The Bulletin OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERIC A N MU S IC FOUNDED IN HONOR OF OS C A R G. T. SONNECK Vol. XXXIII, No. 3 Fall 2007 STANDPOINT : Scaling the Walls – Susan Key San Francisco Symphony Editor’s Note: Standpoints are opinion essays meant to provoke discussion, reflection, and controversy. The Winter issue of the Bulletin will contain responses to this essay. If you would like to contribute a Counterpoint, please SAM members can take pride e-mail it to Sandra Graham [email protected] by 7 December. in having moved the study of American music from the musico- an unfortunate aspect of the last generation of scholarship has been that logical fringes to the mainstream, the humanities have increasingly isolated themselves from the day-to- opening up not only new areas of day discourse of actual humans. Ironically, the very critical vocabulary study but also new approaches to that we have developed in order to create a more relevant and inclusive established repertoire. And we did understanding of music is itself a communication only to that tiny – and so in good spirits: I remember exclusive – class that shares it. The irony is especially acute for American when the Sonneck Society was music, whose analysis so often depends on the dynamic between music referred to as “the fun wing of the and its context, and whose openness to diverse voices has been not only AMS.” Perhaps AMS is having refreshing but influential. more fun these days, but we’re still in the vanguard. Where else can A more robust relationship with the world beyond academe would you stroll the halls of a conference hotel and hear Morton Feldman in also have a more tangible benefit in today’s entrepreneurial workplace. call-and-response with Tommy Jarrell? A three-part fugue built from Young professionals in business and law are told that they should fragments of William Billings, Stephen Foster, and Ornette Coleman? anticipate changing careers several times in their lifetime – but our (And how about that brass band?!) It was this open-eared eclecticism field remains mired in the “one outcome” model even in the face of the that so attracted me to our field and our Society – and I know I’m not harsh reality of the academic job market. I’m not suggesting that there’s unique among our membership. anything wrong with being a music professor – just that we should rec- I’d like to offer our Society another challenge: to lead academ- ognize other purposes for the study of music than more study of music. ic musicology into a stronger relationship with the broader public. And we should value music-making, music-disseminating, and music- However spirited the texture of our conferences, the academic vocal timbre is remarkably consistent. Nor is musicology unique; it seems that continued on page 45 San Antonio Conference Update in this issue: The Program Committee for the beyond). Work continues on fine-tuning SAM annual conference to be held in the schedule, contacting session chairs, and From The President | 46 San Antonio is pleased to report that they various other details. More details will fol- received approximately 280 submissions, low in the Winter Bulletin. Art of the States | 48 including individual papers, panels of The conference will capitalize on an 3-4 papers, posters, and lecture-recitals. unprecedented number of submissions on Student Forum | 51 One hundred twenty presentations were “Spanish-speaking” American music and accepted. will offer sessions that interrogate familiar MENC Centennial | 52 The Committee thanks Glenn SAM topics in new interdisciplinary ways. Pillsbury for his excellent management Together with excellent papers and posters Woody Gunthrie Live | 54 of the online submissions system, which on more familiar SAM concerns, these included remaining on call for the commit- sessions promise a 2008 program that will Composer Portraits | 55 tee’s subsequent access to the submissions enliven and inform our professional dia- database from 16 June to the present (and logues. Scaling the Walls sense of mission that extends beyond a nar- row circle. In the words of Lisa Halasz, an FROM THE PRE S IDENT continued from page 45 expert consultant on the Keeping Score web- educating activities for the opportunities they sites who similarly made the transition from bring to our scholarship as well as our careers. academe: “I spent many, many hours writing For me, the process of building a career articles of interest to only a handful of people. outside academe was part necessity, part While working for Carnegie Hall and the San choice. As a late-in-life Ph.D. with a family, Francisco Symphony, I have gotten to devise I had perhaps less flexibility than someone programs, write curricula and design websites with a more traditional profile. I also confess that influenced the way tens of thousands of that I was spoiled by living in great places: first people learned about music. All this, while Washington, D.C., then the San Francisco collaborating with some of the leading names Bay area. Even so, I was in the second year of in music. I don’t know who has learned more a three-year appointment at Stanford when I ... me, or the people I am hoping to teach!” took a one-quarter leave to coordinate the San I had some vague thoughts along these Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks lines in 2003 when Paul Wells made his Festival. My assumption that I would return presidential remarks at our annual business As I write from Western Massachusetts to Stanford and continue my career in aca- meeting. After celebrating the progress of during the third weekend in August, where deme soon gave way to the realization that American musicology, he mused: “my inner several trees have already begun to show I was enjoying the SFS way too much for geezer often tells me that something is amiss. their fall colors, and the unseasonably cool that! In the years since, I have worked at While I see, hear and talk to many students weather has required us to turn on the heat, the SFS in a variety of roles: speaking, writ- who are writing their dissertation on, say, it is quickly apparent that summer is about ing, designing exhibits and adult education country music or rock because they are fol- to end, and that fall is upon us, signify- courses, and currently as the full-time director lowing their own hearts and interests, at least ing a return to our regular work schedules, of the Symphony’s Keeping Score education as often I get the sense that someone is pursu- committee meetings, and a few months of program. ing a topic in vernacular or popular music conferences. What did – and do – I love so much? simply because these are now the ‘hot’ areas, SAM’s Board of Trustees is set to meet Simple: less theory, more practice. It is being and that they are working in this vein simply during the third weekend of September to immersed in an environment with people to improve their chances in the job market. I receive reports from the chairs of our vari- who are deeply passionate not only about have great fears that we may be turning out ous committees, to set policy, and to discuss what they do but also about creating some- people who have all the intellectual tools and and guide the direction of our Society for thing that speaks to “real people.” I don’t training that anyone could hope for, but who the next few years. If any members have a mean just rich people who come to the sym- lack intimate knowledge of – and love for – request or an issue that they want the Board phony hall to show off. In San Francisco we’re the music they write about.” to address, please contact me or any member lucky to have an imaginative music director I am often reminded of Paul’s courageous of the Board. (Michael Tilson Thomas), musicians, and and incisive remarks as I interact with the aca- The Program Committee has complet- administration; consequently, the orchestra demic world. Oddly enough, the recent trend ed its task of choosing the presentations for attracts a diverse, engaged audience. At both in cultural studies, which calls for authors to our thirty-second annual conference (only ends of the relationship is a passionate engage- insert themselves through frequent reference our second time in Texas) in San Antonio ment with music, not just musicology, and a continued on page 47 next spring. Although I have not yet seen the final program, reports from local arrange- ments and the program committee indicate The Bulletin of the Society for American Music that the conference is going to be exciting as well as informative. I hope to see you there The Bulletin is published in the Winter (January), Spring (May), and Summer (September) by during leap year weekend of 2008. the Society for American Music. Copyright 2007 by the Society for American Music, ISSN Finally, our stellar JSAM editor, Ellie 0196-7967. Hisama, is completing her tenure in Spring 2008, with the delivery of the last issue of Editorial Board the second volume of our new journal. The Editor. Sandra Graham ([email protected]) Board is most grateful for the very difficult Reviews Editor. Brian Moon ([email protected]) job she undertook in presiding over the Design and Layout. .Allison Gallant ([email protected]) launching of JSAM. If you are interested in serving as Editor, an exciting but time- Indexer. Laura Pruett ([email protected]) consuming job, please send an e-mail indi- Items for submission should be addressed to Sandra Graham, Music Department, University cating your interest and qualifications by 15 of California, Davis, CA 95616, or, preferably, submitted as an attachment to e-mail.