SEM Newsletter, Volume Fifty
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Volume 50, Number 1 Winter 2016 SEM Newsletter, Volume Fifty Reflections on theSEM Newsletter Gordon Thompson, Skidmore College This issue opens volume 50 of the SEM Newsletter and presents an opportunity to reflect on how this publication has served the SEM. To review that history, past editors Charlotte Frisbie, Jeff Titon, Barbara L. Hampton, Ruth Stone, Laurel Sercombe, Deborah Wong, René Lysloff, Tong Soon Lee, Louise Spear, Nancy Cassell McEntire, and Henry Spiller (as well as Bruno Nettl) have contributed their memories. Unsurprisingly, the history of the SEM Newsletter reveals much about the technological changes of this era, as well as our core cultural values. n December 1953, Alan Merriam mailed the ten-paged Chippewa,” David McAllester’s recordings of “Apache pu- I“ETHNO-MUSICOLOGY Newsletter No. 1” to three berty dance music” and of the “Navaho Blessing Chant,” hundred individuals whom he hoped would “return ad- Alan Merriam’s 38 hours of music from the “Belgian ditional names of scholars, administrators of institutions Congo and Ruanda Urundi,” and Richard Waterman’s interested in the field, and young people just entering it on materials made on a “Magnecorder” with the Yirkalla of the professional level.” This first issue of the Newsletter Australia. The “Notes and News” section provides an explained that in the spring of 1953 a update from Friederich Blume on the letter signed by Manfred F. Bukofzer, challenges of developing comparative Frances Densmore, musicology programs in Mieczyslaw Kolinski, David P. Germany after the exodus of scholars McAllester, Alan P. Merriam, Willard driven out by the Nazis. Other promi- Rhodes, Curt Sachs, Charles Seeger, nent names include Alain Danielou Harold Spivacke, and Richard A. (conducting “research on Sanskrit Waterman had gone to “approximately literature on music, Indian musical seventy interested persons on an theory, and Indian folk music”), A. M. international basis inquiring as to the Jones (“at the present working on the best means of establishing contact.” music of the Ewe people of the Gold From the beginning, the Newsletter Coast”), Bruno Nettl (publishing an functioned as “a vehicle for exchange edited version of his dissertation in of ideas and opinions in order to the Journal of the American Musico- establish a basis for [a] more perma- logical Society), and Willard Rhodes nent organization.” That is, the original (editing ten LPs of North American intents of this publication were not Indian music). Merriam asserted that only to help scholars learn about each Mary Ann Rediske had “The most other and their research but to as- pressing task” of the Newsletter: “the sist in the formation of a society. The compilation of current bibliography,” founders funded the initial issues from followed by a list of record companies the “defunct American Society for Comparative Musicol- issuing their relevant recordings (with ogy” (of which Seeger had been a member) to cover Library of Congress call numbers). mimeographing and posting three issues a year. By the summer of 1954, the Newsletter had expanded The contents of the first Newsletter included news of to 22 mimeographed pages and included a brief account research: we learn about David Ames’ “eight hours of the of relevant papers delivered at the December 1953 meet- music of the Wolof of the Gambia and Senegal,” Gertrude ings of the American Anthropological Association and at a Kurath’s work with the “Sauk, Fox, and Lac du Flambeau March 1954 symposium on the [Continued on page 6] Features Announcements News Our Back Pages President’s Column Prizes Member News Sound Matters President’s Report Committee on Academic Labor Honorary Members Ethnomusicology Today Journal Editor Call Conference Reports Conference Calendar Links The Society for Ethnomusicology, SEM Newsletter Gordon Ross Thompson, Editor, SEM Newsletter SEM Membership Department of Music, Skidmore College he object of the Society for Ethnomusicology is the Saratoga Springs, New York 12866 USA advancement of research and study in the field of (Tel.) 518-580-5322, (fax) 518-580-5340 T ethnomusicology, for which purpose all interested per- [email protected] sons, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual he SEM Newsletter is a vehicle for the exchange of orientation, or physical ability are encouraged to become Tideas, news, and information among the Society’s members. Its aims include serving the membership and members. Readers’ contributions are welcome and should society at large through the dissemination of knowledge be sent to the editor. concerning the music of the world’s peoples. The Society, incorporated in the United States, has an international The Society for Ethnomusicology publishes the SEM membership. Newsletter four times annually in January, March, June, and September, and distributes issues free to members of Members receive free copies of the journal and the the Society. newsletter and have the right to vote and participate in the activities of the Society. Back issues, 1981-present [volumes 14-18 (1981-1984), _______________ 3 times a year; vols. 19-32 (1985-1998), 4 times a year] are available and may be ordered at $2 each. Add $2.50/ Student (full-time only) (one year) ................................$40 order for postage. Individual/Emeritus (one year) Address changes, orders for back issues of the SEM • Income $25,000 or less ........................................... $60 Newsletter, and all other non-editorial inquires should be • Income $25,000-$40,000 .........................................$75 sent to the Business Office, Society for Ethnomusicol- • Income $40,000-$60,000 ......................................... $85 ogy, Indiana University, Morrison Hall 005, 1165 East • Income $60,000-$80,000 ......................................... $95 3rd Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405-3700; 812-855-6672; • Income $80,000 and above .................................. $105 [email protected]. Spouse/Partner Individual (one year) ...........................$35 Society for Ethnomusicology Life membership .......................................................$1400 Spouse/Partner Life ................................................. $1600 Board of Directors Sponsored (one year, including postage) ..................... $49 Anne K. Rasmussen (President) Overseas postage (one year) .......................................$14 Music Department, College of William and Mary Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-8795. For institutional memberships, please visit the University Beverley Diamond (Past President) of Illinois Press website at School of Music, Memorial University http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/ethno.html St Johns, Newfoundland A1C 5S7, Canada. Sonia Seeman (Secretary) Guidelines for Contributors Butler School of Music, University of Texas Email articles and shorter entries for consideration to the Austin, Texas 78712-1555 SEM Newsletter Editor. Eliot Bates (Treasurer) Copy deadlines: Music Department, University of Birmingham Winter Issue (15 Dec.) Summer Issue (15 May) Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom Spring Issue (15 Feb.) Fall Issue (15 Aug.) Travis Jackson (First Vice President) Department of Music, University of Chicago Advertising Rates Chicago, Illinois 60637 The Newsletter accepts digital files (e.g., jpg) for advertis- ing. Sean Williams (Second Vice President) The Evergreen State College Full page: $200 1/3 page: $60 Olympia, WA 98505-0001 2/3 page: $145 1/6 page: $40 Gabriel Solis (Member-at-Large, Prizes) 1/2 page: $110 School of Music, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1114 W. Nevada St, Urbana, IL 61801 Ethnomusicology: Back Issues Ethnomusicology, the Society’s journal, is currently Sarah Weiss (Member-at-Large, Groups) published three times a year. Back issues are available Yale NUS College, 16 College Ave. West through the SEM Business Office, Indiana University East #01-220 Singapore 138527 3rd Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-3700; 812-855-6672; [email protected]. ISSN 0036-1291 2 President’s Column From Tenure Track to ALT-AC: Thinking Forward toward Alternatives for Ethnomusicologists within, alongside, and outside the Academy Anne Rasmussen, SEM President or my first column as SEM President, I thought I might 2013 focused on the “Political Economy of Musical Labor,” Ftake the opportunity to describe how the Society looks the second in 2014 concerned “Intangible Cultural Heri- like from my perch. Having served on the SEM Board as tage,” and the third iteration—organized by current Sec- second vice president beginning in 2012, I have wit- ond VP Sean Williams—dealt with “Intellectual Property.” nessed extraordinary developments in our Society. Some Our 2016 panel, again organized by Sean, will focus on of these changes, initiatives, and projects are conse- “Ethnomusicology and the Public Interest.” And finally, quences of growing sentiments among the membership the theme of our preconference, hosted by the American while others are due to the more calculated designs of Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, is “Ethnomu- initiatives emanating from the Society’s infrastructure: our sicology in the Public Sector.” All of this programming committees, sections, SIGs, and Board, and the SEM’s planned for the 2016 SEM Conference in Washington DC Strategic Plan for 2010-2015. I want emphasizes the importance and the to comment on a just a few intersect- potential of ethnomusicology beyond ing trends in our Society—develop- the academy. And while we wait impa- ments that constitute significant