AMS Newsletter February 2007
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AMS NEWSLETTER THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY CONSTITUENT MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES VOLUME XXXVII, NUMBER 1 February, ISSN 0402-012X AMS Quebec City 2007: OPUS CAMPAIGN WINS $1.2 MILLION Bring your tuque! NEH CHALLENGE GRANT www.ams-net.org/quebec In December , the AMS was awarded words, we must raise $, over the next a prestigious Challenge Grant from the Na- three years. Of the $. million that the OPUS Soyez les bienvenues à Québec! The annual tional Endowment for the Humanities in Campaign has received or been pledged to AMS meeting for will return to Can- support of our publication activities. Our date, $, qualifies for the match. Clear- ada from to November at one of the application, entitled “Publishing Musical ly, then, we need to push that figure much most charming and acceuillant places in Scholarship in the Twenty-first Century,” was higher, and to do this will require the full in- North America, Quebec City, founded in crafted by members of the Publications and volvement of the entire Society. by Samuel de Champlain. Images of OPUS Campaign committees, led by Graeme On other important fronts in the OPUS Canada from south of the forty-ninth par- Boone (see the summary at the OPUS Web Campaign, three new publication funds have allel conjure up visions of a frozen (or Great site). The NEH deemed it “a flat-out success”; been established in the last six months in White) North, but the reality is that winter reviewers found it “compelling” and praised honor of four outstanding scholars and pub- lishers of music: Barry and Claire Brook (for (and it won’t be winter officially anyway) the Society’s “outstanding endeavors in the publication and research on musical iconog- humanities.” is Canada’s signature season. Quebec City raphy), John Daverio (for book publication, The choice of publication-related activities is a lovely and warm place to visit at that unrestricted ), and Margarita Hanson (for as a focus for the application underscores the time of year, with a world-famous tradition publication of books on music or musical cul- central role of publications in the life of the of gastronomie, a lively and distinct cultural ture prior to ). In December , The AMS as well as challenges now affecting the scene, and lots to do with kids and families Jan LaRue Fund (supporting musicological publishing world. Foremost among these, of as well (I recommend dog sledding). research) cleared its first hurdle by reaching course, are increasing production costs, diver- With the warnings about global warm- $,. The first OPUS Giveaway Contests sifying fields of specialization, increased pres- were held last fall, thanks to Oxford Univer- ing becoming more credible by the day, I sure on younger scholars, and the advance of am wary about providing a forecast of the sity Press, which kindly donated copies of digital technologies. Our Challenge Grant, Richard Taruskin’s Oxford History of Western weather, which typically ranges from -° to once fully funded, should go a long way to- Music and other premier publications. Inau- ° C ( ° to ° F) in November. Suffice it ward alleviating these issues. gural winners were the Eastman School of to say that you should pack a coat, scarf, Only the second NEH Challenge Grant in Music/University of Rochester, Anne Dhu mittens, non-Italian shoes, and most im- the history of the AMS (the first established McLucas, and Joanne Swenson-Eldridge. portantly, your tuque, which is particularly the Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation As always, the OPUS Committee thanks evocative of French Canada and will keep Year Fellowships in ), the award will help every member of the Society who has given in you warm. the AMS accomplish four things: ) establish a the past year. Nota bene, however: the award- new subvention program, the AMS 75 Pub- ing of the NEH Challenge Grant signals that continued on page lication Award for Younger Scholars (“AMS OPUS has now entered a new phase. This 75 PAYS”), to support the publication of first exceptional opportunity will bring us rich In This Issue… books by recent PhDs; ) increase the fund- rewards for decades to come. But the need ing for our current subvention program; ) for each and every member of the Society to President’s message . help further finance the AMS Studies series, embrace our common cause has never been Exectutive Director’s report . allowing publication support for up to two greater. If we are to achieve the success we all Treasurer’s Report . books per year; and ) create a new annual hope for—if we are to live up to the confi- New OPUS Funds . prize, the Music in American Culture Award, dence that the NEH has shown in us—we News from the AMS Board . honoring books that illuminate some aspect must all participate. Help us reach our goal Awards, Prizes, Honors . of American music in its cultural context. by going to the Web site today and giving AMS Elections . OPUS ! It will be obvious to one and all that the generously to Committee Reports. —Anne Walters Robertson NEH Challenge Grant is exactly that: we are Conferences, News Briefs . and D. Kern Holoman issued a challenge to match, by to , the Papers read at Chapter Meetings . www.ams-net.org/opus Obituaries . $ , that the NEH has offered. In other –– President’s Message I am confident that anyone who attended I found especially gratifying. One was the whom deserve our heartfelt thanks. Finally, the joint meeting of AMS and SMT in participation of what seemed to be a larger- I take pleasure in expressing our profound Los Angeles came away from it impressed than-usual number of students. At both the gratitude to Elaine Sisman, who has pro- with the diversity, vitality, and dynamism reception held by the Committee on Cul- vided exemplary and inspiring leadership to of both societies. It was a model of schol- tural Diversity and the student reception the Society for the past two years. arly collaboration, with a number of richly hosted by AMS OPUS on Thursday night, It will have become clear from the de- stimulating joint sessions as well as a broad the turnout and the level of excitement scription above that the Annual Meeting, array of proprietary ones, complemented were high—a far cry from the early years like musicology itself, is a beautiful, stimu- by an assortment of noontime and evening of formal student events at AMS meetings. lating, and exciting world of its own. Un- concerts. The variety and quality of the pa- Those at the student reception, organized by fortunately, we were reminded that there is pers was striking, ranging geographically three of our student members, were treated a real world surrounding us that is not so from the United States to Iraq and chrono- to remarks by Anne Walters Robertson, bright as ours. As Elaine Sisman announced logically from the Middle Ages to today, Elaine Sisman, and Kern Holoman about at the Business Meeting and Awards Cer- and the concerts and other performances what AMS and the OPUS Campaign mean emony, one of our members, a citizen of the were marked by exciting music-making. to them. Anne’s placing the Campaign in United Kingdom, had not only been pre- Congratulations and sincere thanks to the perspective for the students was especially vented from attending the Annual Meeting, program committees for the AMS, chaired memorable: AMS 50 was the Society’s leg- where she was scheduled to read a paper, by Anne Shreffler, and the SMT, chaired by acy to us (we being the “senior” members); but without explanation had been refused Henry Martin, together with the Perfor- AMS 75 is our legacy to them; AMS entry into the country this past August mance Committee, chaired by Elisabeth Le will be their legacy to succeeding genera- upon returning to her teaching position in Guin. We owe a special word of thanks to tions. Anne’s invocation of the continuity the United States. Her visa was summar- the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicolo- of musical scholarship was brought home ily revoked and she was forced to return to gy and its chair, Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, in a particularly beautiful way during the the United Kingdom; to date, she has still for their support of the concert “Music of Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony not received any explanation for our gov- the Middle East, Balkans, and Brazil,” and on Saturday, when honorary membership ernment’s actions. We on the Board were to those institutions and individuals who was conferred upon Reinhold Brinkman, shocked by what seems to us an abrogation made the session on “Performing Mozart” Frank D’Accone, Samuel Floyd, and David of individual rights and free scholarly ex- possible. These were wonderful events that Hughes, and corresponding membership change. Accordingly, on November we helped give the meeting a distinctive flavor. upon Bonnie Blackburn, Hermann Danus- sent a letter to the U.S. State Department, er, and Don Harrán, all of them giants in to the U.S. Consulate in London, and to . a beautiful, stimulating, and the field who have trained many scholars the appropriate legislative representatives in exciting world of its own of the younger generation. For me, at least, Washington, expressing our profound con- that was a very special moment. sternation and anxiety over the treatment That was not the only one, though, in of one of our members. As yet no action has The fact that the papers, concerts, and an event that seemed to contain more been taken. I am sure that I speak for all of other events took place in such an elegant than its share of high points, among them us, though, in expressing our deep concern venue as the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Elaine Sisman’s announcement of the new about the status of our colleague and our Hotel could, of course, only contribute Ruth A.