from 1949 to 1979, her “strong foremost institutions for training American 1 Quoted in Aaron Copland and Vivian Perlis, personality filled the chateau,” Leonard musicians in the twentieth century” (xi) Copland: 1900 Through 1942 (New York: St. writes (93) – for good and ill. Boulanger does not bear scrutiny. Not for lack of Martin’s/Marek, 1984), 62. inspired loyalty and fear in her students, effort: Leonard is a talented writer and 2 Thomson’s letter of November 26 is pub- played favorites among them, dictated rep- gifted researcher who has combed scat- lished in Selected Letters of Virgil Thomson, ertoire to faculty and guest artists alike, and tered, slapdash archives in Fontainebleau, ed. Tim and Vanessa Page (New York: ran the Conservatoire as a cruel mistress: New York, and New Haven; that the Summit, 1988), 100–1. Copland’s undated “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” as Leonard Fontainebleau Alumni Bulletin is so fre- response appears in Selected Correspondence of Aaron Copland, ed. Elizabeth B. Crist and (quoting Keats) aptly titles the chapter on quently cited perhaps inspires the reverent Wayne Shirley (New Haven: Yale, 2006), Boulanger’s tenure in the last two decades tone. Generations of American musicians 86–87. of her life. have enjoyed the opportunity to spend Little new emerges in the portrait paint- time in France, partake of a vibrant social ed of the pedagogue, whose reputation scene, and spend time immersed in their clearly preceded her among American stu- music. But in the absence of a wider con- dents and arguably outpaced her actual text – an exploration, for example, of the import as a teacher of composition. Even cultural and political motivations for start-

46 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 European Music and Musicians in New York City: 1840–1900. Ed. by John Graziano. Eastman Studies in Music, 36. University of Rochester Press, 2006. pp. 440. ISBN 978-1580462037 (hc).

The collection is extremely well edited, emphasizing the extensive work yet to be – Steven Baur with typographical or other errors few done in uncovering evidence pertaining to Dalhousie University and far between, and the writing is con- musical culture in 19th-century America sistently clear and engaging. The pains- beyond New York. In a recent issue of the Bulletin (Vol. taking research carried out in these essays While much of the kind of empiri- XXXI, No. 3 [Fall 2005]), Katherine makes available a wealth of information cal documentary research exemplified in Preston issued a compelling plea for from period sources, including concert this volume remains yet to be done, it increased scholarly attention to musical programs, unpublished musical scores, is also imperative that scholars of 19th- culture in 19th-century America, and she newspaper and journal reviews, and cor- century American musical culture begin identified a number of worthy and fasci- respondence from leading musical figures, to undertake a more critical interpreta- nating topics, repertories, and individu- that deeply enhances our understanding tion of the vast array of source materials als that have warranted further – and in of musical life in 19th-century New York. that have been uncovered. Scholarship on many cases, preliminary – investigation. Most of the chapters include highly use- 19th-century American musical culture The response has been impressive, as sub- ful appendices that provide at-a-glance has historically (and perhaps necessarily, sequent SAM meetings have featured a overviews of the European or European- considering the relative youth of the field) robust array of excellent presentations derived repertories that were heard in the tended toward insularity, and the move- on 19th-century topics. Together with city throughout the period, and these alone ment toward interdisciplinarity that has so the wealth of activity taking place at the make this book a valuable contribution to enriched its parent disciplines of musicolo- CUNY Graduate Center, long a leading the academic literature on music in 19th- gy and American studies has yet to be fully center for scholarship on music in 19th- century America. embraced within the field. While the chap- century America, this area has become There are several individuals, however, ters by Adrienne Fried Block, Christopher a hotbed of research in American music whom one might expect to figure promi- Bruhn, Ruth Henderson, and John Koegel studies. European Music & Musicians in nently in such a collection of essays, but each draw on and contribute usefully to New York City, 1840–1900, a collection who receive only passing references. Louis the field of ethnic studies (and more spe- of essays proceeding from “Importing Jullien, Jenny Lind, Anton Rubinstein, Ole cifically German-American ethnic stud- Culture: European Music and Musicians Bull, Jacques Offenbach, and Sir Arthur ies) and while Hilary Poriss’s chapter on in New York City, 1840–1890,” a confer- Sullivan, to name just a few, all spent time Adelina Patti profitably engages a critical ence held at the CUNY Graduate Center in the New World, and all had a deep and approach drawing on cultural studies, most in 2002, demonstrates the vitality of the lasting impact on American musical cul- of the essays in this collection eschew con- field and points to the need for continued ture. The absence of chapters dedicated siderations not pertaining specifically to work on this crucial period in American to any of these luminaries in this book is musical life in 19th-century America. musical history. symptomatic of its broader tendency to During a period in which the nation Space limitations preclude me from emphasize the role of German music and experienced the birth of the women’s suf- addressing every chapter in this volume, musicians to an extent that is perhaps dis- frage movement, the abolition of slavery but a few examples suggest the breadth of proportionate. This is understandable con- (and its troubled aftermath), the rise of topics covered: the performance and recep- sidering that the essays were selected from large-scale industrialization, and unprece- tion history of music by several canonical among those presented at a particular con- dented waves of immigration, investigating composers in New York City (including ference rather than having been solicited the significant role of music in negotiat- Schumann, Berlioz, and Liszt); the per- specifically for a topical essay collection. ing issues such as gender, race, class, and formances of renowned European musi- A great strength of this volume is its ethnicity seems to me a pressing concern. cians visiting the city (such as Sigismund meticulous presentation of copious Thus, following Katherine Preston, I will Thalberg and Adelina Patti); the contri- amounts of documentary evidence from use this space to make my own plea, not butions of immigrant musicians based in primary sources that substantially fills in only for more of the kind of excellent New York City (including Carl Bergmann, our knowledge of New York City’s vibrant research exemplified in this volume, but Theodore Thomas, Leopold Damrosch, musical life throughout this period. This also for work that explores how music par- Patrick S. Gilmore, Claudio Grafulla, and impressive work points to an enormous ticipated in defining social identities and Carlo Cappa); the complex web of activi- amount of additional archival work that relationships during a period characterized ties surrounding leading impresarios and needs to be done before we have a han- by severe tensions. If we wish to amplify music booking agencies; and the histo- dle on period sources pertaining to the the impact of our work beyond our own ry and role of specific musical genres in city’s musical history. In her closing essay, field, we must engage more thoroughly New York City (including choral music, Katherine Preston makes a convincing case with scholarship outside of 19th-century German American musical theater, band that during the 19th century, New York American music studies. music, orchestral music, and opera). The was “an important part, but not neces- roster of contributors includes a refreshing sarily the center” (286) of a complex web blend of established and emerging scholars, of musical activity that connected cities and the scholarship is solid throughout. and towns throughout the country, further

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 47 b u l l e t i n b o a r d

Members in the News Stony Brook University, in the Humanities People Take Warning Grammy Institute, Humanities Building room Nomination Peter Bloom announces the release of 1013. This exhibition featured vintage por- The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra’s 10th CD, traits of Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & American Agonistes: Music in Time of War Eric Dolphy, Duke Ellington, Ella Disaster Songs 1913-1938, a 3-CD boxed (Leo Records, CD 508). According to the Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, set released by NYC-based independent group’s founder, Mark Harvey, American Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Charlie label Tompkins Square, received a Grammy Agonistes is about the struggle for the soul Parker, Max Roach, Fats Waller and oth- nomination for Best Historical Album of our constitutional democracy amid ers by Ray Avery, William P. Gottlieb, and was featured on NPR’s All Things world tension and conflict; and it stands Chuck Stewart and other masters of the Considered on 24 January 2008. Songs of within the long tradition of music address- genre. The exhibition, which was part death, destruction, and disaster, recorded ing larger social and political issues.” of a jazz conference and festival at Stony by black and white performers from the Brook, received major press attention from dawn of American roots recording, are David Hildebrand will give a spe- The New York Times and Newsday. assembled together for the first time. cial Independence Day program on 2 Whether they document world-shatter- July, at 6 p.m., Anderson House, 2118 Katherine Preston has been awarded ing events like the sinking of the Titanic or Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, a Fulbright Fellowship for spring semes- memorialize long-forgotten local murders D.C., under the auspices of the Society for ter 2009. She will be the Walt Whitman or catastrophes, these 70 recordings – over the Cincinnati. The concert will feature Distinguished Chair of American Culture 30 never before reissued – are audio mes- period instruments, appropriate costume, at the University of Leiden. sages in a bottle reflecting a lost world songs and instrumental works, and com- where age-old ballads rubbed up against mentary music of the Revolution, with songs inspired by the day’s headlines. an emphasis on music related to George Jonathan Hiam Featuring beautifully remastered record- Washington. For further information call Appointment at NYPL ings by the some of the cornerstones of (202) 785-2040 or (410) 544-6149. American vernacular recording such as Jonathan Hiam has been appointed Charlie Patton, Ernest Stoneman, Furry Ralph P. Locke, Professor of Musicology Head of the American Music Collection Lewis, Charlie Poole, and Uncle Dave at the Eastman School of Music (University in the Music Division of The New York Macon, these songs tell of life-and-death of Rochester) has completed a book on Public Library for the Performing Arts, struggles forever immortalized on these music and the exotic from 1700 to the pres- effective 23 June 2008. Jonathan Hiam rare and compelling 78 rpms. Produced ent (Cambridge University Press), entitled is a scholar of 20th-century music with a and annotated by the Grammy-winning Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections. particular focus on music in America. He team of Christopher King and Henry The book discusses broad issues but also is currently editing a book on music at “Hank” Sapoznik, with an introduction case studies, including The Desert Song, Black Mountain College and holds a Ph.D. by Tom Waits, the accompanying 48-page The King and I, West Side Story and Tan from the University of North Carolina at booklet designed by Grammy award win- Dun’s opera Marco Polo (performed at Chapel Hill. He most recently held a posi- ning Susan Archie brims with eye-popping New York City Opera, 1997). Recent arti- tion as Assistant Professor of Musicology historic images never before reproduced. cles on musical exoticism have appeared in at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For more information, please contact Journal of Musicology (Fall 2007) and in Formed in 1936 as part of the vision of [email protected]. Song samples: Musique, esthétique et société en France au Dr. Carleton Sprague Smith, the American http://www.peopletakewarning.com/. XIXe siècle. A book chapter – “Liszt on Music Collection has become a focal point the Artist and Society” (in Liszt and His in the Music Division’s international pro- World, 2006) – was chosen as one of the file. The collection (whose first Head was ASCAP Deems Taylor Award winners. John Tasker Howard) has grown in stature In it, Locke discusses – and translates, for to become a premiere collection devoted the first time ever in English – the final to American Music with its own Head. installment of Liszt’s youthful essay-series Major holdings include the papers of “On the Situation of Artists and on Their Henry Cowell, manuscripts of John Cage Condition in Society.” Liszt’s text raises and George Antheil, papers of Kander and issues that remain painfully relevant to Ebb, Bock and Harnick and most recently musical life today in America and else- the archive of Meredith Monk. where.

Olivia Mattis has organized an exhibi- tion of jazz photography and paintings called “Pops to Lady Day: Portraits in Jazz,” which was displayed until 9 May at

48 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 Wells formed the program committee for Bulletin of the Conference Report the conference. Kym Stricklin, Executive Society for American Music Aide at the Center, served as Conference “Farther Along” Coordinator. Specifications and Rates for A Conference on the Southern In the convention-singing tradition, Advertisements people throughout the South gather at Gospel Convention-Singing monthly or annual conventions to sing gospel songs from small, upright, “new The Bulletin of the Society for American Tradition books,” in which the songs are printed in Music is the regular conduit for keeping More than 150 people from fifteen seven-shape notation. Most singers at these members updated on the state of the states gathered on the campus of Middle conventions have learned to sight-read the discipline. It contains short articles and Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro notation, and learned basic repertoire, by open discussions relating to American on the first weekend in April, for the attending one of several schools devoted to music, and occasional reviews of first-ever academic conference devoted to this tradition that are scattered throughout books, recordings, and web resources. the southern gospel convention-singing the South. This amateur tradition, and It also includes information regarding tradition. Convention singing has been the publishing and educational industry conferences and performances, along an important aspect of southern musi- that accompanies it, have been the fertile with news relating to member activities. cal culture for well over a century, but ground from which have come many well- remains little studied and understood by It is sent to members three times per known songs, and from which has emerged the scholarly community. “In planning and year. Circulation: 1,000 copies. About the world of professional southern gos- promoting the conference we spent a great 100 of these go to libraries. pel. Many songs from this tradition were deal of time explaining to people what this recorded in the early days of hillbilly music music was not,” said Paul F. Wells, Director by performers such as the Carter Family, SUBMISSION DEADLINES: of the Center for Popular Music at Middle 15 December, 15 April, and 15 August and also have found a place in the bluegrass Tennessee State University, which spon- gospel repertoire. Still others have been sored the conference. “The first assump- To reserve, call Mariana Whitmer at accepted into the African American gospel tion many people made when we talked tradition. (412) 624-3031 or e-mail: SAM@ about doing a ‘gospel’ conference was that american-music.org Southern gospel convention singing we were dealing with African American evolved out of the older four-shape tradi- tradition,” Wells continued. “And because tion of The Sacred Harp and other oblong Tear sheets will be sent after publica- the convention-singing tradition employs books. Its growth was led primarily by pub- tion. shape notes, people often thought we were lishers such as Ruebush-Kieffer, Anthony talking about the four-shape fasola tradi- J. Showalter, James D. Vaughan, Stamps- SPECIFICATIONS AND PRICES tion of the The Sacred Harp and related Baxter, Hartford Music, and other smaller books.” concerns. These publishers also sponsored Overall Page size: 11" x 8½" (page height Indeed, it was the fact that this tradi- the largest and best-known singing schools x width). PDF format appreciated; tion is largely unfamiliar to people who from the 1870s through the early 1960s. images should be in black/white or are not participants in it that led to the Emphasizing new songs in the gospel style, grayscale. decision to mount a conference focused on as opposed to the four-shape tradition’s it. The idea for the “Farther Along” confer- more conservative bent, the southern gos- $ 125.00 Full page: 10" high x 7½" wide ence had its beginning in the fall of 2006. pel convention tradition also embraces $ 75.00 Half page: 5" x 3¾" The Center has always had an interest in the use of instruments, most particularly $ 50.00 Third page: 3½" x 7½" collecting songbooks and other materials piano, to accompany the singers. $ 40.00 Quarter page: 2½" x 2¼" relating to southern gospel in general, and One notable aspect of the “Farther the convention-singing tradition in partic- Along” conference is that among the reg- All prices are per single issue. A 15% ular, but had never taken the opportunity istrants, practitioners from within the tra- discount will apply for ads placed in to present any public programming relat- dition outnumbered the academics more all three issues of a volume. ing to the tradition. Musicologist Stephen than two to one. There were numerous Shearon of the MTSU School of Music people who had a foot in both camps, has been engaged actively in fieldwork further blurring the distinction between with the tradition in the past several years, ELECTRONIC FILES insiders and outsiders. Attendees came going to conventions, getting to know ENCOURAGED from all states in the southeast, as well as many of the practitioners, and researching from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, the history of some of the key publishers and New Jersey. Nine singing schools were Submit jpg, gif, or pdf files to: who have produced the songbooks used at [email protected] represented, as were all five of the publish- conventions. Following numerous conver- ers who are currently issuing new conven- sations between Shearon and Wells about tion books. Bob Brumley, son of famed this fieldwork and about the Center’s col- gospel songwriter and publisher Albert E. lections, the need for a conference on the Brumley, attended the Saturday morning subject became apparent. Together with CPM librarian Grover Baker, Shearon and continued on page 50

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 49 continued from page 49 convention singing, and this panel provid- Academy of Liturgy (NAAL). The two sessions in order to hear a paper on the ed a forum in which members of the audi- groups met during the NAAL’s conference history of his father’s most famous song, ence, as well as the panelists, could voice at Savannah, Georgia, this past 4 January. “I’ll Fly Away,” given by Kevin Kehrberg, some of their concerns. While no strong Liturgical expert and church musician a Ph.D. student at the University of consensus was reached, the general feeling Don Saliers (Emory University) served as Kentucky. Piano accompaniment is a key seemed to be that while an event such as spokesman for the ACMHC in a session aspect of convention singing, and some of the “Farther Along” conference was an chaired by NAAL member Kent Burreson the top pianists within the tradition were important occasion in bringing attention (Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis). present. to the genre, the impetus for growth or re- Recognizing that American church Papers and presentations were given growth would have to come from within music history has suffered from neglect for on a wide range of topics. There were the convention singing community. more than half a century, the ACMHC sessions devoted to publishing, song his- Another special aspect of the confer- scholars are exploring new approaches tories, research resources, and communi- ence was a public singing on Friday night, that will take into account the enormously ty and family traditions, among others. 4 April. This drew an additional fifteen to complex worship and music traditions in Middle Tennessee has figured strongly in twenty people, primarily from the MTSU American religious life. They expect their the history of convention singing, and and Murfreesboro communities. As is the work to encourage new research and even- papers devoted to gospel music in Overton custom at conventions, different people tual publication of a survey of the subject. County on the Cumberland Plateau, and came to the front of the room to lead the It is no longer adequate, in the view of on the R.E. Winsett family publishing singing. Leaders would choose a song and these scholars, to begin church music his- company of Dayton, Tennessee, brought a also designate which pianist they would tory at the landing of the Pilgrims and regional focus to the conference. like to have provide accompaniment. then simply chronicle major developments Three roundtable “Conversations Ordinarily several different songbooks in mainline churches down to the present with…” sessions, in which audience mem- would be employed as sources of songs, time. Too many traditions are ignored and bers had the chance to query panelists but for this occasion it was agreed ahead too many misunderstandings are generated about particular topics, were a key fea- of time to use only The Church Hymnal, by that traditional approach. ture of the conference. The first of these, which is recognized as the most popular The deliberations at Savannah “Conversations with Publishers,” featured and widely used songbook (and which were based on several papers provided representatives of three of the songbook was the subject of two presentations at by members of the ACMHC. Of spe- publishing firms, Charles Towler (Gospel the conference). “Special music” – a solo, cial interest were submissions from Paul Heritage Music), Eugene McCammon duo, or group number – was interspersed Westermeyer (Luther Seminary), Steven (Cumberland Valley Music Company), and periodically between songs by the entire Marini (Wellesley College), Robin Leaver Byron L. Reid (Leoma Music Company). group. (Westminster Choir School), together Publishers responded to questions regard- Christi Underdown and Lucinda with recent publications by Mark Noll ing sales figures, criteria for accepting songs, Cockrell of the CPM staff prepared a (Notre Dame University) and Elizabeth marketing, and changes in the technology small exhibit of materials from the Center’s Blumhofer (Wheaton College). Don of music engraving. collection for display during the confer- Saliers summarized these papers and devel- The second roundtable was focused ence. Items that related to the topics of oped an agenda of considerations for fur- on the piano accompaniment style. This conference presentations were featured. ther study. was preceded by a presentation by Tracey The key item on display was the large (3’ x It was proposed, for example, that more Phillips, one of the top pianists in the 8’), hand-drawn pedagogical chart created cross-cultural studies are needed to under- tradition and a student in the MTSU in 1937 by R. W. Ledbetter of Livingston, stand what is “American” in church music School of Music, in which she explained Tennessee. history, while recognizing that individual some of her methods and techniques in It is hoped that the momentum gener- church traditions often are not confined devising accompaniment to songs. Pianists ated by the “Farther Along” conference to an American context. Church music are expected to be able to improvise on will result in additional scholarly atten- scholars are urged to assimilate impor- the written music in the songbooks, often tion being given to this important genre tant insights from ethnomusicology, social very quickly upon being presented with of southern music. More importantly, it is history, theology, economics, and demo- a song that is new to them. Pianists are hoped that the conference will stimulate graphic studies. “High art, ” “pop art,” and also expected to develop a personal style. interest from within the convention sing- “folk art” need redefinition. Further, the Joining Phillips for the “Conversations ing world in maintaining the health of the development of new databases was encour- with Gospel Pianists” were Sue Gray of tradition. aged along with increased attention to the Rising Fawn, Georgia, and Sidney Hicks, – Paul F. Wells “stories” of worshipers within denomina- of Jasper, Alabama. New Directions in tions and various ethnic traditions. The final roundtable, “Conversations Saliers remarked that “writing the his- on the Future of Convention Singing,” Church Music History tory of church music is probably a more featured panelists Tom Powell, from Members of the American Church complex undertaking than any single Chattanooga, C. Nelson Bailey, from Music History Consultation (ACMHC) author can envision, but we can and should Knoxville, and Stephen Shearon of MTSU. explored new directions in church encourage more particular histories of spe- There is much concern from within the music history together with church his- cific communities of song.” tradition about the continued viability of tory experts from the North American The ACMHC was organized in 2006

50 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 as a joint project of the major church nonetheless shared music practice.” Other subjects featured in the film music professional organizations, includ- For more information about the include Gee’s Bend quilter Arlonzia ing the Association of Anglican Musicians, American Church Music History Pettway (82) and 109-year-old composer Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Consultation please contact Victor Leo Ornstein. Groundbreaking creative Fellowship of United Methodists in Music Gebauer ([email protected]). aging researcher and author Dr. Gene and Worship Arts, National Association Cohen offers insight into physiological of Pastoral Musicians, Presbyterian changes of the aging brain and the impor- Association of Musicians, United Church Do Not Go Gently Wins Gold tance of community and opportunities to of Christ Worship & Education Team. Medal at New York Festivals create in old age. Its first conference that same year was Leo Ornstein’s story is the subject of a hosted by the Calvin Institute of Christian Do Not Go Gently, the film about cre- new biography, Leo Ornstein: Modernist Worship and its director, John Witvliet. ative aging directed by Melissa Godoy, with Dilemmas, Personal Choice, by FSU Consisting of a group of select scholars, executive producer Eileen Littig, which College of Music professor Denise Von the ACMHC is dedicated to serving both has been screened at festivals, art museums, Glahn and Penn State professor emeritus the academic community and the churches and airing on PBS stations nationwide, Michael Broyles, who were both featured of North America in exploring the rich earned a Gold World Medal in Humanities in the film. A CD of his solo cello works history of church music, thus overcoming at the New York Festivals Film and Video appeared in spring 2007 featuring Joshua a long history of neglect. It has placed a Awards on 31 Jan. 2008. One of the film’s Gordon, cello, and Randall Hodgkinson, priority on development of a new survey most ebullient subjects, premiere danseur piano. history of North American church music, Frederic Franklin, accepted the award at A surprising section of the film looks coordination and development of database the gala held at the Tribeca Rooftop in at the use of imagination by the nonprofit resources in various churches, and formu- Manhattan. Franklin, one of the original organization Arts for the Aging to engage lation of newer principles for studying dancers in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo people suffering from disabilities of age, church music. and a current favorite at American Ballet including depression and dementia. Victor Gebauer, Convener of the Theater, has been dancing professionally The fastest growing age group in ACMHC, has stated, “Our scholars aim at since 1931. America is ages 85 and above. Do Not Go more than scholarship. They are commit- At the awards ceremony, Franklin set Gently explores the old-old as a stage of ted to exploring the multiple traditions and the tone and brought the house down. He human development with artistic poten- sheer complexity of church music to offer was the first award, and when asked about tial. More information about Do Not Go musicians a stronger sense of their mission how he keeps going, responded, “A little Gently can be found at http://donotgo- and increasingly ecumenical, diverse, but vodka.” gently.com. c o n f e r e n c e c a l e n d a r CFP: 52nd Annual Meeting of the Please send a 250-word proposal to Travis the close ties that linked American compo- Canadian Society for Traditional Music/ Stimeling at [email protected]. sers to their colleagues abroad. The types Société Canadienne pour les Traditions Electronic submission of proposals is of connections among these musicians Musicales, jointly meeting with the Helen encouraged. Print submissions can be sent span the gamut from individual contacts to Creighton Folklore Society to Travis Stimeling, Millikin University institutional collaborations to governmen- School of Music, 1184 W. Main St., tal programs. As appropriate for the theme Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Decatur, IL 62522 by 1 September 2008. Scotia, 14–16 2008 of the conference, it will be divided bet- Deadline for abstract submissions: May ween the two locations Cambridge, MA, Announcement for Crosscurrents and Munich, Germany, with the emphasis 31st, 2008 conference: www.yorku.ca/cstm for the former on the first half of the 20th Crosscurrents: American and European century, and for the latter, the second. Music in Interaction, 1900–2000 CFP: Opera Indigene: Critical The aim of the conference is to present (Wechselwirkungen zwischen ame- new research from an international group Perspectives on Re/presenting rikanischer und europäischer Musik, First Nations and Indigenous Cultures of scholars on a topic of fundamental 1900–2000). importance to the history of 20th-century Kings College London, England An international conference in two parts: 27 Sept. 2008 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 30 music, but which is often overlooked in an age of extreme specialization: the mutu- Deadline for abstract submissions: June Oct. –1 Nov. 2008; Ludwig-Maximilians- 1, 2008 Universität, Munich, 7–9 May 2009. al influence between North America and http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cromt/1-3-8.html Info: http://crosscurrents08-09.org Europe that affected virtually every aspect of music and musical life during the 20th century. There will be 32 speakers (16 for CFP: “The Train Just Don’t Stop The international conference: each part), who come from six countries Here Anymore”: An Interdisciplinary Crosscurrents brings together scholars and have expertise in a wide range of Colloquium on the Soundscapes of Rural from both sides of the Atlantic to exami- twentieth-century music topics. Concerts and Small-Town America ne musical interactions between North are an integral part of the event, and a new Millikin University, Decatur, IL, 3–4 America and Europe during the 20th cen- work has been commissioned for it by the April 2009 tury, and aims to promote a deeper grasp of French-American composers Betsy Jolas.

The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 51 a w a r d s o f t h e s o c i e t y

Further information is available at the Irving Lowens Memorial Awards Student Travel Grants website (www.american-music.org) or by The Irving Lowens Award is offered by the Grants are available for student members contacting the SAM office. Society for American Music each year for a who wish to attend the annual conference book and article that, in the judgment of the of the Society for American Music. These H. Earle Johnson Bequest for Book awards committee, makes an outstanding funds are intended to help with the cost Publication Subvention contribution to the study of American music of travel. Students receiving funds must be or music in America. Self-nominations are members of the Society and enrolled at a This fund is administered by the Book accepted. Application deadline is February college or university (with the exception of Publications Committee and provides 15th. doctoral students, who need not be formally two subventions up to $2,500 annually. enrolled). Application deadline is January 1. Application deadline is November 15th. Wiley Housewright Dissertation Mark Tucker Award Sight and Sound Subvention Award The Mark Tucker Award is presented This fund is administered by the Sight This award consists of a plaque and cash award given annually for a dissertation at the Business Meeting of the annual and Sound Committee and provides annual SAM conference to a student presenter subventions of approximately $700-$900. that makes an outstanding contribution to American music studies. The Society who has written an outstanding paper for for American Music announces its annual delivery at that conference. In addition to competition for a dissertation on any topic the recognition the student receives before relating to American music, written in the Society, there is also a plaque and a cash English. Application deadline is February award. 15th, for dissertations completed between 1 January and 31 December of previous year.

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52 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXIV, No. 2