The Bulletin of the S OCIETY for a MERICAN M USIC FOUNDED in HONOR of O SCAR G
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The Bulletin OF THE S OCIETY FOR A MERICAN M USIC FOUNDED IN HONOR OF O SCAR G . T. S ONNECK Vol. XXXII, No. 1 Winter 2006 SAM/CBMR Conference: Chicago, Illinois (Looks Mighty Good to Me) — Mariana Whitmer “I’ve lived in Pennsylvania and Portland, Music and Dance at Chicago’s fabulous Oregon, the SAM History Project session. In the state of Arizona, in Seattle, Millenium Park on Wednesday evening All conference attendees will be able to Washington (after the welcome reception), performing experience the CBMR sessions as well as I’ve had good times in Georgia, three world premieres. Howard Reich’s 2004 SAM’s. These include Black Music in Italy, And in good old New York State review of this ensemble included the follow- From Jump Street to MP3: Black Music I’ve lived in Dallas, Texas, ing remarks: “The very notion, in fact, that Pedagogy—Resources and Challenges of Seen Frisco’s Golden Gate any one ensemble could finesse modern the Twenty-First Century, International I’ve spent some time in Caroline, American jazz, 16th Century Portuguese Scholarship and Black Music, and And I love you Tennessee, motets and ancient Afro-Cuban chant Connecting the Dots: Diasporal Unities, But old Chicago, Illinois looks mighty good might seem preposterous. Yet...the New Triangular Research, and the CBMR/ to me! Black Music Repertory Ensemble dis- AMRI Rockefeller Resident Fellowship We are thrilled to be holding our 32nd patched these far-flung idioms, and oth- Program, among others. Annual Conference in Chicago and meeting ers, with a degree of authority and verve There are several wonderful lecture/ once again with the Center for Black Music that confounded expectations.” recitals on this year’s program, all of them Research! Muhal Richard Abrams, famed per- scheduled during the late morning (so you There are many reasons why Chicago former, composer, and co-founder of the leg- won’t have to skip lunch). Artis Wodehouse looks mighty good to us this year, not the endary Association for the Advancement of will be performing piano transcriptions of least of which is the program. Both organi- Creative Musicians (AACM), will be named Duke Ellington on Thursday. On Friday, zations have exciting programs planned for the Society’s Honorary member for 2006. In James Briscoe and Anna Yow Briscoe this combined conference. There will be a celebration of this honor, Abrams, along with will be presenting a program devoted special session in honor of Samuel A. Floyd, George Lewis, who was a student of Abrams to Tania León, a US composer of Afro- Jr., CBMR Founder and Director Emeritus, and who is a long-time AACM member, will Cuban descent who draws on African, present a free concert on Friday evening. who will also be giving the keynote address Cuban, jazz, and modernist idioms. James There will be several sessions featur- at a special SAM/CBMR Plenary Session. Briscoe explains that her music refers to In addition to the combined Plenary Session, ing Chicago’s history, such as Creating the Chicago Exposition, Marketing Music West African “power” drumming, stride there will be three joint sessions at the piano, blues, and Afro-Cuban dance; she conference: “Large as She Can Make It” for Chicago, Cultural Identity in Chicago Exposition, and (of course) Sweet Home describes herself as “neither American Remix: Black Women’s Activism Through nor Cuban, nor European…but of being Music, The Legacy of Harry T. Burleigh Chicago. Be prepared for some lively dis- earthian.” Rob Haskins will present a (followed by a Burleigh sing-along), and cussions at the panel on Nineteenth-Century lecture recital on Saturday intriguingly As Banjo Songs Became the Blues, featuring Scholarship in American Music Studies (see SAM Honorary Member Mike Seeger, and the Standpoint section in the Fall Bulletin, titled “Reconciling Western Sense and preceded by a session on Black Banjo and and the Counterpoint section in this issue). Eastern No-Mindedness.” Friday late Fiddle Traditions in the United States, fea- Sure to engage your interest will be the morning will include a film screening of turing other fiddle and banjo performers. session on “Earlier American Musical African-American musical performances SAM members will be joining CBMR Periodicals and RIPM’s proposed ‘Americas from FOX Movietonenews. members for some exciting performances. Initiative’” (see Mary Wallace’s article in this The New Black Music Repertory Ensemble issue of the Bulletin), and the history of the continued on page 23 will be appearing at the Harris Theater for Society as told by Kate van Winkle Keller, Judith McCulloh, and Barbara Lambert at FROM THE P RESIDENT Elsewhere in the Bulletin you will lines between musicology, history by the Anglo-Saxon heritage that music read about the Chicago conference. It (yes I believe there is a difference), is secondary. Yet the society can only do is an exciting one, and I would like to ethnomusicology, and music theory are so much. The real challenge is for each thank several people who have worked blurring. Departments and societies will of us to look beyond our own disciplin- hard to make it what it will be: Naomi remain, but it is becoming more difficult ary boundaries to engage both other André and members of the Program to identify the players: What one does scholars and the public at large. We Committee; Mariana Whitmer, who when one studies music suggests a true write a lot for ourselves, not enough for has been in charge of local arrange- ecumenicity in our field. When I survey others. As I look at some of the topics ments; and Morris Phibbs of the Center our own society’s activities I see that of our programs I see winds of change for Black Music Research, with whom global approach everywhere. SAM has there also. I am optimistic. we are meeting. We have a wonderful spearheaded something important, and Let me move from vision to reality. location in a city with a rich musical it will be on display in Chicago. We Our society can exist only as long as heritage, and I hope to see you there. have lived through many challenges there are resources to support it. That In beginning the job of president of to the old way of doing things, and means paying your dues. Please renew. SAM, it quickly became apparent that are now reaping rewards in the We need you. In addition you will soon the organization is only as good as the intellectual currents we have generated. be hearing about a new development members make it. We are a volunteer Performance and criticism share the campaign. Deane Root has done an out- organization, and I want to thank so same bed, at least at SAM. We are not standing job chairing the development many people who have volunteered strange bedfellows. committee, and has organized a major to take on tasks for the organization, I look for us to reach out even campaign that will put the society on a who have agreed to serve on or chair more, to other disciplines and other much firmer financial footing. Thank committees or serve in other positions societies, and to the world at large. We you Deane, and stay tuned everyone. of responsibility. The future of the have already begun that, in our next two And don’t forget to renew. organization belongs to you, and I am meetings, with the CBMR and then the gratified for the enthusiasm and sup- Music Library Association, and with the — Michael Broyles port from so many people. All we have Voices Across Time project. As a society accomplished with SAM would ground it is my fervent wish that we go further to a halt if members weren’t willing to engage disciplines still encumbered to give unselfishly (but hopefully not without reward) of their time. If you are interested in serving SAM please let me know or indicate such when you send in your membership renewal. As I look at SAM I am especially proud of the role that we have played The Bulletin of the Society for American Music in emphasizing that as a society and as a culture we embrace all music. I am The Bulletin is published in the Winter (January), Spring (May), and Summer (September) by old enough to remember when being the Society for American Music. Copyright 2006 by the Society for American Music, ISSN a musicologist meant that one studied 0196-7967. Western fine art music; anything else Editorial Board was off limits (let’s not even get into the Editor . Sandra Graham ([email protected]) issue of American music). Such a model Bibliographer. Joice Waterhouse Gibson ([email protected]) might work with Beethoven or Mozart – although even there the issue is not Indexer . Amy C. Beal ([email protected]) so clear – but it is simply unacceptable Items for submission should be addressed to Sandra Graham, Music Department, for American music, where categories University of California, Davis, CA 95616, or, preferably, submitted as an attachment to and approaches cross, intermesh, and e-mail. Photographs or other graphical materials should be accompanied by captions and at times are simply indistinguishable. desired location in the text. Deadlines for submission of materials are 15 December, 15 I am beginning to see a trend: The April, and 15 August. 2 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXII, No. 1 The Bulletin of the Society for American Music • Vol. XXXII, No. 1 3 C OUNTERPOINT Editor’s Note: In this issue, Counterpoint presents responses to Katherine Preston’s Standpoint article in the Fall 2005 Bulletin, titled “What Happened to the Nineteenth Century?” Please consider joining an extended discussion of this important topic at our annual conference in March at the panel “Nineteenth-Century Scholarship in American Music Studies.” If you would like to write a future Standpoint article, please send a short description of your idea to Sandra Graham, Bulletin Editor, at [email protected].