modernism: the bulletin · 2018-07-09 · modernism: music in vanity fair, 1914-1925 —mary e....

ContentsArticles

Continuity and Change in the Hoboken, Georgia Sacred Harp Tradition ..........................33Fashioning Modernism: Music in Vanity Fair, 1914-1925 ....................................................33Voices of a Nation: Reflections of World War I in American Magazine Music ....................41Steel Away: The Sacred Steel Guitar Tradition of African-American House of God Churches in South Carolina ........................................45Lillie C. Phillips of the Hutchinson Family Singers ..............................................................59The Advent of Music Festivals in Late 19th-Century Petersburg, Virginia ..........................61

DepartmentsReport from the Conference ................................................................................................49Letter from Britain from America..........................................................................................55Performances of Note ..........................................................................................................56Report from the ACLS Meeting ............................................................................................58News of the Society ..............................................................................................................64Bulletin Board ......................................................................................................................69Conferences ..........................................................................................................................72

Reviews of Recorded Materials ..............................................................................................73Reviews of Books ......................................................................................................................76Obituaries ..................................................................................................................................82Some Recent Articles and Reviews ........................................................................................83

In an era of increased globalization, tech-nology, and change, the classic homoge-neous folk region seems increasingly

anachronistic. Yet, the Okefenokee envi-rons of southeast Georgia is a folk region inthe classic sense of the word, shaped byCeltic ethnicity, geographic isolation, andPrimitive Baptist religion, and still retaininga strong sense of place and identity. One ofthe region’s defining folk repertoires is aregional variant of sacred harp singing thatdates at least to the 1850s and is stylisticallyclosely tied to hymnody of the Primitive

The BulletinVol. XXVI, No. 2/3 Summer/Fall 2000

—Laurie Kay SommersValdosta State University

OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSICFOUNDED IN HONOR OF OSCAR G. T. SONNECK

Baptist church. Once a widespread andnondenominational feature of Okefenokeeregion community life, by 1990 this localsacred harp tradition had become increas-ingly threatened by factionalism within thelocal Crawfordite sub-sect of PrimitiveBaptists. This paper discusses the bound-aries of a local music community throughthe remarkable and still emerging story ofa local tradition “going public” as cousinsand song leaders David and Clarke Lee ofHoboken, Georgia spearhead a deliberateeffort to open up and change Hoboken-style singing in order to save it.

The Lees are at least fifth generationsacred harp singers who continue a tradi-tion that dominated their community socialand spiritual life for well over a century. Dueto religious beliefs that encouraged exclu-

Continuity and Change in theHoboken, Georgia Sacred Harp Tradition1

In January 1914 the first issue of VanityFair landed with a flourish on newsstandsaround the country. Previously known asDress and Vanity Fair, the magazinesignaled with its change of title a shift infocus. No longer would clothing andwomen’s fashions be its primary concern;instead, the magazine would devote itselfto matters of style, considered broadly.Stated in simple terms in the inaugural edito-rial, Vanity Fair’s mission would be to covertheater, literature, art, and the outdoors, aswell as “the most interesting doings of themost interesting people.”1 The magazine,redesigned to appeal to both men andwomen, sought to be substantive, sugges-tive, and trend setting—in short, offering aprescription for a new brand of Americansociety chic. While not explicitly cited aspart of this program, a sophisticated tastefor music was understood to be an essen-tial ingredient of the Vanity Fair good life,and accordingly, the reader was offered aguide to the most important—in otherwords, most stylish—composers and theirworks. Magazine culture, premised ondisposability and constant change, dictatedthat such stylishness be equated with

FashioningModernism:Music in VanityFair, 1914-1925

—Mary E. DavisCase Western Reserve University

Figure 1. David I. Lee, with his cousin Clarke Lee,has spearheaded a revitalization of sacred harpsinging tradition. Credit: Laurie Kay Sommers.

continued on page 37continued on page 34

sive in-group singing and discouragedconsumption of the mass media, untilrecently many Crawfordite Primitive Baptistsdid not realize that other people sang sacredharp. As David Lee explained at a singingschool held in Seattle, 1998: “Until three-and-one-half years ago we had never sungwith anybody else outside Hoboken . . . andhad no concept that there was anybodyelse. We actually had the feeling that we wasthe last ones on earth that sang sacred harp.We had no idea how mistaken we was!”2

A man now in his mid-forties, Davidgrew up without radio, television, ormotion pictures. This remarkableisolation is dramatized by the fact thathe bought his first television thewinter of 1997, and that was only toplay videos of sacred harp sings. Hismusical world was confined primar-ily to the a cappella group singingtraditions of sacred harp and thePrimitive Baptist meeting house. Thisisolation from other musical traditionsand from what David calls “main-stream sacred harp” had led to theformation of a distinctive regionalstyle closely related to PrimitiveBaptist hymn singing traditions.Hymn texts are drawn from PrimitiveHymns by Benjamin Lloyd, an 1841 compi-lation of words only (hence the term “word-book” for the hymnal) organized accordingto topic, which reflect Primitive Baptist beliefand discipline. Crawfordites use the “700”hymn version as opposed to the more

widely adopted “705” in deference to theold ways. The Lloyd hymnal contains notunes; instead, the texts are sung to memo-rized sacred harp tunes in the appropriatemeter. Tempos in general are quite slow,allowing the singers time to meditate on thetext and to add spontaneous and largelyunselfconscious ornamentation, which theLees call “transitioning” from one note tothe next.

Sacred harp singing in this tradition,although never part of a church service, isclosely intertwined with hymn singing,featuring similar slow tempos, low starting

pitches, and ornamentation. Singerscurrently use the B.F. White revised Cooperedition of the sacred harp “notebook,” as itis termed; other books have been used inthe past but always with four- rather thanseven-shape versions of sacred harp nota-

tion. The ornamentation of Hoboken-styleperformance practice is unusual amongsacred harp singers, and is facilitated by theslower tempos favored in South Georgia.As David Lee puts it,

You add those extra notes on purpose,because it’d be mighty spare and drywithout it. So you get a whole different tuneout of it....I think the page is restrictive....You can use that as a guide. The notes inthat book is like a skeleton. When you havea complete skeleton you still don’t haveperson, and when you got just them notesyou still don’t have a song. You got to fleshit out....And I think that’s where thatornamentation is. We put that stuff inautomatically and do it all the time.3

Much of the singing was done from memoryat family gatherings, outside formal commu-nity sings and singing schools, further foster-ing a fluid orally transmitted tradition, ratherthan strict adherence to the printed page.

Other distinctive features of this traditioninclude a deeply felt spirituality, whichJohnny Lee, David’s father, calls the “innermusic” that touches the soul as well as theear,”4 walking time in a counter-clockwisefashion according to the meter of the tune,and use of the drone. The “drone” is ahuman bagpipe involving a core of six toeight singers standing in the center of theroom singing all three parts of the sacredharp harmonization. Three circles of singers,composed respectively of bass, treble, andtenor, surround the core group. Each circledrones either the tonic, dominant, or octaveof the scale. Alto singers were not used in

the drone technique and are arecent addition to the local singingstyle. “Roll On” (275B in the B.F.White revised Cooper Edition) is thestandard drone tune used by David’sgreat-uncle Silas Lee in his singingschools.

This then, was a local musiccommunity that had remainedremarkably self-contained for gener-ations. In 1994, however, everythingchanged. Factionalism within thechurch began affecting thefrequency, the joy, and the sense ofcommunity that had been a hall-mark of local sings. Clarke Lee, the

latest in a line of song leaders, was frustratedand discouraged to the point of abandon-ing the tradition altogether. David Lee hadbeen given Buell Cobb’s book, The SacredHarp5 and wanted to attend one of the singsdescribed, but had no contacts outside his

34 The Bulletin for the Society for American Music • Vol. XXVI, No. 2/3

The Bulletin of the Society for American MusicThe Bulletin is published in the Spring, Summer, and Fall by the Society for American Music.

©Copyright 2000 by the Sonneck Society, ISSN 0196-7967.Editorial BoardEditor, Bulletin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Larry Worster ([email protected])

Philip Todd ([email protected])Book Review Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Petra Meyer-Frazier ([email protected])Record Review Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Orly Leah Krasner ([email protected])Bibliographer . . . . . . . . . .Joice Waterhouse Gibson ([email protected])Indexer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Amy C. Beal ([email protected])Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . .Joice Waterhouse Gibson ([email protected])

Articles for submission, accompanied by a 100-word biographical statement, should be addressedto Phil Todd, SAM Bulletin, P.O.Box 2456, Shawnee, OK 74804; text to [email protected], files [email protected]. All materials should be submitted in double-spaced printed copy, on a three-and-one-half inch disk, or as an attachment to e-mail. Microsoft Word 6.0 and Wordperfect 5.1 arethe recommended file formats. Photographs, musical examples, or other graphical materials shouldbe accompanied by captions and desired location in the text. Deadlines for submission of materialsare 15 January, 15 May, and 15 September. In general, the Bulletin follows the styles given in TheChicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Inquiries concerning book reviews should be sent to Petra Meyer-Frazier, 2414 Steele St., Denver,CO 80210; [email protected]. Inquiries concerning reviews of recorded material should be sentto Orly Leah Krasner, 30-29 49th St., Apt. 2S, Long Island City, NY 11103; [email protected].

“Hoboken” continued from page 33

Figure 2. A monthly sing at the Hoboken Elementary School. Photo Credit: Laurie Kay Sommers.

The Bulletin for the Society for American Music • Vol. XXVI, No. 2/3 35

community.6 Then in June of 1994, Clarkereceived an invitation to a sing inTallahassee; upon request from aTallahassee sing organizer, the shippingagent for sacred harp books had forwardednames of those in the area who had orderedbooks, including Clarke’s. As David said,“We got our eyes opened to what sacredharp could be. And reminded us of what itused to be.”7 A year later they held their firstpublic sing in a local Missionary BaptistChurch and began an experiment designedto save a precious and dying traditionthrough a deliberate plan of revitalizationand change.

Within the next year the Lees attendedsings throughout Alabama, Georgia, andFlorida. The sings filled a void—recreatingthe fellowship and joy of singing they hadexperienced growing up. “This is what wewere used to, this is what we’ve been miss-ing,” David said, “to go to these sacred harpsings.”8 Around the same time and unbe-knownst to the Lees, copies of a bootlegtape of a Lee family sing, originally givenby a family member to John Garst, one ofhis professors at the University of Georgiaand co-editor of The Social Harp, had prolif-erated through the national network ofsacred harp singers. Singers around thecountry were captivated by the sound. Asdescribed by Minnesota singer KeithWillard, “The voices heard were clearlyextraordinary and in a style different fromany we had previously heard. It seemed tobe from another world.”9 They knew thetape came from near Waycross, Georgia, butwere hesitant to intrude on what seemed aprivate, in-group tradition.

After the Lees initial foray to an outsidesing, however, members of the Lee familybegan to invite other singers to Hoboken.Many in the national sacred harp commu-nity wanted to visit Hoboken and experi-ence the tradition first-hand. The first all-day sing in fifty years was held in theHoboken School in December 1996 andincluded visitors from eight states. In Marchof 1999, singers from over twenty-eightstates attended the All-Day Sing at HobokenSchool. At most regular monthly sings inHoboken, a member of the Lee familyhosted out-of-town guests. At the last all-day sing, guests exceeded locals. The result-ing influx of visitors has both changed andspread the isolated Hoboken tradition.

Since 1994, when the Lees first “raisedthe tent flap and peeked out,” their worldhas changed dramatically.10 This is not grad-

ual, unselfconscious change; rather,Hoboken’s emergence onto the nationalsacred harp scene is both intentional and,among Crawfordite Primitive Baptists, highlycontroversial. At home, the Lees have beenthrown out of their church because of their“new style” sacred harp. Nationally, theirinteraction with other sacred harp musiccommunities has involved trips to singspractically every weekend. A search of the

fasola.org web page for “Hoboken” in thefall of 1999 produced seven hits, includingtwo CDs, a video of the singing school givenin Seattle, and a map with directors to theHoboken school. Since 1996, the Lees havereceived invitations from groups in Chicago,Seattle, Minneapolis, and Washington D.C.to lead singing schools on “Hoboken style.”

The Society for American MusicThe Society for American Music promotes research, educational projects, and the dissemination

of information concerning all subjects and periods embraced by the field of music in American life.Individual and institutional members receive the quarterly journal American Music, the Bulletin, andthe annotated Membership Directory. Direct all inquires to The Society for American Music, PO Box476. Canton, MA 02021; (617) 828-8450; [email protected].

Officers of the Society, 2000-2001President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rae Linda BrownPresident-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Paul F. WellsVice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mark TuckerSecretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Katherine PrestonTreasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .William EverettMembers-at-large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Judy Tsou, Michael Broyles, Linda Pohly,

Nym Cooke, Marva G. Carter, Emily GoodEditor, American Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Robert Walser

David Nicholls (2001-2004)Editor, Bulletin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Larry Worster

Philip Todd (2001-2003)Editor, Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kate and Robert M. KellerExecutive Director . . . . . . . . . .Kate Van Winkle Keller; as of 1 July: Mariana WhitmerConference Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .James Hines

Standing Committee Chairs:American Music Network: Cheryl Taranto; Education: Deane L. Root; Finance: N. Lee Orr; Long-

Range Planning: Rae Linda Brown; Development: James P. Cassaro; Dissertation Award: Ralph Locke;Honors and Awards: George Keck; Lowens Award: 1999: N. Lee Orr, book; Kim Kowalke, article;Dissertation: 1998 completion: Ralph Locke; 1999 completion: Catherine P. Smith; Membership:Marilynn Smiley; Conference Site Selection: Kay Norton; Nominating: Ann Sears; Public Relations:Homer Rudolf; Book Publications: Lenore Coral; Non-print publications: Mary Jane Corry; SilentAuction: Dianna Eiland; Publications: Anne Dhu McLucas; On-line Resources: Robert M. Keller;Cultural Diversity: Tammy L. Kernodle

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American Music: Judith McCulloh; US-RILM Representative: Denise Von Glahn; Registered Agent forthe District of Columbia, Cyrilla Barr; Interest Group Coordinator: Judy Tsou; Representatives toToronto-2000: Katherine K. Preston, Kate Van Winkle Keller

Interest Groups:American Band History Research: Phyllis Danner; American Music in American Schools and

Colleges: James V. Worman; Folk and Traditional Music: Ron Pen; Gospel and Church Music: EstherRothenbusch and Roxanne Reed; Music of Latin America and the Caribbean: John Koegel; MusicalBiography: Adrienne Fried Block; Musical Theatre: Paul R. Laird; Popular Music: Kristen K. Stauffer,Philip Todd; Research on Gender and American Music: Petra Meyer-Frazier and Liane Curtis; ResearchResources: George Boziwick; 20th-Century Music: David Patterson; Historiography: Paul Charosh;Student: Renee Camus, Rebecca A. Bryant; 18th-Century Music: David Hildebrand

Listserv: [email protected]: http://www.american-music.org

Annual Conferences27th Annual Conference: 23-26 May 2001; Trinidad, Port of Spain, in conjunction with the

Center for Black Music Research; Johann Buis, Program Chair; Kate Keller and Jim Hines, LocalArrangements Chairs

28th Annual Conference: 6-10 March 2002; Lexington, KY; Susan Cook, Program CommitteeChair; Ron Pen, Local Arrangements Chair

American Music MonthAmerican Music Month is the month of November.

continued on page 36


Inviting traditional singers to lead singingschools is not a new approach for manynorthern sacred harp conventions, but itwas new for the Lees, pushing them tobecome articulate and self-conscious aboutthe hallmarks of their unique style.As Johnny Lee remarks, “We wereasked about our style of singing,how did we do it, could we show orteach them, etc. and we were at atotal loss to understand. We weren’tdoing anything but singing.”11 Now,discussions of style occur not just atsings, but also over e-mail discus-sion lists where they are forwardedaround the country.12

The Lees are prepared to give uppart of the Hoboken sound inexchange for the survival of a tradition thatfor them was a way of life. They are delib-erately phasing out stylistic features thatmade Hoboken sacred harp unique as partof their strategy in order to attract more localpeople to the tradition. Ironically, the very“Hoboken sound” that so fascinated thenational sacred harp community is nolonger heard at the monthly Hoboken sing.Visiting singers, sitting next to certain localsingers, can still apprentice the style, but theHoboken sound is more likely to occur atan informal home sing after the public singin the school. Singing schools still take placein Hoboken, and David and Clarke stillteach “walking time,” for example, but theother stylistic hallmarks of the “oldstyle” sacred harp, as David nowcalls it, are no longer taught inHoboken. To learn Hoboken style,one needs to attend one of the“Hoboken style” singing schools heldout of town. There, one may betreated to a demonstration of thedrone, for example, which has nottaken place in Hoboken for sometwenty years.

New style Hoboken sacred harpdraws on approaches learned fromAlabama singers. Tempos are speed-ing up, song pitch is higher, andthere is less and less time for orna-mentation even among those whoknow how to do it. Fewer people walktime, and instead of a single song leader (ashas long been the case in Hoboken), a newleader or leaders stand in the center of thesquare for each selection.

Various people have urged the Lees notto change. For David Lee, this is not anoption.

This sacred harp is a living tradition. Andbecause it’s a living tradition it’s going tochange and evolve. . . . Now what happenedwas there’s a few people that want to stoptime, and you can’t do that. That’s whathappened to our sing. We tried to go ahead,and there was this struggle. You have to

move ahead, because the alternative is todie. I don’t feel like we’re losing anything.Hoboken is changing its voice. Now we stillwalk time to some of our songs. Our peopledown here are accustomed to that. We alsohave certain tempos and certain ways thatwe sing particular songs, and we understandhow we do that. I think Hoboken still has avoice, but I think that voice is different thanit was 20 years ago. I regret that. Thesentimentalist in me regrets that. But on amore practical level, I want to see thistradition continue. And if I don’t try to helpit thrive and survive, if we all depend onsomeone else to do it, it doesn’t get done.13

The mass media always have been amechanism to transmit local music stylesacross boundaries, and a means to changelocalized and regional traditions that devel-oped in comparative isolation before theadvent of radio, the recording industry, andtelevision. Today, the Internet creates virtualcommunities, separated by time and space,

and permeates the boundaries of the local.Southeast Georgia sacred harp, stylisticallyisolated until the mid-1990s, must now bemapped with lines of diffusion spreadingto all parts of the country. “Hobokenstyle”—a concept created only after contact

with outside singers—is no longerconfined to a particular place eventhough its new name links it to thatplace. Outsiders come to the “home”of Hoboken style in hopes of expe-riencing this magical, different soundfirst hand. But Hoboken is soundingmore and more like Alabama. Seattleand Minneapolis sound more likeHoboken than does Hoboken itself.

This case study illustrates the needfor new concepts of music commu-nity, region, and place. The Internet

is now a place which creates music commu-nities: a “web site” is a “place” that helpssituate the local, define it, change it and inte-grate it with other localities as much as doolder forms of mass communication. Thetransformation of this very local musiccommunity began with face-to-face discordat home, but then went through succeed-ing waves of contact through print media,sound recording technology, the Internet,interspersed with more face-to-face commu-nication. The emergence of this sacred harptradition on the national scene is a casestudy in musical hybridity and change, withthe key players actually tracing the momentsand sources of that change as it happened.

Ethnomusicologists often feel thatthey would like to stop the clock andsee the “old styles” retained. Theexamination of the change in thisremarkable tradition and the wordsof its advocates and practitionerspoints out that with change comesretention. What the Lees retain atHoboken is not Hoboken sound butHoboken “feel.” Their gift to manyof their new sacred harp friends, totheir children, and to those residentsof southeast Georgia who arecoming back to a tradition they hadabandoned, is the focus on thesacred in sacred harp. As Clarke Leesays, “We didn’t sing as a tradition or

a ritual or whatever the word would be. Wesang for the spiritualism that’s found in thetext and the melodies of these songs.”14 Forthe Lees, sacred harp is a God-inspiredwork. And this feeling—“singing from theheart”—is still central to Hoboken sings.

Figure 3. Singing School in Hoboken led by David Lee (standing,right). Photo Credit: Laurie Kay Sommers.


“The voices heard

were clearly extraordinary

and in a style different from any

we had previously heard.

It seemed to be from another world.”

—Keith Willlard



modernity; thus Vanity Fair, as one of thenation’s premier upscale periodicals,presented in its pages nothing short of aproposed canon of musical modernism. Theshaping of that canon, and the implicationsit held for the understanding of contempo-rary music in America during the firstdecades of the twentieth century will be thesubject of this essay.

The brainchild of the legendary publisherCondé Nast, Vanity Fair was a magazinewith a mission. Nast, having first salvagedCollier’s Magazine from almost certainfinancial ruin in the 1890s, took the boldstep of purchasing Vogue, one of the earli-est and most elitist women’s fashion maga-zines, in 1909. While its subscription listincluded some of the richest and mostsocially prominent women in New York,Vogue at the time of Nast’s purchase wasfoundering, with falling readership anddeclining advertising sales. Within twoyears, Nast had turned it around, trans-forming it from a dignified weekly focusedon the American aristocracy into a fort-nightly journal emphasizing the wealth,glamour, and social ambition that definedtwentieth-century high society.2 The newVogue featured a glittering mix of fashionand social news as well as an expandedadvertising section, providing the means forreaders to acquire the products and servicestouted in its articles and editorial columns.

Nast’s strategies for content and adver-tising in Vogue were part of his largerconception for magazine development,which he spelled out in a 1913 articletellingly entitled “Class Publications.”3 Nastminced no words about his objectives:

Even if we grant for the sake of argumentthat “all men are created equal,” as theDeclaration of Independence so bravely setsforth, we must admit in the same breath thatthey overcome this equality with astonishingrapidity. Among the 90 million inhabitantsof the United States, as a matter of fact, thereis a lack of “equality”—a range and varietyof man and womankind—that simplystaggers the imagination; every degree oflearning from the man who prefers to readhis Testament in the original Greek to theman who can’t read anything in anylanguage. . . . This vast population dividesitself not only along the lines of wealth,education, and refinement, but classifiesitself even more strongly along the lines ofinterest. . . .[A magazine’s] publisher, editor,advertising manager and circulation manmust conspire not only to get all theirreaders from the one particular class to

which the magazine is dedicated, butrigorously to exclude all others.

For Nast, of course, the only class worthbothering about was the upper class, andhis target was not simply those alreadyensconced in society, but those who aspiredto it. On the pages of Vogue, his prototypi-cal class publication, Nast both reflected andshaped the idea of uppercrust America inmatters of fashion and social taste. Theextension of these principles to the broaderrealms of culture, including the arts andinternational news, was the task set for themagazine Nast launched on the heels of hismanifesto on class publications, Vanity Fair.

Vanity Fair emerged out of Dress maga-zine, which Nast had perceived as a rival toVogue and thus purchased in 1913.Dissatisfied with the title, he also purchasedthe rights to the name Vanity Fair; the firstissue of Dress and Vanity Fair, containingarticles on fashion, art, music, and interna-tional news, appeared in September 1913.In March 1914, a new editor, FrankCrowninshield, took the helm, insisting thatthe magazine’s named be shortened toVanity Fair, and announcing a newprogram for the publication, based in chron-icling “the stage, the arts, the world of letters,sport . . . from the frankly cheerful angle ofthe optimist or . . .from the mock-cheerfulangle of the satirist.”4 Crowninshield’s attrac-tion to humor was matched by his involve-ment with modernist music and visual art;he was instrumental in founding theMuseum of Modern Art in 1929, and had apersonal art collection that included worksby Georges Braque, André Dunoyer deSegonzac, and Marie Laurencin.5

Crowninshield’s modernist streak andNast’s elitist marketing strategies combinedto set a high-minded but lighthearted tonefor Vanity Fair. Opulent and elegant, themagazine featured articles and criticism bythe best writers of the day, cutting-edgereports on the arts from major European andAmerican cities, and in Crowninshield’swords, coverage of “the things people talkabout.”6 Behind it all lurked Nast’s convic-tion that the new American upper classshould look in one direction only for amodel—namely, to France.

Nast’s attraction to France was deeplyrooted. He was, in fact, part French himself.His mother came from a long line of Frencharistocrats, as did his first wife, ClarisseCoudert Nast.7 His view of sophisticatedculture and good taste was, from an earlyage, shaped by French values, and, in his

“Vanity Fair” continued from page 33professional life, he wasted no time in find-ing French publications that could serve asmodels for his own magazines. With Vogue,Nast ruled a publication specifically gearedto promoting French culture. It was, afterall, a fashion magazine, and fashion wasdominated completely, at least through the1950s, by French couturiers.8 To strengthenthe identification his magazine with Gallicchic, Nast allied himself with one of themost original publishers in the French fash-ion press, Lucien Vogel, whose elegant andexpensive fashion journal La Gazette duBon Ton announced on its masthead cover-age of “arts, modes, et frivolities.”9

Not simply a journal of fashion and soci-ety, however, the Gazette du Bon Ton alsoincluded extensive coverage of the arts andculture. On this side of the ocean, Nastspread the Gazette’s material between twomagazines, with Vogue handling the fash-ion matters, and Vanity Fair covering therest. The latter magazine’s pro-French tonewas explicit, especially as the First WorldWar dragged on. Typical were the articles“Dropping Bombs on the Boches,”10

complete with photographs from the front,and the “What We Owe to France—A Debtthat Cannot be Measured in Terms of Moneyor Munitions.”11 Beyond the political agenda,and more important to Nast, was the culturalprogram. Here it was a simple matter ofmaneuvering to bring French artists to thefore. Nowhere is this effort more transpar-ent than in the area of music.

In its earliest issues Vanity Fair empha-sized the merits of American popular music.An unsigned article in the July 1914 issue,for example, celebrated the works ofGeorge M. Cohan,12 while a more elaborateessay on Cohen by Carl Van Vechtenpublished in April 1917 announced “TheGreat American Composer,” noting in asubtitle “His Grandparents are the PresentWriters of Our Popular Ragtime Songs.”13

Favorably citing Louis Hirsch, EdwardClaypoole, and Irving Berlin, among others,Van Vechten’s piece is a speculation on thefuture of American music:

When some curious critic, a hundred yearshence, searches through the availablearchives in an attempt to discover what wasthe state of American Music at the beginningof the Twentieth century, do you fancy thathe will take the trouble to exhume and diginto the ponderous scores of Henry Hadley,Arthur Foote, Ernest Schelling, GeorgeChadwick, Horatio Parker, and the rest ofthe recognizidely “important” composers of

Continued on page 38


the present day? . . . A plethora of books andarticles on the subject will cause him towonder why so much bother was madeabout Edward MacDowell . . . But if he islucky enough to run across copies ofWaiting for the Robert E. Lee, Alexander’sRagtime Band, or Hello Frisco, his face willlight up . . . and he will try to find out,probably in vain (unless he unearths a copyof this article in some public library)something about the composers Muir,Berlin, and Hirsch, the true grandfathers ofthe Great American Composer of the year2001.

Van Vechten’s attraction to popu-lar music, which he describes as “theonly music produced in Americatoday which is worth the paper it’swritten on,” is rooted in his convic-tion that, as he puts it, “overlookingthe fact that their music is muchpleasanter to listen to . . . [thesecomposers] are expressing the verysoul of the epoch, while their moreserious confreres . . . have nothingnew to say and no particular reasonfor saying it.”14 Ragtime and popularmusic, he argues, offer the means tonew forms and genres, overdue toreplace “symphonies or other worn-out andexhausted forms which belong to anotherage of composition.” Such compositionalchallenges, he notes, have already beentaken up in Europe, where Igor Stravinskyand Erik Satie are working “to expressmodernity in tone, allowing the forms tocreate themselves.” “Alas,” he sighs inconclusion, “none of these men is anAmerican.”15

Only a few months after the publicationof this essay, in September 1917, the focusof musical coverage in Vanity Fair shiftedto France, where popular music’s trans-gression of high art boundaries à la VanVechten’s ideal had reached a climacticpoint. The ballet Parade, with scenario byJean Cocteau, sets and costumes by Picasso,choreography by Massine, and music bySatie had caused an uproar in Paris theprevious May precisely because of its impli-cation of popular culture materials, includ-ing music. It was a coup, then, for Nast topublish scant months afterward an articleby Cocteau himself, explaining the work insome detail.16 An editorial reported thatSatie, leader of the Futurist musicians,Picasso, leader of the Cubist artists, and thepoet Cocteau, had sparked a Parisian “fury”

with the ballet, and Cocteau whettedAmerican appetites with the claim thatParade had turned “half the artistic publicof Paris against the other” primarily becauseof its lighthearted and mundane represen-tation of everyday life. For Vanity Fair’sreaders, he provided a précis of the open-ing night performance, describing thecostumes and scenery, as well as the clap-ping and hooting, hissing and fistfights thatthe work provoked in the audience.Photographs of the costumed characters,including the two-man horse reported in a

caption to have Parisians “still fighting furi-ously,” rounded out the report. Cocteaureserved comment on Satie’s music for theend of his essay, praising his clear andnatural orchestration, his “purest rhythms”and “frankest melodies.” But the essay’smost trenchant remarks about musicconcern the manner in which Satie usespopular idioms to infuse the score with amodernist sensibility. In Parade, Cocteauasserts, “two melodic planes are superim-posed,” and “without dissonance” Satie“seems to marry the racket of a cheapmusic-hall with the dreams of children, andthe dreams and murmur of the ocean.”17

Six months later Satie was directly in theVanity Fair spotlight, where he wouldremain until 1925, the year of his death. InMarch 1918, Van Vechten produced alengthy profile of the composer, entitled“Erik Satie: Master of the Rigolo, A FrenchExtremist in Modern Music,” which ran witha photograph and a caption describing himas “a Modernist of the most radical type.”18

Reeling in readers with the report that “hehas been the fashion in France and is rapidlybecoming so in America,” Van Vechtenpresented the first major English-languageoverview of the Satie’s life and work,

emphasizing his involvements with popu-lar music in the cabarets and cafés ofMontmartre, and commenting on his idio-syncratic use of texts and titles to create newmodes of musical expression. Most signifi-cantly, popular music models had led Satieto set French composers free from thetyranny of major-minor tonality, accordingto Van Vechten, and the scandalous balletParade was simply the latest and most imag-inative showcases of these compositionalideals.19 The irony, charm, simplicity, andclever wit of his compositions seemed

perfectly consistent with the sophis-ticated cultural program that VanityFair had been promoting from theoutset. In short, Satie and Vanity Fairlooked like a perfect match.

It was only after 1921, however,that Satie’s position as the magazine’sposter boy for musical modernismwas established. The blitz began inSeptember that year, and remainedintense for over two years; in 1921articles either by or about Satieappeared in consecutive issues ofthe magazine between Septemberand January, and in 1922, Satie wasfeatured in eight out of the twelveissues. The first two articles to appear

were by Satie himself, billed as the first in aseries by this “satiric clown, [this] fantasticjuggler.”20 His ironic “Hymn in Praise ofCritics,” published in September 1921, atirade against critics rather than a hymn intheir praise, had originated as a lecture Satiedelivered three years earlier, introducing thefirst concert of music by the young musi-cians who gathered around him, known asLes Six.21 At that time, Satie had a particularaxe to grind with music critics, having beensued for slander by one of their ranks, anordeal which left him permanently embit-tered: “The critic,” he wrote, “knows every-thing—sees everything—tells everything—hears everything—investigates everything—eats everything—confuses everything. Whata man!!!” First published in the small andshort-lived avant-garde magazine Action;the essay was simply translated andreprinted in Vanity Fair.

Likewise, the following month the maga-zine ran another translated Satie commen-tary, “A Lecture on The Six” which had alsooriginated as a pre-concert talk in Europe.22

This essay formally introduced Vanity Fairreaders to Les Six, and a handsome photo-graph of the stylishly attired group, posedin front of the Eiffel Tower, solidified the

“Vanity Fair” continued from page 37

Even if we grant

for the sake of argument

that “all men are created equal,”

as the Declaration of Independence

so bravely sets forth,

we must admit in the same breath

that they overcome this equality

with astonishing rapidity.

—Condé Nast


identification of these composers withParisian chic. A brief editorial note describedLes Six as “young musicians embodyingmore or less the ideals of Erik Satie,” but inthe body of his essay, Satie called himselfsimply their “mascot.” His bond with them,he wrote, was an adherence to the NewSpirit, the aesthetic ideal set out byGuillaume Apollinaire around the time ofParade, which centered on the importanceof surprise as a quality of modernist art. Thenew spirit, in Satie’s view, was “the spirit ofthe time in which we live—a time fertile insurprises,” defined by “a return to classicform, with an admixture of modern sensi-bility.”23

Vanity Fair would publish two more ofSatie’s pre-concert commentaries: “ALearned Lecture on Music and Animals,” inEnglish translation, in May 1922, 24 and, inOctober that year, “La Musique et lesenfants,” which, extraordinarily, appearedentirely in French.25 The magazine alsosolicited two new articles from Satie,namely, an appreciation of Igor Stravinsky,which was published in February 1923,26

and a similar piece on Claude Debussy,which for reasons unknown remainedunpublished.27 These articles all had theeffect of bringing Vanity Fair’s readers intodirect literary contact with the composer,exposing his wit and quirky personalitywithout the necessity of musical interpreta-tion or intermediation.

Running parallel to Satie’s own commen-taries was a series of articles by Vanity Fair’scritics, all emphasizing the importance ofSatie’s popularizing aesthetic to the devel-opment of modernist music. In November1921, for example, Paul Rosenfeld’s article“The Musician as Parodist of Life,” revisitedthe work of Les Six, which he described asmarked by “gaily contemptuous irony and‘unpretentious charm.’”28 Rosenfeld assertedthe importance of popular idioms as a cata-lyst for new music: “As much at home in thevaudeville house and movie cavern as theconcert hall,” he wrote, their music “speaksthe vulgar tongue, is slangy, unpretentious,popular,” implicating “jazz, ragtime, militarycalls, the improvisations of Negro andSouth-American dance orchestras, and even. . . the canned, absurdly inhumanizedexpressions of the gramophones and auto-matic pianos.” The Dadist muse of Les Six,he informed readers, “swears blithely, wearsbreeches, thinks Freud horribly soft and ‘so1914’ and adores Jack Dempsey.”

Not simply a passing fad, such a popu-larizing stance could, according toRosenfeld, lead to a profound expressive-ness reflective of contemporary life. His arti-cle “Satie and Socrate,” which appeared inthe December issue that year, asserted in itssubtitle that “the Zany of modern music[had] . . . revealed himself as a grave andserene poet.”29 In Socrate, Rosenfeldclaimed, the simplicity and directness thathad marked Satie’s compositions from theoutset were perfectly reconciled with ahigher expressive purpose, and the aestheticof popular music was for the first timemeshed fully with art. This, of course, wasthe ideal for modern music that Van Vechtenhad outlined for Vanity Fair’s readers asearly as 1917, when he argued for a newAmerican music based in ragtime and popu-lar song: Satie, Rosenfeld suggested, wasshowing Americans the way forward.

Two months later, the influential criticEdmund Wilson, Jr. weighed in on the issuewith an article entitled “The AestheticUpheaval in France,” focusing specificallyon the influence of jazz and what he calledthe “Americanization” of French literatureand art.30 The article lamented the aban-donment of traditional French values—“theideals of perfection and form, of grace, andmeasure, and tranquility”—by the nation’syounger artists, who had instead turned to“the extravagances of America.” This shift,Wilson asserted, was motivated by a reac-tion against nineteenth-century French art,which found its antithesis in Americanmovies, dances, and music; no wonder,then, that avant-garde composers in Francewere presenting fox-trots, ragtimes, andcharlestons in the guise of high art. Inessence, Wilson was turning the paradigmfor modernism already established byVanity Fair on its head, arguing that themost salient aspects of modernism, whichthe magazine had demonstrated to be mostclearly evident in French music, had in factoriginated in America.

With Satie and his followers as a focalpoint, Vanity Fair’s conflation of French andAmerican musical modernism continuedthrough the next three years. Among themost significant articles published in themagazine were a truncated translation ofCocteau’s pro-Satie manifesto, Le Coq et l’ar-lequin, which appeared in the October 1922issue, and Virgil Thomson’s synthetic assess-ment entitled “How Modern Music Gets thatWay.”31 Essays by the composer Georges

Auric, the poet Tristan Tzara, and the authorPaul Morand also appeared in these years,continuing to offer evidence that Satie andhis followers Les Six were modernists of thehighest order.32

As one of Condé Nast’s signature classpublications, Vanity Fair’s mandate was toalert its sophisticated American readers totrendy artists and their works. That the musi-cians featured in the magazine in the earlypart of the century were mostly Frenchcomes as no surprise, given Nast’s personalbackground and views about culture. Inpresenting articles by these artists, as wellas about them, Vanity Fair provided accessto modernist aesthetic thought. By match-ing these essays with clever photographsand witty illustrations and cartoons, themagazine integrated avant-gardism into abroader and attainable prescription for fash-ionability. Finally, the magazine promotedthe idea of a Franco-American musicalalliance—with France always maintaininga cutting edge. As a cartoon in Vanity Fairlamented, while the French were “inspiredby vermouth cassis,” in America “we musthave morals.”

A native of northeast Ohio, Mary Davisholds a bachelor’s degree in Music from St.Mary’s College, Notre Dame; Master’s degreesin Piano Performance (Peabody Conservatory,1984) and Musicology (New EnglandConservatory, 1990); and a Ph. D. inMusicology (Harvard University, 1997). Davis’sresearch interests include the study of musicin twentieth-century France, the relationshipof musical aesthetics to fashion and otheraspects of popular culture, and the influenceof tourism on musical practice in Bali,Indonesia. In addition to teaching courses onTwentieth-Century Music, World Music, andAmerican Music she coaches accompanyingand piano.

Notes1. The unsigned editorial also proclaimed

that “Vanity Fair is a new magazineunhampered by tradition and building day-by-day to the wishes of its readers;” see VanityFair, January 1914, 13.

2. For an accounting of Nast’s life and career,see Caroline Seebohm, The Man Who wasVogue (New York: Knopf, 1982).

3. The article was published in TheMerchants and Manufacturers’ Journal, aBaltimore-based trade publication, in July1913. See Seebohm, 80.

4. Frank Crowninshield, “In Vanity Fair,”March 1914; repr. in Cleveland Amory andFrederic Bradlee, eds., Vanity Fair: A



Cavalcade of the 1920s and 1930s (New York:Viking, 1960), 13.

5. Crowninshield was largely responsible forinsisting that the magazine reproduceadvanced art by Picasso, Gaugin, Braque,Modigliani, and others despite threats ofwithdrawal from advertisers who found theseworks “decadent and distorted.” See Amoryand Bradlee, 11.

6. “There is no magazine that is read by thepeople you meet at lunches and dinners,”Crowninshield reportedly said to Nast, “Yourmagazine should cover the things people talkabout – parties, the arts, sports, theater, humor,and so forth.” Quoted in Seebohm, 106.

7. Nast’s mother, Esther Ariadne Benoist,came from a long line of French aristocrats,including the Chevalier de Saint Louis andGuillaume Benoist, Chamberlain to Louis XI.Likewise, Clarisse Coudert boasted a familytree that included Charles Coudert, friend toGeneral Lafayette, as well as other scions ofFrench society. See Seebohm, 65.

8. On the history of Vogue during thisperiod, see Carolyn Hall, The Twenties inVogue (New York: Harmony Books, 1983).

9. Vogel had hired a team of artists, includingGeorges Lepape, Paul Iribe, and CharlesMartin, to create these imaginative drawings,and Nast saw that there could be a place forone or all of them at Vogue. The Gazette duBon Ton suspended operations shortly afterAugust 1914, but World War I brought theopportunity for Vogel and Nast to participate ina joint publishing venture, the production of aspecial English-language issue of the Gazettedu Bon Ton. Devoted entirely to coverage ofthe French fashion shows mounted inconnection with the Panama PacificInternational Exposition of 1915, the issue is asmuch a political document as it is a chronicleof style, declaring, for example, in a Preface byPaul Adam, that since “the Latin Races arefighting to uphold their taste against Teutonicbarbarity,” it was only to be expected that “theParis fashion should take the lead this spring,as in the past.” During the war, many of theartists originally affiliated with Vogel’s Gazettedid produce work for Nast, includingillustrations and striking cover art for Vogue.When Vogel revived his magazine in 1920,Nast began to publish a parallel Americanversion, entitled The Gazette du Bon Genre; inthat same year Nast inaugurated a Frenchversion of Vogue, appointing Vogel’s wife,Cosette de Brunhoff, as its chief editor. Finally,in 1921, Nast acquired the faltering Frenchfashion magazine L’Illustration des Modes, forwhich Vogel and Cosette de Brunhoff hadbeen serving as editors, and reinvented it as amiddle-market women’s magazine, Le Jardindes Modes. See Raymond Gaudriault, LaGravure de la mode féminine en France (Paris:Les Editions d’Amateur, 1983), 111-16.

10. Bernard Boutet de Monvel, “DroppingBombs on the Boches: The PersonalExperiences of a French Aviator Bombadier,”Vanity Fair, July 1916, 37-38. Boutet deMonvel was one of the illustrators in Vogel’sGazette du Bon Ton circle, and worked forNast after the war.

11. Joseph H. Choate, “What We Owe toFrance,” Vanity Fair, May 1917, 43.

12. “George M. Cohan: A Genius of the StageWho Has Become the Most Important Figureon the American Theatrical Horizon,” VanityFair, July 1914, 53.

13. Carl Van Vechten, “The Great AmericanComposer,” Vanity Fair, April 1917, 75. Thearticle is illustrated with photographs of Hirsch,Berlin, and Claypoole.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Jean Cocteau, “Parade: Ballet réaliste, InWhich Four Modern Artists Had a Hand,”Vanity Fair, September 1917, 37. Cocteauclaimed that writing this article suggested tohim the “idea of writing a manifesto in favor ofthe new music and what it promised toengender among the young; the resultant tract,Le Coq et l’arlequin, was published in 1918. SeeFrancis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography(Boston, David Godine, 1986), 202.

17. Ibid., 106.

18. Carl Van Vechten, “Erik Satie: Master ofthe Rigolo,” Vanity Fair, March 1918, 57.

19. Van Vechten, ibid., notes that Satie“wrote music in the whole-tone scale beforeDebussy ever thought of doing so” andmaintains that he “furnished one of thenecessary links between the music of the pastand the music of the future.”

20. This text serves as the caption for thereproduction of Picasso’s full-length portrait ofSatie.

21. Erik Satie, “A Hymn in Praise of Critics,Those Whistling Bell-Buoys Who Indicate theReefs on the Shores of the Human Spirit,”Vanity Fair, September 1921, 49. The essayoriginated as a talk given by Satie at the firstpublic concert by Les Six at the Théâtre duVieux-Colombier, 5 February 1918. It was firstpublished in the avant-garde French magazineAction in 1921; other contributors to thispublication included Cocteau, Paul Eluard,André Malraux, and Tristan Tzara. See Action:Cahiers individualiste de philosophie et d’art,Vol. 2, No. 8, (1921), 8-11.

22. Erik Satie, “A Lecture on ‘The Six’: ASomewhat Critical Account of a Now FamousGroup of French Musicians,” Vanity Fair,October 1921, 61. The original occasion for theremarks was a concert of music by Les Six anda “Festival Erik Satie” sponsored by Cocteauand Paul Collaer, held in Brussels in April 1921.Satie was compelled to give the lecture whenCocteau, who had originally planned to speakat the event, withdrew at the last minute. Satiepresented the same lecture in Rouen in August1922. See Satie, Ecrits, ed. Ornella Volta (Paris:Editions Champ-Libre, 1990), 273.

23. Satie locates this “modern sensibility” inthe works of three members of Les Six—Georges Auric, Francis Poulenc, and DariusMilhaud—and claims that the remainingthree—Louis Durey, Arthur Honneger, andGermaine Tailleferre—are “pureimpressionists.” “There is no harm in that,” hecontinues, “I myself, thirty years ago, wasimpressionist.”

24.Erik Satie, “A Learned Lecture on Musicand Animals,” Vanity Fair, May 1922, 64. Thiscommentary originated as a lecture for a

conference on “Animals in Music,” held on 2November 1916 and presided over by Satie’sfriend, the pianist Ricardo Viñes; Satiesubsequently presented a revised version ofthe talk at a “Children’s Evening” sponsored bythe pianist Jeanne Alvin on 19 December 1919.See Satie, Ecrits, 267. The Vanity Fair essaywas illustrated with two woodcuts by PaulVera.

25. Erik Satie, “ La Musique et les enfants,”Vanity Fair, October 1922, 53. Thiscommentary originated as a lecture for anotherof Mme Alvin’s “Children’s Evenings,” this timeon 17 February 1921. The version of the essaywas published by Vanity Fair wastypographically faithful to Satie’s idiosyncraticmanuscript, which incorporated ellipsesthroughout the text to indicate pauses andsilences.

26. Erik Satie, “Igor Stravinsky: A Tribute tothe Great Russian Composer by an EminentFrench Confrère,” Vanity Fair, February 1923,39. This essay was not published or otherwisepresented in France. It appears that the articlewas requested from Satie by Sybil Harris, awealthy American living in France who actedas a patron to Satie and Les Six in the early1920s. See Satie, Ecrits, 263.

27. Erik Satie, “Claude Debussy,” Ecrits, 65.Also apparently requested by Sybil Harris, thearticle appears in English translation in NigelWilson, The Writings of Erik Satie (London:Eulenburg, 1980), 106-110.

28. Paul Rosenfled, “The Musician asParodist of Life,” Vanity Fair, November 1921, 43.

29. Paul Rosenfeld, “Satie and Socrate,”Vanity Fair, December 1921, 46.

30. Edmund Wilson, Jr., “The AestheticUpheaval in France: The Influence of Jazz inParis and the Americanization of FrenchLiterature and Art,” Vanity Fair, February 1922.The article was illustrated with reproductionsof a work by Francis Picabia, a Dadamanifesto, and poster advertising BlaiseCendrar’s “novel filmé,” La Fin du monde.

31. Virgil Thomson, “How Modern MusicGets That Way: Some Notes on Schoenberg,Stravinsky, and Satie as RepresentativeModerns,” Vanity Fair, April 1925, 46.

32. These include Georges Auric, “Erik Satieand the New Spirit Possessing FrenchMusic,Vanity Fair, July 1922, 62; Jean Cocteau,“The Comic Spirit in Modern Art,” Vanity Fair,September 192266; Cocteau, “The Public andthe Artist,” Vanity Fair, October 1922, 61;Tristan Tzara, “News of the Seven Arts inEurope,” Vanity Fair, November 1922, 51; andPaul Morand, “Modernist Music and the Groupof Six,” Vanity Fair, August 1923, 51.

“Vanity Fair” continued from page 39


Because songs published in popularmagazines mirror the prevailing tastes of theday, these songs may be viewed as reflec-tive of the attitudes of the public whopurchased them. In addition, magazines andnewspapers have at times been used by theU. S. government to mold public sentiment.During World War I, when films were stillsilent and commercial radio was non-exis-tent, the newspapers and magazineswere the most direct means to reachthe nation. In 1917, for example,President Woodrow Wilson person-ally asked Ladies’ Home Journaleditor Edward Bok to popularizemeatless and wheatless days in themagazine’s cooking columns.1 WereWorld War I songs included in maga-zines as an echo of popular feeling,or as a means to construct appropri-ate American attitudes? Music foundin magazines and newspaper supple-ments suggests that some songs werecertainly included to boost moraleand build patriotism. After the Armistice,however, songs from several periodicalsshow a range of reactions to the devasta-tion of the war; in short, these songs speakfor different voices in the nation.

Patriotic songs have been included inAmerican household magazines ever sincethe anonymous “Massachusetts Song ofLiberty” was published in Bickerstaff’sBoston Almanack for 1769 and 1770. Afterthe War of 1812, literary periodicals such asPort Folio, Polyanthos, and Portico includedbattle songs that proudly celebrated recentvictories over the British navy.2 AlthoughCivil War magazine music texts were char-acterized by expressions of greater anxietyand grief than in earlier wars, these wereconveyed in straightforward terms inuncomplicated musical settings in the pagesof Godey’s Lady’s Book, Peterson’s Magazine,and the Lady’s Friend.3

During World War I, the sheet music andrecording industries had a key mission inthe war effort: to produce rousing songs thatwould rally patriotic feelings both at homeand abroad. Sheet music publishers weregiven special consideration and materialgoods for that purpose. While household

magazines adopted a smaller page size toconserve paper, the sheet music industrygot all the paper it needed. In cookie cutterfashion, publishers churned out songs toreinforce military morale, comfort thosesuffering loss or hardship, and focus thecommunity effort at home. Like film inWorld War II, song writing in World War Iwas used as an essential propaganda tool.As Les Cleveland observes, “Wartime givespopular music an extra urgency andcurrency.”4 Frederick Vogel documents inhis study World War I Songs that over 35,000

songs connected with the war were copy-righted between 1914 and 1919, and manymore were composed but not copyrighted.5

In Vogel’s opinion, the quality of these songshas rarely been equaled. He writes, “Triteand transitory as most of the AmericanWorld War I songs were, as a whole theyexceeded the originality and quality of eventhe finest hits produced in World War II.”6

The most memorable of these songs have

become standards: George M. Cohan’s“Over There”; Irving Berlin’s “How I Hateto Get Up in the Morning,” “How You

Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm,” and“Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip.”

Although America only fought for nine-teen out of the fifty-two months of the war,group singing was an essential part of boththe military and civilian strategy to shapeattitudes in support of the war.7 New Yorkmusic publisher Leo Feist advertised in 1918with the slogan “A nation that sings cannever be beaten; each song is a milestoneon the road to victory.”8 In the military,songs for organized and spontaneoussinging came from traditional folk songs,

hymns, and favorite tunes fromprevious wars. Fresh songs in popu-lar styles like “Goodby Broadway,Hello France” were also desirable toraise morale, enhance recruiting, andserve as a means for relaxation andsolace for the troops. Songs like“How I Hate to Get Up In theMorning” permitted soldiers tocomplain about the hardships ofmilitary life through an acceptablesocial outlet.

In the public sector, group singsat community events and in theworkplace were organized to keep

morale high, promote a unified nationalism,and stress patriotic duty. Four-MinuteSinging was systematically used in theaters,movie houses, and club meetings. The“American Consecration Hymn,” publishedin the respected religious weekly magazineOutlook in 8 May 1918 was one such songcomposed for community singing. Theauthor of the text, Percy MacKaye, was wellknown for his civic and community

pageants, designed to mold and unitecommunity spirit and promote progress

Voices of a Nation: Reflections of World War I in American Magazine Music

—Bonny H. MillerSoutheastern Louisiana University


Example 1. Francis MacMillen, “American Consecration Hymn,” measures 10–13.

After the Armistice, however,

songs from several periodicals

show a range of reactions

to the devastation of the war;

in short, these songs

speak for different voices

in the nation.


through democratic art. Although he hadearlier envisioned his pageants as an alter-native to war, MacKaye too joined in thenational war effort. The lyrics were writtenin response to President Wilson’s words,“Right is more precious than peace.” Themarch-like music by violinist FrancisMacMillen gives the hymn a sense ofbreadth and suggests an American destinythat awaits fulfillment. The magazine notesthat the “American Consecration Hymn” wassung with effect by the President’s daugh-ter, Miss Margaret Wilson.9 The hymn is builtof four similar phrases, and rises to a climaxof excitement with the rising figure “forth

to fight,” heard three times successivelyhigher, as shown in Example 1.

The sense of an American holy cause wasalso conveyed in the 18 December 1918Outlook in Horatio Parker’s spacious anthem,“Hymn for the Victorious Dead,” one of histhree final works, each with the war as itstheme. As a war song, the number is moreserious than most, being addressed directlyto God. Such religious entreaties were notusually part of the rallying, popular reper-toire. Parker’s through-composed setting isunusually long for publication in the popu-lar press and wanders through many keysand motivic variants in the course of threeverses. Although the setting is accessiblycomposed in the harmonic style of churchanthems, a preponderance of first inversionchords suggests ambivalence or lack of final-ity, as seen in Example 2.

Parker wrote, “Serious music is not with-out its value in such times as these.” Hissolemn setting could have been used inconcert, at church, in the salon, or at amassed community event.10

An equally serious, but more intimatetone, is found in Josef Hofmann’s setting of

“In Flanders Fields,” published by theLadies’ Home Journal, in October 1919.11

Hofmann had served as musical editor ofthe Ladies’ Home Journal since 1907. From1893 on, the magazine published severalpieces of music annually. In 1918, “TheStar-Spangled Banner, as Josef HofmannPlays It on the Piano,” was published in Julyand “The Song of the Marines, arranged byA. Tregina, United States Marine Band,” inNovember. In February 1919, the Journalpublished “Dr. Henry Van Dyke’sHome-Coming Song [Where the Flag Is Fullof Stars]” by C. Austin Miles (a reprint from1911), “In Flanders Fields” in October, and“Little Town of Bethlehem” in December.

More than twenty musical settings ofJohn McCrae’s 1915 poem “In FlandersFields” have been written by composersfrom John Philip Sousa to Charles Ives. Forthe great poem of the war, Hofmann, likeIves, chose a sombre mood. The tonal

language is more traditional than Ives, butthe musical style is less theatrical thanSousa’s. The uneasy, chromatic motion andoccasional impressionistic chords in theaccompaniment paint the scene and mood,while the vocal line uses a simple, almostrecitative style (See Example 3).

The overall feeling of doubt and melan-choly undermine the challenge of the deadto “take up our cause.” Strikingly differentfrom the rousing patriotic numberspublished in the magazine before theArmistice, Hofmann chose to convey hisprivate feelings about the war in a verypublic forum. This setting, composed justfor the Ladies’ Home Journal, was one ofHofmann’s final contributions to the maga-zine, and presents a strong anti-war state-ment in a serious art song setting.

Familiar patriotic songs as well as origi-nal numbers had appeared in newspapersupplements frequently during the war.Rallying songs were the order of the day inthe Chicago Herald Examiner, as docu-mented in the Lester S. Levy Collection ofSheet Music. The Sunday, 23 June 1918 edi-tion contained two songs: “Jack Norworth’sGreat Trench Song: The Further it is fromTipperary, the Nearer it is to Berlin,” and“We are Coming: Marching Song ofAmerica,” by John Philip Sousa. The news-paper advertised that the following Sundayedition would contain “I’d Like to See theKaiser With a Lily in His Hand.” These songsare doubtless typical of many patrioticefforts in popular idioms that appeared inthe news press throughout the war.

A very different view of the Great War, invaudeville style and laced with comic irony,was published in July 1919 in Chicago’sHalf-Century Magazine, a family journalfrom the black periodical press.12 The musicpublished in this magazine between Julyand November 1919 was provided by theGriffin Music Company of Chicago.“Shrapnel Blues” brought the ragged

rhythms of vaudeville and Broadway intothe American parlor. According to an ad inthe September 1919 issue of the magazine,Marcus F. Slayter composed “ShrapnelBlues” while he served as a sergeant in thetrenches of France.13 The song conveys aninsider’s view of the trenches with sinister

Example 2. Horatio Parker, “Hymn for the Victorious Dead,” measures 21–28.

Example 3. Josef Hofmann, “In Flanders Fields,” measures 92–97.

“Voices” continued from page 41


humor. Slayter had appeared as a comedian,singer, and actor in many shows and revuesin Harlem, on Broadway, and on touringcircuits. It is impossible to know whetherhe or his collaborator, Marion Lee Bell wasresponsible for the lyrics or for the bluesyharmonies and ragged rhythm in thisnumber, but the tune is catchy, and thewords are clever. There can be no doubtthat the tune and the words were composedseparately, as the text has been juggled into

place with some difficulty to fit the melody.As in many songs of the era, the effort torhyme has resulted in clumsy syntax, espe-cially in the first verse:

If you should ever go on the Soissons front,In the trenches where all the men wished

for bunks,You will notice if you stop and listenOn this front our boys sure raise the dickenOne night while in dugout number threeA quartette was singing with gleeWhen a shrapnel struck the door,They thought the fun was o’erBut now they’ve got the latest craze.

The awkward effect is only multiplied whenthe words are forced into a preconceivedmelody, as shown in Example 4.

Fortunately the chorus is more straight-forward, and the keyboard rendering of ashell bursting provides a comic touch ofword painting (See Example 5):

Chorus:

For when the shells begin to fall all aroundAnd you hear the cannon sound,

If the men around you fall andYou hear your partners call,

That’s the shrapnel blues.

If a Frenchman should pass your postCrying alley toot sweet mit now [sic]

You know you went o’er the top and with a happy shout

You had the shrapnel blues on your mindAnd that’s the reason I scream we broke the

Hindenburg line.

Although “Shrapnel Blues” could be consid-ered an anti-war song, the comic elementsmost certainly helped soldiers deal with thetensions of war. Although Half-CenturyMagazine took a strong stance in favor ofthe war, and urged African-Americans to

“Do Your Bit,”14 fewer than 20% of blackAmerican soldiers in Europe served in actualcombat. Most were assigned as laborerssuch as stevedores, in construction gangs,in road and railroad repair, and gravedigging.

A final flurry of songs celebrated thereturn of American troops after the

Armistice. In both September andNovember 1919, the Half-Century Magazineincluded a welcome home song by PorterP. Grainger, “When Our Brown Skin’ SoldierBoys Come Home From War.” TheBroadway style and ragged rhythms arevividly demonstrated in the chorus of thislively march, excerpted in Example 6.

Grainger was a familiar songwriter,pianist, and actor in many Broadway andHarlem shows, often working with JamesP. Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, andhe collaborated in recordings with FatsWaller and other early jazz greats. Grainger’shomecoming song was performed by DadBerry’s 100-piece band in Chicago towelcome back the Eighth Illinois NationalGuard, an all-colored regiment known asthe Black Devils.15 The words of the firstverse are unquestioning in their patriotismand pride, but the second verse may referto the inequalities suffered by the AfricanAmerican soldiers in service:

Let’s go down to the station, people,Our boys come home today

With great honors wonIn a grand and noble fray,

Do join us!There’ll be great politicians waiting,

Taxis all in a row. See Old Glory!Waving as down the streets they go.

Boys born of a great fighting nation,Fought with vict’ry in mind

Wanted nothing other than freedom ofmankind.

That’s justice,They stood Back of the President

And fought ‘till ordered you’re through!Meet our heroes!

What’s now more loyal we can do?

Example 4. Marcus F. Slayter and Marion Lee Bell, “Shrapnel Blues,” measures 15–20.

Example 5. “Shrapnel Blues,” measures 25–28.

Example 6. Porter P. Grainger, “When Our Brown Skin’ Soldier Boys Come Home From War,” measures 67–74.



Chorus:

O! Won’t they look swellAs down the street they’re marching?

Who here can tellWhat each hero’s been through?

Say can’t you seeTheir smiles of glee

As they think of grand receptionsThat soon will be?

Just hearing that bandOf all those fine musicians

My it’s so grand,How can we but adore?

Our hearts are beatingFor the first cordial meeting

When Our Brown Skin’ Soldier BoysCome Home From War.

The words, “Wanted nothing other thanfreedom of mankind,/ That’s justice,” speakwith irony to the lack of racial equality andjustice in American life for black citizens.Grainger’s song embodies the mixed feel-ings of black Americans in 1918: jubilantwith victory, joyful for the return of thesoldiers, but also aware of the inequitiesback home.

The conclusion of World War I marked acoming of age, as the attitudes of Americansevolved from simplistic patriotism to ques-tioning the recent war and the enormouscost of its brutal methods. These attitudesare apparent in musical selectionscomposed specifically for publication in1918-19 in the popular periodical press.These magazine songs provide a microcosmof American feelings at war’s end: hope,determination, patriotic pride, ironic humor,anxiety, pain, and disillusionment. Fromanthem and art song to vaudeville song andjazz march, the musical genres also cover arange of cultural life in America. World WarI songs in the periodical press were initiallyintended to rally patriotic feelings, but thenmirrored a coming of age as Americansbegan to question the cost of modern war.American victory notwithstanding, theunderlying uncertainty found alongsidepatriotism in these magazine songs suggestthe darker, private doubts left by the war toend all wars.

Bonny Hough Miller serves on the facultyat Southeastern Louisiana University. Since1983 she has presented numerous papers,lecture-recitals, and articles on topics drawnfrom music published in the popularperiodical press. This research originated inan NEH seminar at the Arnold SchoenbergInstitute.

Notes1. Edward Bok, The Americanization of

Edward Bok; the autobiography of a Dutch boyfifty years after (New York: C. Scribners Sons,1920), 387-403.

2. In 1813, Port Folio included two navalsongs by Jacob Eckhard: “Rise, ColumbiaBrave and Free,” and “Pillar of Glory.” “YankeeThunders,” to the tune of “Ye gentlemen ofEngland,” by Dr. Callcot, appeared inPolyanthos in 1812. The Portico published“The Sailor’s Grave” by C. Meineke in June1817. American Periodicals 1800 –1850 [APSII] (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University MicrofilmsInternational, 1979).

3. Godey’s Lady’s Book and Peterson’sMagazine are available in APS II. Musicalnumbers from these periodicals by JupiterZeus Hesser, Hart Pease Danks, George FelixBenkert, Septimus Winner, C. Archer, and T. E.Perkins were used to illustrate my paper,“Reflections of the Civil War in AmericanMagazine Music,” presented at the 1991meeting of the Sonneck Society in Hampton,Virginia.

4. Les Cleveland, Dark Laughter War in Songand Popular Culture (Westport, Conn. andLondon: Praeger, 1994), 18.

5. Frederick G. Vogel, World War I Songs AHistory and Dictionary of Popular AmericanPatriotic Tunes, with Over 300 Complete Lyrics(Jefferson, North Carolina, and London:McFarland, 1995), ix.

6. Ibid., 7.

7. Judith Ann Mollere, “Music as aPropaganda and Morale Factor in United StatesParticipation in World War I (1917-1918),”Master’s thesis, Tulane University, 1977.

8. Vogel, 62.

9. Outlook 119 (May 8, 1918): 63.

10. William K. Kearns, Horatio Parker, 1863-1919 his life, music, and ideas (Metuchen,New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1990), 72.

11. Ladies’ Home Journal 36 (Oct. 1919):30–31.

12. The Half-Century Magazine is availablein reprint in Negro Periodicals in the UnitedStates, 1840–1860 (New York: NegroUniversities Press, 1969). This magazine, withthe motto “A Colored Monthly for the BusinessMan and the Home Maker,” contained newsand editorials on topical race issues, shortstories, and many features about lifestyle andfashion. In addition to “Shrapnel Blues” and“When Our Brown Skin’ Soldier Boys ComeHome From War,” Porter Grainger’s piano solo,“The ‘Shim-me King’s’ Blues, Dedicated to‘Boots’ King,” was published in October 1919.

13. Advertisement by Griffin Music Companyin Half-Century Magazine 7 (September,1919), 21.

14. Half-Century Magazine 3 (August, 1917):1, 12.

15. Advertisement by Griffin Music Companyin Half-Century Magazine 7 (September,1919), 21.

“Voices” continued from page 43

Despite other changes in style and perfor-mance, this essential core remains.

Laurie Kay Sommers has a PhD in folkloreand ethnomusicology with a specializationin folk and ethnic music in the United States.In addition to developing folklife festivals,exhibitions, radio programs, and curriculummaterials, she has published on Latinos in theU.S. and on regional music traditions suchas Beaver Island House Party (1996). Shecurrently serves as founding director of theSouth Georgia Folklife Project at Valdosta StateUniversity.

Notes1. Thanks to David Lee and Johnny Lee who

commented on earlier versions of this paper.Research for this paper was conducted underthe auspices of The Okefenokee TraditionalMusic Survey, a grant project of the SouthGeorgia Folklife Project, College of the Arts,Valdosta State University, funded by the Lila-Wallace Reader’s Digest Community FolklifeProgram, and with a grant from the NationalEndowment for the Arts Folk and TraditionalArts Infrastructure Initiative

2. Wayne Murphree, Hoboken in Seattle,produced by Wayne Murphree Enterprises(25735 Alabama Hwy. 71, Flat Rock, AL 35966;256-632-2474), 21 February 1998,videocassette.

3. David I. Lee, interview with LaurieSommers, 15 February 1997, Hoboken,Georgia.

4. D. “Johnny” Lee, electronic mailcorrespondence with Laurie Sommers, 14October 1999.

5. Buell Cobb Jr., The Sacred Harp(University of Georgia Press, 1978).

6. David I. Lee, electronic mailcorrespondence with Laurie Sommers, 12October 1999.

7. David I. Lee, 1997.

8. Ibid.

9. Keith Willard, notes for Sacred HarpHoboken, Georgia, 1996, independentlyproduced by Keith Willard, Rodney Willard,and David Lee, 1999, Compact Disk.

10. D. “Johnny” Lee.

11. D. “Johnny” Lee.

12. By the time I first interviewed David andClarke in winter of 1997, they had becomequite sanguine about who they were and whatmade their tradition different: I was treated tothe most articulate, reflective, and eloquentfirst interview I have ever recorded.

13. David I. Lee, 1997.

14. Wayne Murphree.



The plaintive sound—and the charac-teristic glissandi—of the steel guitar is usu-ally identified with Country and Western orHawaiian popular music.1 Pedal-steel gui-tars are routinely found in contemporarywhite country gospel groups and churchworship “praise bands.” Yet the instrumentis unheard of in most African-American wor-ship services, with the striking exception ofa single tradition: the House of God2 church-es, where the steel guitar as lead instrumenthas reigned supreme for decades. With thir-ty churches in South Carolina, this denom-ination and its steel guitar music maintainsa very strong presence.

The House of God is a Holiness-Pentecostal sect, whose churches areknown for celebratory, music-drivenworship services during which the presenceof the Holy Spirit is manifested by dancingand involuntary body movements. Houseof God ministers cite Psalms 150:4, “praisehim with stringed instruments,” and 149:3,“Let them praise his name in the dance,” asscriptural support for the music and theaccompanying holy dancing. House of Godworship services are driven by music playedby an ensemble led by a steel guitarist andusually including an electric bass, drums,keyboard, and rhythm guitar as well. Thesteel guitarist works closely with the minis-ter in playing a very active, importantsupport role in this worship tradition. Inaddition to belting out driving “praise” or“shout” music for congregational singing,the steel guitarist provides dramatic empha-sis during sermons and testimonies, accom-panies solo or small group singers, playssyncopated music for offertory processions,and even aids in healing services.

House of God steel guitar music isdistinctly African-American, much of itsounding more like raw, driving blues thanthe sweet strains typical of commercialCountry and Western settings for the instru-ment. The tradition has now been passeddown through families for four generationsand, over the years, these steel guitaristshave developed a distinct repertoire of func-tional music for “moving the service.” Alongthe way, they have worked out their owntunings, equipment setups, playing styles

and techniques. Today, with a solid core ofveteran players and a healthy crop of up-and-coming younger musicians, the tradi-tion is probably stronger than ever.

The history of this distinctive tradition isa story of closely connected musicianswithin the church that starts with the influ-ence of the singing steel guitar sound inHawaiian music, popular in the continen-tal United States from the 1910s until WorldWar II. During that period, Hawaiian musicschools proliferated throughout the coun-try and musicians who played various

genres of popular music heard and wereinfluenced by touring acts, records, andradio broadcasts of Hawaiian music. Oneof the first House of God musicians to usethe steel guitar, Troman Eason (ca. 1895-1971), took lessons in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, in the mid-1930s from aHawaiian whom Eason’s surviving brother,Willie (b.1921), remembers as “Jack.”3 Thisteacher may have been Jack Kahanalopua,a professional steel guitarist whose brother,Jimmy, operated a Hawaiian music studioin Philadelphia at that time.4

Troman and Willie Eason brought theelectric steel guitar to House of God ser-vices in the late 1930s. Later, younger broth-er Henry “Big” Eason (1926-1970) alsobecame a steel guitarist. While Tromanplayed in the traditional Hawaiian style,Willie, who never took lessons, developeda voice-like single string style imitative of

Robert L. StoneGainesville, Florida

African-American vocal performance prac-tice. Eason traveled widely playing the steelguitar and singing, first touring the easternstates from New York to Miami with BishopJ. R. Lockley’s Gospel Feast Party, then laterby himself to perform street corner musicministries. He recorded a total of eighteensides for the Queen, Aladdin, and Regentlabels in the 1940s and 50s.5 Today he isconsidered a living legend among Houseof God congregations.

One of Willie Eason’s disciples wasHenry Nelson, born in Ocala, Florida in1930. His father, Bishop W. L. Nelson (1895-1973), was a prominent figure in the Houseof God denomination and responsible forthe dioceses of South Carolina, NorthCarolina, the east coast of Florida,Chattanooga, and the island of Jamaica.Bishop Nelson served as pastor in Ocala,Florida. Henry’s oldest sister, Alyce, becameWillie Eason’s first wife. Some time around1940, upon hearing Eason and his “talkingguitar” for the first time, young Henry wasamazed. “I wanted to do everything I saw,”he recalled. Bishop Nelson bought his sona steel guitar and, laying his hands onHenry’s, told the youngster that he wouldlearn to play if he kept his music “within theanointing.” Soon young Henry was makingmusic in his father’s church. “I don’t evenremember rehearsing at home,” he said,adding what is now a shared belief amongthese musicians: “It was just a gift fromGod.”6

Local House of God congregations aretypically small, between twenty and fortymembers, but large assemblies and revivalscould number in the high hundreds. As ayoung man, Henry served as driver andmusician for Bishop Nelson as father andson traveled throughout the south to playfor these gatherings as well as at the annualGeneral Assembly in Nashville, at which theattendance might be over 2,000. In Houseof God gatherings, the Holy Spirit is moststrongly felt by the largest numbers; as amatter of fact, the relationship between thepresence of the Holy Ghost and congrega-tion size seems to be almost exponential.Playing steel guitar with Bishop Nelson inthese larger settings gave Henry an espe-cially influential position, as he couldbecome associated with the most spirited

Steel Away: The Sacred Steel Guitar Tradition of African-American House of God Churches in South Carolina

Figure 1. Henry Nelson.



services, held in the most prestigioussettings, and participated in by the greatestnumbers of people. Nelson recalled anespecially spirited service he played for inPamplico (near Florence), South Carolina.“One church, the people would be stand-ing. That was the only room in the churchto shout. And when they got happy . . . thechurch sink in the ground with so manypeople. All the pillars went down. They hadto jack it back up. That place would get sofired up over the burning of God, it wasdeafening in there!”7 A spirited and innov-ative musician, Nelson took full advantageof these opportunities, developing whatsome described as a “Liberace” persona. Hewas a sharp dresser and made it a habit tocharm the congregation—especially olderwomen—with personal greetings before hesat down at his instrument to play.8

Henry Nelson developed a style of“praise” or “shout” music, characterized byvoice-like lines played on the treble andbass strings punctuated by a variety ofdriving, rhythmic “frams,” or strums, underwhich the band played without chordchanges.9 His instructive remark to blindkeyboardist Francine Jones as they openeda packed-house service in Ocala on 26December 1993 was typical: “Get in E-flatand stay there.” His praise music becamethe foundation of what is accepted by manyas true “House of God music”10 and hissignature riffs and rhythms are quoted atvirtually every House of God worshipservice. Nelson’s manner of playingimprovised accompaniment and solosfor hymns made extensive use ofsimultaneously manipulating thevolume and tone controls of his guitarwhile plucking the strings to softenthe timbre’s attack and make the notes“swell” to achieve an uncanny andhighly effective voice-like quality.Nelson served as a steel guitarist in theHouse of God for more than 50 yearsuntil a series of strokes beginning inthe spring of 1994 curtailed his play-ing. The extent of his influence onHouse of God steel guitar musiccannot be overstated. He set the domi-nant style for praise music and influ-enced the manner in which hymns areplayed by many. His influence isstrongly manifested in the playing ofSouth Carolina steel guitarists.

Another early House of God guitarist,Elder Acorne Coffee, now lives with hisSouth Carolina-born wife, Barbara, and their

family on the outskirts of Blythewood, justnorth of Columbia, South Carolina, wherehe serves as pastor at the House of God innearby Cayce. As an early pedal-steelguitarist in the House of God, he influencedand mentored Chuck Campbell, more than20 years his junior, who went on to becomeone of the most esteemed and innovativepedal-steel guitarists in the church. Coffee

was born in 1936 in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, to House of God eldersCharles and Melissa Coffee. He moved toSouth Carolina in 1973, back to Philadelphiain 1978, and returned to South Carolina in1995. He says that sometime in the 1970s,he was the first House of God musician toplay steel guitar in Jamaica.

Coffee recalled hearing Willie Eason andhis brothers perform in Philadelphia. “Iwanted to be like him when I was little. His

brother, Troman, would play, too; andTroman played by notes. We’d play by ear.Troman played like these guys when thesehillbillies play. Troman played church music

like that. We’d play just like we speakbroken English, we’d play broken music.Then he had another brother Henry. WhenI first started, the first [steel] guitar that I hadwas a old National [electric] Henry sold mymother for $15.”11 When asked how helearned to play, Coffee responded, “Iwatched Willie all them years and then . . .you know my father was musically inclined,so it wasn’t really a hard thing to do.” Coffeehas two sons who are also steel guitarists:Acorne, Jr., known as Flip, who lives inPhiladelphia where he plays regularly forchurch services, and twelve-year-oldLawrence, who played steel with youthfulexuberance in the family music room as thewriter photographed his father. “You warmhim up and he’ll go ahead like nobody’sbusiness,” Coffee promised.

While living in Philadelphia, Coffee tookup the pedal-steel guitar and became friendswith white country steel guitarist WinnieWinston, author of one of the first instruc-tional books for the instrument. FromWinston he learned the right-hand “block-ing” (muting) technique that country play-ers developed so they could pick faster andcleaner. Coffee, in turn, aided young ChuckCampbell. “I helped Chuck, taught him theblock, taught him some notes.” In general,House of God steel guitarists do not use thestandardized tunings and pedal setups thatare the norm among country and westernmusicians. Typically, they arrive at theirtunings as the result of dreams, aural visions,and trial and error. Coffee recollects work-

ing out some of the solutions withCampbell. “Me and Chuck stayedup until six, seven o’clock in themorning trying to get pedals theway we wanted them. Sometimeswe’d be getting up the next morn-ing and we’d be up all night.Sometimes he’d come over to thehouse and stay three, four days andwe’d get up playing and go to bedplaying.”12 Now in his sixties andpreaching more than playing steel,Coffee offers his thoughts oncompetitiveness among churchmusicians. “It’s not the idea of play-ing as good as another man, ‘causeeverybody who plays, plays good.It’s the idea of a man playing morefancier than you. But on any givenday, if you are playing in the church

for God’s service, the Lord come in andeverybody will forgive everybody else whilethey’re shouting off your music. So it don’tmake a difference.”13

Figure 2. James Summersett of Linville, Georgia.

“Steel Away” continued from page 45

Me and Chuck stayed up

until six, seven o’clock in the morning

trying to get pedals the way

we wanted them. Sometimes we’d be

getting up the next morning

and we’d be up all night.

Sometimes he’d come over

to the house and stay three, four days

and we’d get up playing

and go to bed playing.

—Elder Acorne Coffee


One of the newer generation of steelplayers, James Summersett, was born inVidalia, Georgia in 1946. His parents wereElder Mary Summersett, pastor of the Houseof God in Vidalia, and Deacon WalterSummersett. He moved to Charleston in1966. He recalls as a boy hearing steelguitarists play at the annual state assemblyin Macon. When he was fifteen, he saw ayoung lady playing a steel guitar in church.“I looked at her and it got to me. I said tomyself, I said, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’And I just kept that in my mind. We talkedour mother into getting us a used one.”James first learned by watching his cousin,Junior Willis, and later James’ older brother,John Henry. “My brother learned to play,and I picked up behind him. My youngerbrother [Isaiah] picked up behind me. Andwe all just stayed at it. Mother kept us inchurch all the time, so that’s the way Ilearned.”14 Isaiah, who now lives in Linville(near Vidalia), Georgia, still plays.

James usually performs solo, providinghis own rhythmic accompaniment to sensi-tively rendered melody lines. In the past,Isaiah sometimes provided accompanimentby loosening the lower strings on his steelguitar to provide bass accompaniment, atechnique still practiced by some House ofGod steel guitarists. James cites the gospelvocal quartet sound as an influence on hissteel guitar playing. Interestingly, he hasnever attended the annual ten-day GeneralAssembly. Since about the time he gradu-ated from high school, Summersett has trav-eled throughout the region, and, on occa-sion, as far as Indiana and Florida, to playin various Baptist, Methodist, and otherchurches as well as for House of Godservices. He has been playing a double-necked lap-steel guitar (with two six-stringnecks) for about twenty years. He tunes oneneck to a major chord and the other to aminor chord. When interviewed,Summersett could neither state the notenames of, nor otherwise describe, histunings. He seems to rely totally on his earsand informally acquired musical abilities.Like Henry Nelson, with whom Summersettsays he has played many times, he operatesthe volume control of the guitar while pick-ing to soften the attack and make the notesswell.

When playing for congregations outsidethe House of God, Summersett often getsreactions from those not used to the voice-like sounds he can make with the instru-ment. “A lot of people are really attractedby it. I made it holler and they thought it

was some lady. They kept looking and theykept hearing it, but they never saw nobodydoing it. Then they finally watched myfingers and they knew where it was comingfrom.”15

James Harrell Hampton was born inRidgeville, South Carolina in 1958 andresides there today. He has been involvedwith the House of God denomination hisentire life. His mother, Janet Williams, is anelder (minister) and he is a deacon. Heremembers sitting on the front porch listen-ing to his mother play the “lead,” or stan-dard electric guitar, when he was three.16

When he was 12, his family moved to NewYork. “Actually, I wanted to learn how toplay [steel] ever since I was about seven, butI never could get aholt of a guitar,” herecalled. “I always wanted to play one ofthem, you know. I said to myself, ‘I’m goingto learn how to play one of these even if itkills me.’ That’s how bad I wanted to play.When I came to New York, that was the onething I actually begged my mother to getme, was a steel guitar. She got it for mytwelfth birthday.” Ella “B.B.” Barber gavehim his first lessons in New York City.Hampton says Barber is about 85 or oldernow and still plays steel. While living inNew York, he saw and heard Henry Nelson

play frequently.17 “He was one of the mainplayers that I looked up to. He is a greatinspiration to me. I’m glad he was here toshow us. He wasn’t there in front of us, butwe were listening. Everybody’s got a partof Henry in them.” Comparing pedal-steelto lap-steel, Hampton recalls Nelson tellinghim, “Everything that big (pedal) guitar cando, you can do it also.”18 Hampton remem-

bers fondly when he played steel guitar andhis younger brother Gary (b. 1970) playeddrums at the House of God in the Bronx hismother pastored.

Hampton moved back to South Carolinain 1989. Today he is the steel guitarist at theHouse of God in St. Stephens, about 40miles northwest of Ridgeville, where he alsotrains youngsters to play drums, guitar, steelguitar, and bass. Although he used to travelfrequently to play for special services whenhe lived in New York, he does so only occa-sionally now. He sees the electric steel guitaras especially suitable for spirited worshipservices. “That steel is one mean instrument,I’d say. There’s nothing like it. In mostchurches the lead instrument is the organ,but in the House of God church, it’s the steelbecause of the way it sounds. It sounds likea human voice, and it’s got a lot of powerbehind it. It speaks out.”19

Nelson was not the only influence onHampton’s steel playing while he lived inNew York. Asked if he knew Rochester steelguitarist Chuck Campbell, Hamptonresponded: “That’s who I was hangingaround with a whole lot when I was upthere.” In about 1985, Titus Mims (who hassince left the House of God) of New Jerseytaught Hampton the 8-string E7 tuningHampton uses to this day.

Southpaw steel guitarist Anthony LevelleFox, another lifetime House of Godmember, was born in Hollyville, SouthCarolina in 1972. His family includes severalHouse of God ministers. His grandmotherbought him a six-string lap-steel when hewas 13. Fox learned a few basics from hisuncle, Jerry Gasden, then developed hismusical abilities further by informallyobserving other steel guitarists and work-ing things out on his own. Today he isknown as the “state” steel guitarist, the onewho plays at the South Carolina state Houseof God assembly and other large, importantgatherings. Like many other House of Godsteel guitarists, he plays both lap- and pedal-steel guitars. Henry Nelson was a majormusical influence on Fox. “He is the mainsteel player that has influenced my style onthe six-string (lap-steel). I think he is thegreatest. I really admire his style of playing.That’s what got me to where I am on thesix-string.”20

Fox’s ten-string, left-handed pedal-steelguitar was custom built for him in Nashville,using components from several of the bestbrands. He uses what he terms a “modifiedC6” tuning and has seven pedals and five

Figure 3. Anthony Levelle Fox of Hollyville, South Carolina.



knee levers fitted to the instrument. He citesa number of pedal-steel influences, includ-ing Acorne Coffee. “One thing I learnedfrom him is clarity,” says Fox. “He’s a veryclear steel player.”21

South Carolina is rich in the House ofGod steel guitar tradition. Henry Nelson’sinfluence seems to be especially strongthere. His father’s position as state bishopfor many years provided opportunities forHenry to be heard and seen by greatnumbers under the most favorable circum-stances. Henry’s musical ability, spirituality,and rapport with congregations enabledhim to make the most of those opportuni-ties. Although Nelson’s influence wasprofound and widespread, each House ofGod steel guitarist has developed a uniquevoice on the instrument. Now in the handsof a fourth generation of energetic and inno-vative young musicians, the electric steelguitar remains the dominant musical forcethat drives the spirited worship services ofthe House of God.

Robert L. Stone is a folklorist who lives inGainesville, Florida. He has beendocumenting the steel guitar tradition of theHouse of God since 1992 and has produceda series of five Sacred Steel Guitar CDs forArhoolie Records. His current projects includedirecting the Arhoolie Foundation’s SacredSteel one-hour documentary video (whichpremiered on 18 October 2000 in Berkeley);producing a sixth Arhoolie CD, Live At TheFirst Annual Sacred Steel Convention(Arhoolie CD 489, March 2001 release); andproducing Music From the Sunshine State, aseries of 13 one-hour radio programs for theFlorida Folklife Program, which will presenta variety of ethnic and vernacular musics.

Notes1. The steel guitar takes its name from the

bar, which is usually made of steel, the playeruses in the left hand to stop the strings to makenotes. The instrument itself may be made frommaterials including plastics, wood, and avariety of metals. Pedal-steel guitars employ asystem of foot pedals and knee leversconnected to mechanisms that raise or lowerthe pitch of selected strings. The term “lap-steel guitar” is used here to refer to any non-pedal electric steel guitar, whether it is placedin the player’s lap, supported on legs or heldby a strap.

2. The full name of the church is the Houseof God, Which is the Church of the Living God,the Pillar and Ground of the Truth WithoutControversy, Keith Dominion, Inc. For the sakeof brevity “House of God” is used here. Thereare House of God churches in 26 states as wellas in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Haiti. Formore information on individuals in the church,see DuPree, Sherry Sherrod and Herbert C.Biographical Dictionary of African-AmericanHoliness-Pentecostals, 1890-1990. Washington,DC: Middle Atlantic Regional Press, 1989.

3. Willie Eason, interviews with RobertStone, 16 January and 3 May 1994.

The Society for American Music

is pleased to welcomethese new members:

Peggy Balensuela Terre Haute, Indiana

Scott Ball Collegedale,Tennessee

Ryan Bunch Adelphi, Maryland

Rebecca Bogart Richmond, California

Elizabeth K. Campeau Arlington, Virginia22203

Katherine Dacey New York, New York

William Dargan Durham, North Carolina

Beverly Diamond Downsview, Ontario,Canada

Bridget Falconer-Salkeld Maidstone, Kent,England

Gary Feltner Carrollton, Texas

Kara Gardner Palo Alto, California

Daniel Goldmark West Hollywood,California

Ruth Inman Chicago, Illinois

Timothy Johnson Brooktondale, New York

Patrick M. Jones Fredonia, New York

Bruce C. Kelley Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Rena Kosersky New York, New York

Melanie Lowe Nashville, Tennessee

Linda Mack Berrien Center,Michigan

Edward McKennon Tucson, Arizona

Kazuko Miyashita Williamsburg, Virginia

Lucy P. Newton Indianapolis, Indiana

Nina Perlove Cincinnati, Ohio

Bruce Phillips Lanham, Maryland

Charles Gower Price Philadelphia,Pennsylvania

Richard Ripani Nashville, Tennessee

Patricia Robinson Brevard, North Carolina

Michael J. Rogan Boston, Massachusetts

John Schumann Portland, Oregon

Susan Stillman Manchester, New Hampshire

Dean Susuki San Leandro,California

Nancy F. Vogan Sackville, NewBrunswick, Canada

Institutional

University of Nevada-Reno Reno, Nevada

4. Ralph Kolsiana, telephone interview withRobert Stone, 26 May 1999. Kolsiana studiedwith Jimmy Kahanalopua in Philadelphia in themid-1930s, then played professionally fordecades. For a fascinating interview withKolsiana Ruymar, see Lorene. The HawaiianSteel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians.Anaheim Hills, CA: Centerstream Publishing,1996.

5. See Hays, Cedric J. and Laughton, Robert,Gospel Records, 1943-1969: A Black MusicDiscography (Milford, NH: Big NickelPublications, U.S. distributor for RecordInformation Services (England), 1992). Four ofEason’s sides remain unreleased.

6. Henry Nelson and Aubrey Ghent,interview with Sherry DuPree and RobertStone, 26 November 1993.

7. Henry Nelson and Aubrey Ghent,interview.

8. Chuck and Phillip Campbell, interviewwith Robert Stone and Chris Strachwitz, 15March 1998.

9. Most House of God steel guitarists use theterm “fram” rather than “strum.”

10. Chuck and Phillip Campbell, interview.

11. Acorne Coffee, interview with RobertStone, 17 July 1999.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. James Summersett, interview with RobertStone, 17 July 1999.

15. Ibid.

16. To differentiate the instrument from thesteel guitar, House of God musicians refer tothe standard guitar, whether it is being use toplay rhythm or leads, as “lead guitar.”

17. Henry Nelson moved to New Yorkshortly after graduating high school. Today helives in Corona, Queens.

18. James H. Hampton, interview withRobert Stone, 18 July 1999.

19. Ibid.

20. Anthony L. Fox, interviews with RobertStone, 18 July 1999.

21. Ibid.

“Steel Away” continued from page 47


Eileen Southern Bestowed with Lifetime

Achievement Award

The Society for American Music salutesEileen Jackson Southern, Professor Emeritaof Music and of Black Studies at HarvardUniversity, with its Lifetime AchievementAward in appreciation of her devotedservice to the cause of promoting study ofAmerican Music. In recognizing ProfessorSouthern, the Society honors an African-American scholar—not a performer, but awoman with impeccable academic creden-tials as well as a long list of significanthistorical accomplishments.

As the first dominant voice within theacademy to reconstruct and redefine themusic history of black America, ProfessorSouthern vigorously challenged the musi-cological community, both at home andabroad, to rethink old myths and stereo-types about black America’s contributionsto American music, and she helped trans-form the field of musicology into a moreinclusive discipline in the late twentiethcentury.

Working quietly, in a measured butdeliberate manner, she championed theintellectual viability and legitimacy ofresearch in all areas of African-Americanmusic through her writings and other activ-ities. Her numerous articles in scholarlyjournals and reference works, as well asher full-length tomes, reached and influ-enced thousands of readers. Her book TheMusic of Black Americans (1971), now inits third edition, has endured as a modelof scholarly excellence in the field ofAmerican music history. Her BiographicalDictionary of African and AfricanAmerican Musicians (1982) has served asa prototype for other comprehensive refer-ences that focus upon musicians from theAfrican diaspora. Her Black Perspectivesin Music, the journal she co-founded in1973 with her husband Joseph Southernand edited through 1991, remained formany years the only scholarly venue thatwelcomed open submissions andpublished articles devoted exclusively tothe study of African and African-AmericanMusic.

During the 1970s Professor Southernserved on both the Council and the Boardof Directors of the American MusicologicalSociety, which elected her an honorarymember in 1991. She was a foundingmember of the Sonneck Society (estab-lished 1975), and she served on its Boardof Directors (1986-88) as well as theEditorial Board of the journal AmericanMusic (1980-83, 1994-97).

Southern further blazed new trails inacademia as the first African-Americanwoman tenured in the College of Arts andSciences at Harvard University (1976-86),and she became the first African-Americanmusicologist, male or female, to behonored in a very public and permanentway with a festschrift, New Perspectives inMusic: Essays in Honor of Eileen Southern(1992), in recognition of her distinguishedservice to the discipline.

As we enter the twenty-first century, itis fitting that the Society for AmericanMusic salutes one of its founding fore-mothers—a woman who has helped torevolutionize and transform how we teachand research American music within theacademy.

—Homer RudolfUniversity of Richmond

Georgia Sea Island Singers Named Honorary

Members 2000

Through the work of Doug and FrankieQuimby, people young and old in theUnited States and around the world havecome to understand the importance of theAfrican-American contribution to Americanfolklore and culture. Songs, games, stories,and epic narratives handed down fromgeneration to generation come to lifethrough this husband and wife team,known as the Georgia Sea Island Singers.They continue the tradition when otherfamily members join them on occasion.

Since their participation in the originalSea Island Singers led by Bessie Jones overthirty years ago, the Quimbys have broad-ened the scope of their impact from folkfestivals to Carnegie Hall, from classroomsto the Olympic city of Lillehammer,

Norway. They are professionals whoweave folklore and the oral tradition withtheir personal historical and geographicnarratives. St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, isnot only the place where the original SeaIsland Singers were founded, but also theplace where African slaves were broughtas property to be auctioned off.

The Quimbys conjure up before oureyes episodes from the lives, elements ofdistinctive cultural memory, and musicaltreasures of those early African-Americans.In their presentations we hear the songsof comfort, songs of manual labor, andsongs for mutual enjoyment that the SeaIsland Singers’ African ancestors left as alegacy to our nation. Now, many genera-tions later, these songs often are designatedtraditional American songs in songanthologies. They are taught by musicteachers throughout the country as part ofthe national repertory of songs that everyAmerican child knows.

The Sea Island Singers remind us thatthe genesis of the songs that they sing isequally important as a part of our nationalheritage as is the beauty of their melodies.Songs then become the gateway to under-standing the past and the future alike.

This Honorary Membership is given tothe Sea Island Singers in recognition of thework that they have done in keeping alivethe unbroken musical tradition from thetime of slavery through the twenty-firstcentury. Their efforts have inspired andinformed generations of Americans aboutthe riches of their African musical heritage.We pay homage to their work and theirlegacy to American music.


Distinguished Service CitationPresented to Deane Root

If a well-lived life is one that plays outthe idealistic fantasies of youth, then DeaneRoot’s is exemplary, for he has not onlyseen all his dreams come to pass, he hasbeen a central player in them. He hasplayed an important role in establishing anational society devoted to the study ofAmerican music and the publication of a

REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE



His service to us in unsurpassed. Hewas our president during years of criticaldevelopment, from 1989 to 1993, and waslocal arrangements chair for the pivotal1987 meeting. He has given importantpapers at our conferences, chaired numer-ous sessions, served on and chaired manycommittees, and has just completed hisstint as our delegate to the AmericanCouncil of Learned Societies (our member-ship being largely at his initiative). Recentlyhe has been a moving force behind “VoicesAcross Time,” a project that promises tointegrate the study of our music intonational K-12 curricula. It is entirely fittingthat we pause now to honor one of ourvery best and most valuable members.Dean’s trajectory through the cosmos ofAmerican music reminds us not only ofhow far we have come, but also of what’sahead, for Deane is yet a young star andhe has yet to reach his zenith. If the pastis any guide at all, we would do well tokeep our stars hitched to his.


Irving Lowens Award forArticles

The Society awarded the Irving LowensAward for Articles published in 1998 toCarol Hess for her scholarly work in “JohnPhilip Sousa’s El Capitan: PoliticalAppropriation and the Spanish-AmericanWar,” published in American Music,volume16, Spring 1998. In this provoca-tive article of music, politics and war, Hesstakes on the daunting task of exploring therelationship between music and nationalpolitics, nationalistic sentiments, and themaking of war at an important time in thehistory of the United States. While broadin scope and relevance, the article is at thesame time compact and tightly focused. Itis especially gratifying and instructive tosee someone writing with such introspec-tive and critical self-awareness about thehistory of her country. Every nation has itsdark moments that should be acknowl-edged and this essay can serve as a modelfor exploring the ways in which the artscan be used to manipulate the imagina-tions of large numbers of people in achiev-ing what are sometimes destructive goals.

Hess traces the early history of theoperetta El Capitan, characterized by theauthor as “a buffa portrayal of Spanish

A Conference in Paradise: Sam in Trinidad, 23-27 May 2001

Irresistible music, rain forests, coral reefs, clear blue water, and white sand awaitus as we land in a tropical paradise and are whisked away by native taxi drivers whowill seem like family as they proudly point out the beauty of their island while takingus to the “upside down” hotel. Built on the side of a mountain and overlooking Portof Spain, the Trinidad Hilton is the premier hotel on the island. There we will enterthe special world of Caribbean culture. Our 27th annual conference promises all thisand more as we meet concurrently with the Center for Black Music Research.Collaborative programming will provide presentations and paper sessions open to all.

In Trinidad we will have entered a country of two equally beautiful and totallydifferent islands. Slow moving Tobago, just twenty minutes away by air, is one of theCaribbean’s best-kept secrets. We will be offered an extended foray there in whichwe will be treated to African-derived music with unique performance practices andto a catered dinner on one of Tobago’s beautiful beaches as well.

Other special activities will include several tour options before, during, and afterthe conference as well as native musical events built into the program itself.Opportunities to hear local steel bands will not be lacking, and there will be visits topan yards where the drums are made.

The Trinidad Hilton has graciously extended conference rates for five days beforeand after the conference. Major air carriers to Port of Spain are American Airlines,the official carrier for the Society for American Music, and BWIA, which is expectedto be the official carrier for the Center for Black Music Research. Detailed informa-tion on discounts will be provided in the next bulletin of each society as well as onthe registration form, which will be mailed in the fall. You are encouraged to makeflight arrangements early, to assure that seats will be available on your preferreddates.

The special fellowship so characteristic of SAM conferences will surely beaugmented as we all enjoy this tropical paradise together. Plan now to join us inTrinidad.

For more information on the conference, housing, and transportation please goto http://american-music.org/confers.htm

respected journal in American music—allthe while encouraging the teaching of ournation’s music, which has now become acommon occurrence.

Deane went from a graduate career atthe University of Illinois to some teachingat the University of Wisconsin, then on toan editing position in London at Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians. There,he helped persuade Stanley Sadie thatGroves should include significantly morearticles in such esoteric categories asAmerican music and popular music, andthus laid some of the groundwork for the1986 publication of the New GroveDictionary of American Music. AfterGroves he returned to his alma materwhere he worked with his wife, Doris

Dyen, Don Krummel, and Jean Geil inputting together the indispensableResources in American Music History. Afterpublication Deane worked with museumsand public institutions in Florida on inte-grating American music into theirprograms and missions.

In 1982 he accepted the Curatorship ofthe Stephen Foster Memorial at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, and has sinceadded Professor of Musicology to hiscollection of titles. At the Stephen FosterMemorial he built an excellent collectioninto a world-class research archive, andunder his tutelage, the University ofPittsburgh has come to be right at theepicenter of activity in American music, ascurrently manifested by the removal of ourSociety offices to Pitt.

“Conference Report” continued from page 49


administration in colonial Peru,” focusingon the initial success of the work in NewYork and its subsequent coast-to-coasttours. Hess carefully documents Sousa’sfame and importance as she proposesreasons for the great success of theoperetta, examining the context of thework while considering all the variousaspects of the work itself: text, music, andiconography. In her analysis of the score,Hess connects the text with the politicalclimate of the time and reveals how themusic was able to arouse and intensifyfeelings of patriotism and nationalism inthe audiences that heard it. Hess skillfullyinterweaves a history of the political rela-tions between Spain and the United Statesthat resulted in war, as she explains themood of the public at the time of thepremiere of El Capitan in Boston in 1896and later in New York, where a newproduction opened only one week afterthe sinking of the battleship Maine in 1898.The author shows how the music, text, andproduction itself came to symbolize theopposing forces, allowing audiences toenact the conflict as a part of the theatri-cal experience. She concludes with asynopsis of the troubled era of expan-sionism ushered n by the subsequentevents of the Spanish-American War.

By applying the tools and theories ofhistoriography to a significant and timelymusical composition, the author skillfullyilluminates a major historical event andexplores the many subtle relationshipsbetween art and politics. Scholars ofAmerican history and American music willfind this article stimulating and instructive.

—Wesley Berg and George Keck

Non-Print Subvention Award

The Society awarded its fifth annualNon-Print Publication subvention to TheFarmer’s Museum of Cooperstown, NY, fora recording by the Susquehanna SingingSchool. The title of the recording is:“Winter’s Song: Seasonal and HolidayFavorites from Candlelight Evening.”Applications are now open for next year.Applications for financial assistance to facil-itate the publication of non-print materialconcerning American music may be madeby performers, editors, project directors,or producers. “Non-Print Publications” maybe video cassettes, recordings, CD-ROMS,radio programs, or other projects that

further the Society for American Music’smission and goals. Deadline for applica-tions is 15 December 2000. For applicationguidelines, contact Dr. Mary Jane Corry, 8Joalyn Road, New Paltz, NY 12561([email protected]).

Interest Group Council

A meeting of the Interest GroupCouncil, comprised of chairs of each of theSociety for American Music interest groups,was held in Charleston on Saturday, 4March, during the annual conference ofthe Society.

Outgoing Interest Group CoordinatorJean Geil introduced a number of newchairs, and welcomed Mariana Whitmer,who is assuming the duties of SAMExecutive Director as of 1 July. Shereminded Council members of the needto adhere to the schedule for re-validationestablished a year ago, while noting thatinterest groups must meet at least onceevery two years in order to remain active.(It is anticipated, however, that theTrinidad Conference may be consideredas an exception to the two-year rule).

Larry Worster encouraged Councilmembers to submit reports for publicationin the summer Bulletin, and requested thata conscientious effort be made to insurethat the Interest Group Council listservnames and addresses remain currentthroughout the year.

Executive Director Kate Kellerpresented a summary of budgetary consid-erations relating to the activities of inter-est groups. Unfortunately, the currentbudget cannot support increases for inter-est groups this year, other than initial allot-ments for two new groups (Students; 18th-Century Music).

President Rae Linda Brown congratu-lated Council members on the variety andquality of their sessions, and noted thatinterest groups provide an important focusfor programming as well as a significantsource of productive energy for the Societyas a whole.

Geil thanked all those present for theirenthusiasm and hard work over the pastseveral years during her tenure as InterestGroup Coordinator. Judy Tsou hasassumed responsibility for this position, asof the close of the Charleston conference.

—Jean GeilUniversity of Illinois Music Library

Gospel and Sacred Music and Popular Music Interest Groups

On opening night of the Charlestonmeeting this year, a special group of SouthCarolina church musicians transformed theMills House ballroom into a House of God,Keith Dominion meeting hall during amoving musical experience.

Performing their music outside of theirchurch and denominational context for thefirst time, lap-steel guitarist JamesSummersett, lap- and pedal-steel guitaristAnthony Fox, and members of the Foxfamily shared with the an appreciative SAMaudience the driving energy and unique,haunting timbres of worship in theirAfrican-American Holiness-Pentecostaldenomination.

Folklorist Robert L. Stone, whopresented an overview of the House ofGod sacred steel guitar tradition at anearlier session, arranged for these practi-tioners of a style dating from the 1930s torecreate their use of music for worship atthe conference.

Stone, besides being a fine scholar whohas spent several years researching thetradition and has interviewed the leadingplayers, is also a producer with ArhoolieProductions and has co-produced record-ings of Sacred Steel musicians on that label(see discs 461 and 472).

Among the interesting elements of thistradition, born on the 1930s during the U.S.craze for the Hawaiian guitar sound, areits functional applications in worship toprocessionals, healing prayers, and offer-tory marches as well as the more familiar“shout” praise songs. According to Stone,Holiness musicians were first attracted tothe instrument for its capability to imitatea solo lead singer—particularly a femalevoice—improvising expressively inworship. Stone explained that playersconsider their abilities as a gift from God:a gift that often leads them to discover indi-vidualized “inspired” tunings for theirinstruments, and one which they feelcompelled to give back to God and to Hispeople—no musicians in he church arepaid.

As attendees trickled into the ballroomfrom dinner, Summersett and the Foxfamily—Anthony, his wife Precious, andbrothers Carlos (keyboards) and Leonard(drums)—prepared their instruments andamplifiers. Each member of the Fox family



separately asked me what kind of music Ithought the audience would “be into,” andI told each musician the same thing: wehoped to be transported into the middleof one of their services, to see and heartheir worship for ourselves. And that is justwhat these five musicians did!

“We are here because we love Jesus,”said Precious in introduction, “and we praythat you will love Jesus, too—and say alittle prayer for us, too, because we are alittle bit nervous.” She then shared a slow,moving reading of “We Shall Behold Him,”accompanied by the four players.

An instrumental rendition of “PreciousMemories” followed, then Precious sangher stunning version of “Amazing Grace,”in which her powerful vocal colors andspectacular range were enhanced by herunassuming candor and gracious rapportwith her audience.

Anthony switched to bass to accompanyJames Summersett’s performance of“Blessed Assurance,” after which Anthonyand James presented a steel guitar duetbased on “What A Friend We Have InJesus” but soaring freely into unchartedmusical territory.

By this time, a small group of confer-encees had stationed themselves towardsthe front of the room, swaying and clap-ping with the music, while others followedsuit along the walls. As Johann Buis whis-pered questions about the song selectionto drummer Leonard, Precious exhortedthose sitting down to “move up front” inpreparation for a more lively selection ofpraise songs.

James played lead with Anthony onbass during “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”in preparation for the praise music. By thetime Roxanne Reed made her enthusias-tic charge between songs, urging audiencemembers to “get up, or you won’t getblessed!” the rhythmic voltage in the roomwas rising.

The musicians began to bless the audi-ence—standing or not—with “I ThankYou, Lord,” which moved up-tempo andled to the “moanin’” style of steel guitarplaying. Precious introduced anotherpraise song, “God Is Still In Charge,” notingthat this was always sung by a special “oldsister” in her church. James followed thissong with a hot lap-steel praise solo, thenmoved into a slow-down song as the styleof worship changed. Anthony presenteda pedal-steel reading of “At The Cross,”

followed by James’s lap-steel take on“What A Friend We Have In Jesus” andsongs by Precious including “May TheWords of My Tongue” and “Thank You,Lord.”

The musicians played “Saints” as anexample of an offertory march, then closedtheir service with “How Great Thou Art”and a song they later identified only by thename “Father.”

As the subdued steels brought arenewed calm into the room, Preciousended this unforgettable evening remind-ing us of the source and inspiration of theirmusic, as she gave a short testimony of herpersonal faith in Christ and issued an invi-tation to anyone who “does not knowJesus” to speak with them afterwards.

The music’s drama was heightened bythe knowledge that we were the first audi-ence outside their church ever to hear thisgroup live. They not only played for us,they opened their hearts and gave part ofthemselves. Many of us left overwhelmedby the music and the privilege of the occa-sion. It would have been hard to be therethat night and not to have “had church.”

This special presentation was jointlysponsored and underwritten by the Gospeland Sacred Music Interest Group (RoxanneReed and Esther Rothenbusch, co-chairs)and the Popular Music Interest Group(Kristen K. Stauffer and Philip A. Todd, co-chairs).

20th-Century Music Interest Group

The 20th-century Special Interest Grouppresented a performance of John Cage’sTheatre Piece (1960) at the CharlestonConference. In the work’s instructions, Cagemakes clear that the performance is acomposite of the performers’ (from one toeight) individual realizations of their parts.There is to be no conductor or director.

Complying in spirit, our non-conduc-tor, non-director was Wayne Shirley. Neverquite telling anyone what to do, Waynewas nonetheless always ready with advice,stories, and suggestions as numerouspuzzles in the parts presented themselves.

During the process of creating our parts,we formed an email listserv. Those whowanted to share an idea or illicit a varietyof opinions had the option of communi-cating with everyone at once. The TheatrePiece instructions and the parts are

profoundly ambiguous, and the listservdiscussions were copious and wide-rang-ing. Matters simple and direct (“can some-one bring a music stand?”) alternated withdilemmas impossible to pin down (theincompleteness of all musical notation.)

Our rehearsal the night before theperformance served at least two purposes.The performers got a “sneak preview” anddiscussed how to deal with our sponta-neous reactions. We were also able toremove potentially dangerous obstacles inthe room and in combinations of individ-ual parts. No one would have wanted tobe in the path of Amy Beal’s sprintingtrajectory.

The performance itself was a stunningcombination of personae, from DavidPatterson’s emblematic table of props toCarol Baron and Ann Sears, facing theaudience front and center, but doingdistinctly less than anyone else, includingmost audience members. Carol and Annwere joined in front by Catherine Smith,who was somewhat more active, but sotruculent that the three of them appearedto be refugees from an absurdist drama.While Amy created mischief in the back ofthe room, Denise Von Glahn remained anelegant presence in one corner, stretching,singing, and reading. Everyone hadwonderful individual moments, but formany observers, David Nicholls provideda summarizing focal point when hedescribed in detail, as part of his realiza-tion, exactly what he was doing at thatparticular time and place.

The atmosphere created by TheatrePiece embraced everything that came incontact with it. Music, speech, andapplause from the neighboring conferenceroom, so often a disturbance in othersessions, was an integral and welcomepresence in this one. Craig Parker’s tardyappearance at the door of the room wasindistinguishable from the rest of theperformance.

Working on Theatre Piece was an eye-opening experience for the participants,and it led to a stimulating discussion ofnearly an hour following the performance.Comments concerning preparation asessential to the concept of performance,the perception of time, and the blurredboundaries between composer, per-former, and audience led to observationsabout life in general. A splendid time washad by all.

“Conference Report” continued from page 51


Musical Theater Interest Group

The Musical Theater Interest Grouphelped plan two events for the meeting inCharleston, 1-5 March 2000. On Fridayafternoon, 3 March, we joined theEighteenth Century Interest Group in atour of Charleston’s Dock Street Theater,hosted by theater director SuzanneMitchell. We found it a lovely, if well-wornfacility, but claims made about the recon-struction’s authenticity based on eigh-teenth-century models are exaggerated.The Musical Theater Interest Group alsospawned one of the Saturday morningsessions: “Rainbows, Cats, and Assassins:Crafting Music and Lyrics for the BroadwayMusical.” Included were fascinating papersby Anna Wheeler Gentry (University ofMissouri-Kansas City), Jessica Sternfeld(Princeton University), and JimLovensheimer (Ohio State University).Musical Theater Interest Group activitiesfor the Trinidad meeting are being coor-dinated by William Everett (University ofMissouri-Kansas City).

—Paul LairdUniversity of Kansas

19th Century Music Interest Group

The American Band Music ResearchInterest Group meeting in Charlestonprovided a forum for two papers relatedto 19th century band music and musicians,“Music for America’s Hometown Bands:Tracing the Southwell Publishing Firm”and “The Victor Brass Quartet: Music byWalter Rogers and Herbert L. Clarke.”

Professor of Music Quincy UniversityLavern Wagner presented the results of hisresearch and recent publication of criticaleditions of works by band music publisherGeorge Southwell (1852-1916). Dr. Wagnertraced Southwell’s migration from Illinoisthrough Missouri to Kansas as he literallywidened his horizons and developed hisreputation in the music publishing busi-ness. Dr. Wagner’s select bibliography ofSouthwell’s works from 1881 through 1913include compositions related to geographiclocations from Princeton, Illinois toWellington and Fort Davis, Kansas, as wellas the “Union Quickstep” that Southwelldedicated to the Union Fire Company ofWinchester Virginia. He commemoratedother cities and towns, organizations,

events, and transportation in his dedica-tions and titles (e.g., Chanute, Kansas City,and Fort Davis, Kansas; Kokomo, Indiana;Ladies Band, Sells Brothers Circus, KarnivalKrewe; and the World’s Fair, Kansas CityExposition, and Columbia Exposition, theA.T. & Santa Fe railroad) to overtures,quicksteps, marches, two-steps, polkas,and cakewalks. Dr. Wagner incorporatednumerous slides of Southwell’s composi-tions in his bio-bibliographical presenta-tion to enhance description of 19th-centurymusic publishing practice.

In conjunction with the doctor of musi-cal arts degree from the University ofIllinois School of Music, Michael Smith hascompiled information regarding theIndianapolis-based Schubert Quartetcomprised of Herbert L. Clarke (cornet),Walter Rogers (cornet), Edwin G. Clarke(alto horn), and Ernest Clarke (trombone).The group refined their ensemble at thePlymouth Congregational Church whereClarke family patriarch William G. Clarkeserved as organist and director of music.The primary source of repertory for thequartet has been preserved in books thatinclude transcriptions and original compo-sitions by both Rogers and Clarke; thebooks are held at the Sousa Archives forBand Research at the University of Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign. The materials havebeen reformatted through a NationalEndowment for the Humanities-sponsoredpreservation microfilming project.Michael’s project includes informationrelated to the Victor Brass Quartet, as wellas a forthcoming critical edition and acompact disc recording of the SchubertQuartet book materials.

The American Band History ResearchInterest Group will not officially conveneat the annual meeting in Trinidad in 2001;members will re-group in 2002 at theannual meeting of the Society in Lexington,Kentucky.

Research on Gender and American Music

Interest Group

In February of 2000, Kay Norton, outgo-ing chair, contacted several regular atten-ders of the Interest Group to suggest thatthe leadership be shared between co-chairs. She forwarded the names of LianeCurtis of Brandeis University and PetraMeyer-Frazier of the Metropolitan State

College of Denver, who both communi-cated their willingness to serve ifconfirmed by the Group.

The Charleston Program Bookletannounced the necessity of electing a newchair in the meeting abstract. BecauseNorton was unable to convene the InterestGroup during its scheduled meeting time,Jean Geil, outgoing Interest Groups Liaisonto the Board, called the meeting to orderat 10:15 on 5 March 2000. Marilynn Smileyrecorded minutes of the meeting.

No nominations were received from thefloor. Curtis and Meyer-Frazier were provi-sionally accepted as new co-chairs of theGroup, pending additional confirmationof their willingness to serve in this capac-ity. This confirmation was received in mid-March; Norton is happy to announce theirappointments as new co-chairs of theInterest Group.

—Kay Norton, Outgoing Chair

American Music in American Schools

Interest Group

The American Music in AmericanSchools and Universities Interest Groupset as its agenda for the Charleston meet-ing an open forum in which to discussStrategies for Teaching American Music.Modeled after the discussion conducted atthe Interest Group meeting in Madison in1996, this session revisited the issues andcontinued the dialogue surrounding ourobjective to promote American music as aconstant and vital part of the curriculum,both at the K-12 level and in the collegeand university environment. What followsis a brief synopsis of the discussion thatensued.

The greatest challenge that the interestgroup identified in teaching Americanmusic at the college and university level isthe element of time. How do we addressthe breadth and diversity of music that hasbeen embraced in the research during thetwentieth century within an already estab-lished number of credit hours? How do weincorporate literature by Americancomposers, as well as works by womenand minority composers, ethnic musics,and world musics into a paradigm that wasinitially designed to encompass theWestern European cultivated milieu at best?Further, students seem to come to ourclasses with less exposure to American



music. As the structure of communities,schools, churches, and families has beenaltered, familiarity of our students to arepertoire of American “standards” can nolonger be assumed. With exposure toAmerican music now included in NASMand MENC recommendations, how do weacknowledge this charge and embrace thediversity at hand? Many in attendance atthe session described a paradigm shift intheir teaching—a shift from teaching abody of “material” to a model that exploresmusic in its full context—investigatingissues, fostering integration, and promot-ing critical thinking. Through thisapproach, Dvorak’s “New World”Symphony, as an example, can become apoint of departure for a discussion of notonly symphonic literature, but for exami-nation of African-American spirituals andother American vernacular musics, the lifeand career of Henry T. Burleigh, andAmerica’s musical identity in the late nine-teenth and early twentieth centuries,among numerous other possible avenuesof study. By encouraging critical thinking,we develop in our students the skills thatwill help them understand the varioustypes of music they encounter both in andbeyond the classroom. While we may notbe able to teach every detail in the wealthof musics that have now come to the fore,we can be catalysts for the type of inquirythat promotes lifelong learning.

The interest group also addressed theneeds and concerns of K-12 teachers,those who supervise student teachers, andstudio teachers. What resources are avail-able to assist them in incorporatingAmerican music into their classrooms andstudios?

Workshops provide valuable opportu-nities in this area. For example, Christinede Catanzaro shared information about theGeorgia State University SummerwindSeminar with the group. This annual two-day workshop for K-12 teachers of music,social studies, and language arts, focuseson aspects of American twentieth-centurypopular song and how this repertory canenhance classroom instruction. A need foranthologies covering various style periodswas also noted. The Voices Across TimeProject, directed by Deane Root at theCenter for American Music at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, was recognizedas an endeavor making great strides in thisarea. Currently in the pilot phase of itsdevelopment, this curriculum provides the

tools and strategies for teaching Americanhistory through music.

The Charleston session closed on anoptimistic note as Larry Worstercommented that when the SonneckSociety was originally formed, Americanmusic was viewed as almost a “liability.”What a success story it is now, heobserved, as we are faced with the chal-lenge of trying to “fit it all in”!

—Maxine Fawcett-YeskeNebraska Wesleyan University

Silent Auction Report

The Society took in over $2,000 to helpwith the Student Conference Travel andAccommodations fund. Thanks to all whobrought such wonderful offerings and toall to bought them! The new chair of theSilent Auction is Dianna Eiland. You’ll behearing from her as the Trinidad confer-ence nears.

—Kate van Winkle Keller

Charleston From a Student’s Perspective

In the weeks leading up to the confer-ence in Charleston, I was somewhat appre-hensive as to what would await me onceI arrived as a first-time student attendee. Ihad attended one musicological confer-ence up until that time and I rememberbeing both exhilarated and distraught.Exhilarated at the prospect of discussingthe field I love with so many differentpeople, both faculty and students, anddistraught with the lack of camaraderiebetween students and faculty of differentinstitutions. I also remember witnessingthe inquisition between papers and feel-ing queasy imagining myself at thepodium. Since I was to present my firstpaper at Charleston, these reminiscencesdid not calm my fears.

I am happy to report that these fears nolonger exist thanks to the wonderful expe-rience I had at the conference inCharleston. The paper was well receivedand the discussion following was justthat—a discussion. The questions reallymade me think and some led to newavenues of research.

The one thing that I will always remem-ber from this conference was the warmthof the people involved—both faculty andstudents. People were interested in whatI had to say and in turn were excited about

“Conference Report” continued from page 53their own research. Those present seemedmore interested in learning more about themusicological world around them, than inimposing their own agendas. Nowherewas this more evident than in discussionswith fellow students. The veteran musi-cology students made me feel welcome atall times and I learned so much from theirstories and experiences in music. Our talksranged from Mozart to Metallica and eachdiscussion was more invigorating than thelast.

I will always remember my stay inCharleston, not only for the beautifulscenery, but for the members of the Societyfor American Music that made my experi-ence so positive. Thank you, programcommittee, for deeming my paper worthyof this conference. Thank you, facultymembers, for being interested in theresearch of a lowly student. Thank you,student members, for reminding me whyI became a musicologist. Last, but certainlynot least, I would like to thank the societyfor making it possible for students likemyself to attend these conferences byestablishing the student travel fund. Iwould not have been in Charleston with-out it.

—Tony BushardUniversity of Kansas


For this Letter from Britain, BridgetFalconer-Salkeld, a postgraduate student atthe Institute of United States Studies, Universityof London, reports on her recent research visitto America. Bridget was the recipient of atravel award from the Central Research Fundof the University of London to aid her study ofthe role of the MacDowell Colony in thedevelopment of American music. Hersupervisor for this study is Peter Dickinson.Bridget wishes to gratefully acknowledge allthose in the United States who have generouslyassisted the research and contributed to theproject.

Welcome to Newark Airport ran thelegend, and the adjacent portrait of BillClinton had a promising, starry-eyed look.In retrospect they were inadequate expres-sions. Welcome to American Music—anExperience of a Lifetime would have beennearer the mark! Writing seven weeks later,mid-May, at the request of your customaryBritish correspondent, David Nicholls, thiskaleidoscopic experience draws to a closeafter meetings in New York with twocomposers, Barbara Kolb and Ned Rorem,and two memorable New York concerts.

But to retrace: My research trip began lateMarch, and by early April I had reachedPeterborough, New Hampshire, home ofthe MacDowell Colony, subject of the study.Still in the grip of winter, the landscaperesembled the far north of Europe—all gray,silver and leafless, except for the WhiteBirch whose ivory-colored leaves weresuspended like Chinese lanterns. Thepurposeful activity of the MacDowellcolonists contrasted with the cold stillnessoutdoors. Later, however, there were wildstorms followed by heavy snow. But to seesnowflakes gently falling and spinningthrough the trees outside MacDowell’sstudio was poetic in the extreme.

On the lunch-basket delivery run to eachof the occupied studios one day, it was asurprise to discover that MacDowell’s logcabin is built on a platform down a steepravine. It is cleverly aligned with a WhitePine of venerable age, and with MountMonadnock, a cone-shaped peak somemiles away. Sited at one with its environ-ment, the cabin brought to mind FrankLloyd Wright’s house Fallingwater inPennsylvania, built 1936. Although the cabin

is only officially open once a year, I wastaken inside to find a diminutive space, withlattice casement windows, original furnish-ings, and framed pictures. It was highlyatmospheric. Likewise the MacDowellgravesite where I paid respects on my lastday. The enormous boulder whereMacDowell would sit and contemplateMonadnock seemed to stand sentinel overthe graves.

On a much smaller scale, and perfectlyround, were the unvarnished wooden orbsthat marched across a meadow near ColonyHall, headquarters of the Colony. No boul-ders these. Their maker, a sculptor, evencovered them in protective black plasticwhenever rain threatened. So there was thedaily surreal sight of a piece of outdoorsinstallation art constantly changing its face—pale gold-black-pale gold—according to theweather.

The seven days of research were spentmostly in the Savidge Library, a high-ceilinged hall with flagstone floor, perfectlyquiet in its wooded setting. A grand pianosuggested musical evenings; on it was adonated copy of Ned Rorem’s Evidence ofThings Not Seen (1999). Promising myselfthat, once back in New York, I would buythe newly released CD of the cycle, I busiedmyself with exploring the extensiverecorded archive. Needless to say, I receivedevery assistance from David Macy, residentmanager of the MacDowell Colony, and hisstaff. This was preparatory to researchingat Columbia University, NYPL for thePerforming Arts, the MacDowell ColonyNew York offices, and interviewingMacDowell composers.

I have been exceedingly fortunate inhaving ten American composers so farcontribute to the study: Larry Austin, ToddBrief, Gerald Chenoweth, and Gardner Readreturned completed questionnaires; LukasFoss and Howard Shanet gave telephoneinterviews based on the questionnaire;Russell Oberlin telephoned here fromVenice [!] that he would be pleased tocontribute on the subject of the develop-ment of American music when he returnsfrom Italy; and four composers very kindlygave me face-to-face recorded interviews,la crème-de-la-crème of interviews. In theorder in which I met them they were—David Rakowski, in residence at the

MacDowell Colony; Dan Pinkham, profes-sor at the New England Conservatory,Boston; an introduction by Steve Ledbetter;and in the past few days, Barbara Kolb andNed Rorem. Their perspectives and insightson the MacDowell Colony have providedthe study with invaluable primary sourcematerial, and the author with the memo-rable experience of talking and meetingwith them.

Before reporting on the two concerts inNew York, I will mention some highlightsof my journeys here. Highlights do not, ofcourse, encompass only the pleasurable,but also the discomfiture of present-day trav-elers who submit themselves to the tendermercies of airline companies. Once,however, and for probably the only time inmy life, I traveled first-class from Atlanta toNewark, courtesy of the airline whose flightwas canceled the previous day due toadverse weather. I will no more burden thereader with lengthy descriptions of trialsendured than with the moments of extremedelight. Ce serait trop! But it was due to thisunscheduled overnight stop in Atlanta thata quite extraordinary coincidence occurred.Abroad you think, even hope, you areincognita. It Ain’t Necessarily So! I was hailedby a good friend, borough historian ofManasquan, New Jersey, while waiting toboard the same flight from Atlanta. I’dstayed with her two years before whileresearching a paper on Robert LouisStevenson at Brielle and Manasquan.1 It wasfun to go aft and chat with her until take-off, and then return to First Class for a deli-cious breakfast.

Here the gentle reader asks, “What onearth has Atlanta to do with MacDowell?”The answer is, of course, nothing at all thatI know of. It was just one of the stops on around-trip to visit American friends I hadfirst met in Paris. Phoenix, Arizona, and VeroBeach, on the Florida East Coast, was whereI stayed with them. And what remains?

In Arizona, a weekend trip to see theGrand Canyon, Sedona Canyon, and thenearby town, where I had the biggest black-currant sorbet ever—five scoops no less! Iwas impressed by the superbly engineeredhighways, varieties of desertscapes, and vastdeciduous forests. The Grand Canyon,which reveals the effects of geologic time,

LETTER FROM BRITAIN FROM AMERICA



The Great American Brass Band Festival

On the second weekend of this past June,Centre College and the town of Danville,KY played host to the eleventh annual GreatAmerican Brass Band Festival (GABBF).First conceived and organized in 1990 bySAM member George Foreman and hisCentre faculty colleague Vince DiMartino,the GABBF has grown from that first year’srelatively modest series of concerts by eightregional ensembles into a major four-dayevent for anyone interested in bands andband music. This year’s GABBF featuredmore than forty hours of live concerts bysixteen ensembles, including performersfrom Europe and Asia, the tenth annualBand History Conference, an Elderhostelprogram, and numerous other activities.

In keeping with the GABBF’s first everinvitations to bands from outside the UnitedStates, the Band History Conference on 9June, chaired by Frank Cipolla (SUNY-Buffalo), made “International Connections”its theme. The day began with Raoul Camus(CUNY) discussing “The Influence of ItalianBandmasters on American Bands.” In hispresentation, he identified many of theextraordinary number of Italian musicianswho contributed to the American bandmovement in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. As Camus noted, the vogue forItalian bandsmen eventually became sogreat that more than a few musiciansItalianicized their names to improve theirmarketability.

In his paper, “Henry Distin: Revolutionaryor Evolutionary,” organologist and collec-tor Lloyd P. Farrar (Norris, TN) examinedthe career and contributions of an impor-tant British, and later American, instrumentmanufacturer. Several instruments fromFarrar’s own collection made it possibleboth to see and to hear the results of Distin’simproved designs of brass instruments inthe nineteenth century. The morning ses-sion concluded with an informal presenta-tion on “College Bands: Concert Band tothe Wind Ensemble” by legendary conduc-tor Frederick Fennell. In a relaxed conver-sation with Cipolla, Fennell reminiscedabout his early years in music and explainedhow his own interest in band music led to

the founding of the Eastman WindEnsemble.

The afternoon session began with apaper on “The International Tours of theSousa Band” by noted Sousa scholar PaulE. Bierley (Westerville, OH), which featuredliterally dozens upon dozens of slides illus-trating the presentation. The final paper ofthe day, “A Short History of the British BrassBand” by Ronald W. Holz (Asbury College),included some of the best aural (and alsovisual) examples one might have wishedfor in a scholarly setting. As Holz explainedthe evolution and development of brassbands, each stage was illustrated by anexcerpt performed by a pick-up ensemble(drawn from the members of several ensem-bles participating in the GABBF) configuredin the precise instrumentation under dis-cussion.

Following the day of scholarly presenta-tions, conference participants and a publicaudience estimated at more than 10,000enjoyed two full days (Saturday and Sunday,10-11 June) of concerts by a series of ensem-bles that illustrated the breadth and depthof band music, both in America and fromabroad. Despite the festival’s name, only ahandful of the invited groups might be con-sidered traditional “brass bands,” i.e., theFestival Brass (an English Salvation Armyband), the Tivoli Ensemble (Denmark) andthe Trailblazers (Japan), while the AdvocateBrass Band (Danville, KY) followed theAmerican practice of including clarinets anda piccolo in the ensemble. Among the othergroups were several that used period instru-ments to recreate mid-nineteenth-centuryAmerican bands (Olde Town Brass, Saxton’sCornet Band, and the Eighth Regiment Bandof Georgia), brass quintets (MillenniumBrass, Top Brass, and Main Street Brass), theDixieland-style Olympia Brass Band, andthe comic Circle City Sidewalk Stompers.American military music was representedby the 202d Army Band, the Band of the U.S.Air Force Reserve, which also brought itsScottish Pipe Band, and the Army’s“Hellcats,” the drum and bugle corps sta-tioned at West Point. Interestingly, oneensemble that most resembled a tradition-al American concert band was theMusikverein Herforst, an amateur civic bandfrom a small German farming community

near the Belgian border. Finally, the GABBFalso featured British tuba virtuoso StephenSykes as soloist with the host AdvocateBrass Band.

Using several outdoor stages and otherperformance venues on the campus ofCentre College and throughout Danville’sdowntown area, as many as four differentensembles performed simultaneouslythroughout the day on Saturday, whileSunday’s performances were limited to onemain stage. In addition to the weekend con-certs, the GABBF also included numerousother performances at the Elderhostel pro-gram (Thursday, 8 June), the BandConference, and other related events suchas the Great American Balloon Race (Friday,9 June). With each group performing at leasttwice on the weekend, as well as in theSaturday morning parade, it was possibleto hear nearly every ensemble at least once.

One of the goals at the first GABBF in1990 had been the recreation of the idyllicturn-of-the-century atmosphere duringwhich American bands were at the heightof their popularity. In the subsequent festi-vals, including this year’s, numerous ancil-lary events and other adjuncts, e.g., anantique show, flower show, individuals inperiod costumes, street vendors, etc., havehelped the GABBF to retain its unique fla-vor. At the same time, the addition of theBand History Conference in 1991 and theElderhostel in 1998 have given this event animportant educational and scholarly dimen-sion.

Underscoring this latter significance andimpact of the GABBF was the announce-ment earlier this year that plans are nowunderway for the development of a bandmuseum in Danville. The initial step towardthis goal came earlier this year with thetransfer of ownership of an empty FederalBuilding in Danville to the city for use as aband museum. Funds for the renovation ofthe building and donations of items for themuseum are now being sought. Interestedindividuals may contact either GeorgeForeman or Debra Hoskins at the NortonCenter for the Arts, Centre College, 600 WestWalnut Street, Danville, KY 40422(Telephone: 859-236-4692).

Additional information on the 2000 GreatAmerican Brass Band Festival is available

PERFORMANCES OF NOTE


resonated with Rembrandt’s The AnatomyLesson in evoking both awe and horror.

In Florida, the shallow, smooth-surfacedIndian River glided past the backyard[garden]; its dredged center, the intracoastalhighway, carried vessels of sizeabletonnage. At dusk, golden light gilded theriver, silhouetting the palm trees; the vege-tation seemed familiar yet strange.

On the cultural side, Vero Beach ArtsCenter, designed to international standards,had a fine art exhibition, and showed full-length films on the featured artists—DiegoRivera and Freda Kohla.

Back on the American music trail,another high-quality indoor space tomention is the New England Conservatory’sJordan Hall, a designated National HistoricSite. It was Dan Pinkham who kindlyshowed it to me following our meeting.Afterwards, due to unforeseen circum-stances, that night was spent on the Boston-NY-Washington D.C. sleeper train, notsleeping. Then, By New York Penn StationI Sat Down and . . . waited for the 4:49 AMtrain to Newark Penn. If a pristine, mini-malist lodging for the night is all you requirethen New York Penn’s Amtrak/NJ Transitwaiting area fulfils all requirements—exceptthat of sleep. The cleaning taskforceperformed their duties with the dedicationof Trappist monks in the clean, lightlyperfumed, air-conditioned hall, all white,silver, and gray. The only sound was theperpetual squeaking of escalators.

And what of people seen and met bychance? On a plane from Atlanta toMelbourne, Florida, I helped an off-dutycabin crewmember to revise for her philos-ophy exam that very evening. In return, shepresented me with a fresh red rosebud in aminiature vase of water that she had boughtin The Lanes, Brighton, England, that verymorning! I was reminded that informationcan be picked up in the oddest places whena fellow bus passenger told me about anearly twentieth-century artists’ colony inUpper New York State which I had notcome across.

For human contrast it’s hard to beat whatI saw just before last Saturday’s concert inNew York City. A burly posse of bikers,men and women, in red and black leather

‘uniforms’ ambled out of the staid venue torev their Harley-Davidsons in the streetfronting the hall, just as members of thechamber orchestra were arriving. Perplexityon all sides. Yet around the corner stood agroup of tall, French officer cadets resplen-dent in Napoleonic uniforms of black tunics,cocked hats and white buckskin trousers.

The New York concerts I attended bothfeatured Ned Rorem. The first, Ned RoremHosts: American Songwriters, took place atthe 92nd Street Y, Wednesday, 10 May. Inaddition to hosting the evening, Ned Roremaccompanied his own work, War Scenes(1969), with Kurt Ollmann, baritone. Thiswas a fine, robust performance that madea powerful impact. The concert was wellattended. Refreshments were served at theintermission, and novel to a British visitorwas the party afterwards for both audienceand performers. Wine and food wasserved—excellent!

The second concert, entitled OrpheusCelebrates Yaddo, was the last in a series ofthree celebrating one hundred years ofYaddo, the professional creative artists’community at Saratoga Springs, New York.It was held at the New York Society forEthical Culture, West 64th Street. TheOrpheus Chamber Orchestra performedworks by composers who had worked atYaddo, in program order: Michael Torke,Barbara Kolb, Sebastian Currier, LeonardBernstein, Steven Burke, and Ned Rorem.After each work the composer received theaudience applause. George Tsontakis haddevised a very interesting program; eachcomposition employed tonality and atonal-ity to varying degrees, yet each composer’smusical language was strikingly individual.

Kaleidoscopic, contrastive scenes andevents have been a constant theme of thisresearch trip in the United States. I suspectthat the next time will be just as rewarding.

Note:1. Between Brielle and Manasquan, poem by

Oliver St. John Gogarty written during hisresidency at Princeton.

“Letter from Britain” continued from page 55on the web at: http://www.gabbf.com,while information on next year’s festival willbe posted at that same site as it becomesavailable.

—Scott WarfieldCentre College

Aaron Copland FestivalThe Pacific Symphony (Carl St. Clair,

Music Director) recently mounted an eight-day Copland festival with a special focus onCopland and film from 12-19 November2000. Participating scholars were JosephHorowitz (Artistic Consultant), David Schiff,and Robert Winter. The legendaryHollywood composer David Raksin alsotook part.

The festival’s three orchestral concerts,three films, and various special eventsincluded a screening with live orchestralaccompaniment of “The City,” a distin-guished 45-minute documentary for the1939 World’s Fair for which Coplandfurnished an elaborate and ingeniousscore—a starting point for his influentailmusical tropes for “city” and “country.” Theoriginal soundtrack (conducted by MaxGoberman) barely suggests the richness andoriginality of this nearly continuous music,which at times strikingly prefigures the filmmusic of Philip Glass (!).

David Schiff spoke on the politicalcontent of Copland’s 10 film scores inconjunction with a screening of “Of Miceand Men,” and additional commentary byDavid Raksin on Copland’s influence inHollywood. Robert Winter presented thepublic debut of his new CD-ROM on“Appalachian Spring,” including a rare filmof the complete ballet as danced by MarthaGraham and her company.

The festival also incorporated pianomusic (with Benjamin Pasternak), chambermusic, and numerous orchestral works.William Warfield was the soloist in “ALincoln Portrait.” The Pacific Symphony,California’s third largest orchestra, is locatedin Santa Ana (Orange County).


Washington D.C., 4-6 May 2000. This wasmy first meeting of the American Council ofLearned Societies as a delegate from SAM,and I found it fascinating. I am grateful tothe Board for appointing me to this posi-tion, since I think it provides good visibil-ity for the Society as well as topics thatshould be of interest to all of us.

The topics I wish to highlight from thisyear’s meeting are three: new fellowshipopportunities for scholars; the possibilitiesof e-publishing, which was the major topicof this meeting; and the opportunities forexpanding awareness of American musicthrough entries in the Dictionary ofAmerican Biography, an ACLS sponsoredpublication.

The ACLS has traditionally offered fellow-ships for all areas of the humanities; this year65 such awards were given, two of whichwent to music (out of a total of 29 applicantsin that field). A new category of awards,entitled the Frederick Burkhardt Fellowshipsfor Recently Tenured Scholars, is aimed atexpanding the horizons of mature, but stillyoung scholars, who might otherwise stag-nate or become even more specialized. Thisaward encourages interdisciplinary workand allows the winners to spend time at oneof the national centers for the humanities inorder to aid that process. Worth over$60,000, only eleven were given this year,but it is hoped that the number will grow,and that this gesture by ACLS will encour-age other fellowship opportunities for thisimportant group of scholars.

ACLS is taking the topic of electronicpublishing very seriously and is trying toprovide leadership in making it bothrespectable and viable. The major issue ofelectronic publishing, whether it be jour-nals, books, or occasional papers, is touphold the standards of scholarly publish-ing and the integrity of publication, whileat the same time taking advantage of theflexibility and constant updating capabili-ties of electronic publishing. The optimistsin this field see new possibilities for rela-tionships between readers and the mater-

ial, which can include much more than justtext. The pessimists worry about losing thediscipline of the page, the tendency tosprawl, and the increased possibilities forplagiarism and fraud. For Societies such asours, the prospect of on-line publishing ofthe Journal, for instance, may impact theway the society operates in terms ofmembership, dues, etc. If a journal is acces-sible to all, why join the Society?

The on-line version of the Dictionary ofAmerican Biography is an example of thebenefits of electronic publishing, however,since it provides a chance to bring in newresearch on many areas—includingAmerican music. The Dictionary editorsintend to keep adding to the 24 volumesthat were published last year, by doing it online. They are looking for neglected figuresin any field, and certainly including music,as long as they are deceased. Most inter-esting, perhaps, is the fact that theywelcome biographies of typical membersof minority groups and/or “typical” repre-sentatives of other groups—for instance, atraditional singer whose biography mightrepresent that whole group of people. (Isuggested someone like Sarah OganGunning, who is not currently in theDictionary, but who is a representativefigure and whose biographical details areknown.) Inventive members of SAM cansurely come up with some biographies thatwould be helpful and that would get someof our musical oral traditions (and othertraditions) more into the national conscious-ness. Praised for its inclusiveness, the DAB, will become even more so if some of uscontribute our knowledge. To look at thedictionary online, see “www.anb.org”. Tocontribute an article, contact JohnathanWiener at Oxford University Press.

Our membership in the ACLS continuesto be of enormous benefit to the Society,and I promise to bring regular updates asto their activities.

—Anne Dhu McLucasUniversity of Oregon

REPORT FROM THE ACLS MEETINGStudent TravelFunding for TrinidadThrough the Student Travel Endowment,

students may receive financial assistancethat will help defray the cost of attendingthe national conference of the Society forAmerican Music in Trinidad 2001. Studentsreceiving funds must be members of theSociety and enrolled at a college or univer-sity (with the exception of doctoral studentswho need not be formally enrolled).TheFund will endeavor to support as manyapplicants as possible at a level commen-surate with the available funds.

The fund will provide financial assistanceup to full transportation costs, i.e., the leastexpensive round-trip airfare available toTrinidad. It will not pay for transfers, park-ing, car rental, or local transportation. A stu-dent who is presenting a paper or who hasan official function at the conference willreceive priority in the allocation of funding.

Students who have not been grantedfunding previously, or if so, not in the pre-vious year, will be accorded second priori-ty. Students who are awarded funds areasked to volunteer at the silent auction tableduring the conference for an hour and a halfshift (the silent auction is the source for stu-dent travel funding). They will also be askedto help with the Silent Auction itself, whichwill occur on Saturday evening, May 26. Toarrange a time, students should contactDianna Eiland at [email protected] may also be asked to write a few“thank you” letters to acknowledge indi-vidual donors. For more information aboutthis responsibility, students may contact stu-dent committee co-chairs Rebecca Bryant([email protected]) and Renee Camus([email protected]). A small block ofreduced-cost rooms are available throughthe Society for American Music at a localPort of Spain Hotel. Please contact MariannaWhitmer at [email protected] for moreinformation. Students in search of room-mates should contact Renee Camus [email protected].

A copy of the application form is available at www.american-music.org/sttravap.htm, and the applica-tion form must be received by MarvaCarter no later than February 15, 2001.Applications may be mailed to: MarvaCarter School of Music Georgia StateUniversity University Plaza Atlanta, GA30303.


In the spring of 1877, John Hutchinsonof the famous Hutchinson Family singersfinished a series of concerts in Washington,D.C. After he sent for his wife, Fanny,they started west to Illinois on a tripthat involved professional engage-ments, as well as visits with familyand friends in Chicago and Wheaton.

David and Evan Hughes, whowere singing in John’s group at thetime, told him about Lillie CarolinePhillips (b. 1853), a vocalist they onceheard when she was but a girl in herhome state of Pennsylvania. So,evidently sometime in April, theHutchinsons, along with Chicagoagent H. L. Slayton, visited Lillie’schurch to listen for themselves.

Lillie was the daughter of Isaac andLouisa Phillips. Hers was a musicalfamily and she seems to have beenfairly well known in Chicago already, havingsung with Annie Louise Cary and othernotable musicians of the day. Lillie had awonderful mezzo-soprano voice that shemanaged skillfully. Her brothers, Chapinand Fred, were both accomplished singers.

Hearing Lillie sing, just once, was all it tookto convince John and Fanny Hutchinson thatthey wanted to enlist her in their vocal group.

At the time, the Hutchinsons needed torecruit singers from outside the family. Forone thing, John and Fanny’s son Henry hadproven to be quite restless. He would tourwith his father’s company for a time; andthen he would go off to start a new busi-ness enterprise or join an opera companyor work on a construction crew.

Now, we might ask why a young singersuch as Lillie would want to put aside thepromise of a solo career to sing as a memberof America’s oldest and possibly mostnomadic vocal group. After all, theHutchinson Family reached their greatestpeak of popularity before Lillie was born,back when they were singing their songs offreedom in support of the antislavery agita-tion. By the mid-1870s, the two maingroups—one led by John and another byhis brother Asa—were nearing the end of

their careers. But when Lillie traveled toMassachusetts in August 1877 to join JohnHutchinson’s company, the decision seemsnot to have been a hard one to make. Lillieproved to be a Hutchinson in every respectbut name.

In no time after Lillie’s advent, music fanswere flocking to Hutchinson Familyconcerts again. Word-of-mouth advertisingcan be a quick and wonderful thing! A fewmonths later, Henry Hutchinson heard Lilliesing for the first time and he permittedhimself to be lured back into his father’stroupe, which may answer the musicalquestion of what love has to do with it.

Hundreds of reviews—perhaps thou-sands—described Hutchinson Familyharmonies as “perfect.” Though Lillie wasnot related to the other group members, hervoice mixed with theirs exceptionally well.According to John, “The combinationseemed to take our audiences by storm.”He had to think back more than twenty-fiveyears to remember a time when he had somany engagements. The company wentfrom success to success, including a delight-ful tour of the West Coast, from the Mexicanborder all the way up into British Columbia.

Hutchinson Family written records—which are extensive, to say the least—aresilent about the wedding of Henry and Lillie,though it would be a safe guess that theywere married in Chicago on their way toCalifornia.

Lillie C. Phillips of the Hutchinson Family Singers

—Alan LewisThe Hutchinsons traveled by day and

gave concerts night after night. ThoughHenry was among the most popularAmerican singers of the time, it is surpris-ing how many press notices from this tourconcentrate, instead, on the solos of Lillieand of John—who was then fifty-eight years

old! One of Lillie’s best-receivedsongs was Robert Topliff’s “Considerthe Lilies.” John and his brother-in-law, Ludlow Patton, preserved alarge number of notices from thisWest Coast tour; it is interesting thatnone of them mention that Lillie waspregnant.

In September 1879, theHutchinsons were traveling in afour-horse stagecoach across themountains of Oregon and California,bound for San Francisco. Their vehi-cle set new standards for DIS-comfort. They gave concerts in citiesand towns all along the way to theGolden Gate. The trip must havebeen particularly trying for Lillie and

Jack, her month-old baby. Perhaps therough going brought to mind one of theHutchinsons’ old songs, “Riding in a Stage.”

Feet are interlacing, heads severely bumped;

Friend and foe together, get their noses thumped.

Dresses act as carpets; listen to the sage:Life is but a journey, taken in a stage.

Woody Guthrie wrote about his hard trav-elin’. It seems Lillie could have added athought or two on that subject.

In San Francisco, the heat was oppres-sive and many of the local people fled tothe cool breezes of the coastal villages. Butthe Hutchinson Family sang in uncomfort-able halls for the entertainment of thosefolks who could not get away from the cityheat. We have no record of any complaintsfrom Lillie. For the next twenty years andpossibly more, it would be her fate to travelthrough every part of this country and inevery climate, playing a portable melodeonand singing for the people. She sang inmagnificent concert halls and at the WhiteHouse, as well as in the streets of America’sgreat cities and towns.


Feet are interlacing,

heads severely bumped;

Friend and foe together,

get their noses thumped.

Dresses act as carpets;

listen to the sage:

Life is but a journey,

taken in a stage.

—Hutchinson Family Singers


In its 3 January 1879 issue, the SacramentoDaily Record said, “Miss Lillie C. Phillips hasa mezzo-soprano voice of broad register,pure, fluent and of enchanting sweetnessand delicacy. She has more of expressionand dramatic power than is common to themost highly cultured sopranos. Since MissCary, we have had no one here whoapproaches the high standard of that lady,as does Miss Phillips.” In a notice publishedon 8 April 1879, the San Diego Union agreed,and added: “Her ballads are really charming,sung with pure intonation and every wordas distinct as though rendered by a profes-sional elocutionist. Her voice also showsgood cultivation, and in the ‘Flower song’from Faust, was as flexible and yet as true tothe score as the severest critic could desire.”During the same California tour, the SantaBarbara Advertiser reported that “her audi-ence could have listened for hours withoutfeeling weary.” Publicity used by JohnHutchinson’s company included this ravefrom the San Francisco Alta about thegroup’s harmonies: “The quartette singing ofthis family is without doubt the finest everheard in this city . . .”

After completing the tour of the WestCoast, Lillie played the title role, in the Mid-West and New England, in the dramaticcantata, “Ruth, the Moabitess.”

Henry Hutchinson died in 1884. A coupleyears later, Lillie and her sons, Jack andRichard, moved to Chicago. If Lillie thoughtthen that her touring days were over, shewould have been greatly mistaken. Soonshe married Rev. Henry Morgan, a travelingevangelist—with emphasis on the word“traveling.” For another ten years, Lillie andher boys journeyed from sea to shining sea,riding in a wagon—or in whatever mode oftransportation was required—to get themto the next church on time. When givingconcerts, Lillie, Jack, and Richard were billedsimply as “the Hutchinson Family.” Onevangelical occasions when Rev. Morganwas featured, the trio would sing and thenhe would preach. When they performedoutdoors, Jack would blow a fanfare on hiscornet to attract a crowd. Lillie played aportable organ that was fixed in the back ofthe wagon; and she and her boys sangeverything from Mozart and Handel to senti-mental songs, such as “My Trundle Bed; or,Recollections of Childhood.”

Though Lillie was a member of one ofAmerica’s most important and famous vocalgroups, and though she was prominently

before the public for the better part of threedecades, it is surprising how little has beenwritten about her life and career. And itappears that genealogical work on herbranch of the Phillips and Hutchinson fami-lies is yet to be done. All the informationthat is currently available about Lillie—withvery rare exceptions—comes from JohnHutchinson’s 1896 book and from theHutchinson Family Scrapbook kept byJohn’s brother-in-law, Ludlow Patton.

Lillie’s reviews were consistently excel-lent. She did as much as anyone to returnthe Hutchinson Family to a high level ofsuccess late in their careers. She sang foraudiences great and small. She performedin big cities and in small-town America. Lilliesang popular songs, songs of faith, andselections from operas and the classicalrepertoire. And she sang in support ofcauses such as temperance and women’srights. She sang in all four corners of thecountry and in every region in between.Lillie C. Phillips is a singer who very muchdeserves to be remembered.

Alan Lewis is an independent scholar whohas been researching the Hutchinson Family,off and on, for over thirty years. Hecontributes notices to the Boston Globe andother print and online publications and iscurrently constructing an Internet site onpopular music, the New England MusicScrapbook. Lewis receives correspondence [email protected].

References:Hutchinson, John Wallace. 1896. Story of the

Hutchinsons.

(TRIBE OF JESSE). 2 vols. Compiled andEdited by Charles E. Mann, With anIntroduction by Frederick Douglass. Boston:Lee and Shepard.

Patton, Ludlow. 1906. HUTCHINSONFAMILY SCRAPBOOK. Wadleigh MemorialLibrary, Milford, New Hampshire.

Correspondence with Barbara Hazzard wasquite helpful in preparing this paper. Barbara isa great-granddaughter of Lillie’s brother,Chapin Frank Phillips (ca. 1860-1915).

“Lillie C. Phillips” continued from page 59


On the evening of Tuesday, 27 May 1884,the sounds of “Old Hundred” sung by anunaccompanied chorus, first joined by theaudience and then by “the swellingharmony”1 of an orchestra, inauguratedwhat was to become a series of eight annualmusic festivals held in Petersburg, Virginia.As explained by a local reporter, the 1884festival “was the ripe and luscious fruit ofsuccess plucked from the sturdy treeof earnest and intelligent prepara-tion.”2 The direct preparation for thefestival was the work of ThePetersburg Musical Association(PMA), founded by prominent whiteresidents of the city in August 1881.But, the cultivation of musicalpursuits that culminated in thesegrand occasions dated back to theyears just after the Civil War.

Before the war, Petersburg was theseventh largest city in the South,complete with successful factories, privatebusinesses, railroads, and river trading.These attributes caused the city to becomea strategic target for the Union army.Petersburg fell after having withstood a ten-month siege. Within a week, the war wasover and the long road to rebuilding theSouth began. Petersburg never regained itsformer prominence and, yet, the culturalaspirations of its residents—black and whitealike—were boundless. For economic, polit-ical, social, and racial reasons, the story ofthe festivals is that of “higher class” whiteresidents of the city.

Within three months of the war’s end,articles appeared in the local paper callingfor a public hall that could adequately host“an opera worthy of the name, a theatricalexhibition above the ridiculous, or a concertoffering any inducements to cultivatedtastes.”3 Attempts made to answer this callwere intensified when Phoenix Hall, one ofthe city’s two halls, was destroyed by fire inNovember 1866. The remaining hall,Mechanics’ Hall, even with needed repairs,was not deemed suitable. Amid concernsabout a proper facility came the foundingof the Petersburg Musical Club (PMC) in1868. Of the five women and three men

who founded the organization was tobaccobusinessman Heinrich Noltenius, whodirected the chorus of the PMC and laterbecame the major catalyst for the festivals.The objectives of the PMC were to practiceand perform instrumental and vocal music,and to elevate “taste for good and especiallyclassical music.”4 The club maintained aprivate status and included in its by-laws anarticle declaring that “No public concertsshall be given by the Club except by thedecision of four-fifths of the memberspresent.”5 The PMC concerts held at

Mechanics’ Hall proved the desire for musicof good quality and helped to define therequirements of a new hall.

In June 1870 a committee formed by localbusinessmen announced that an Academyof Music, the construction of which wouldcost about twenty-five thousand dollars,would be completed by the end of the year.The planners soon realized that the projectwould take longer to complete. The brickbuilding was to be 57 feet by 135 feet, withthe “audience room, composing the dresscircle, parquette and musicians’ stand”6

measuring 54 feet by 52 feet. Side entrancesled to the colored gallery, first gallery, anddress circle. The seating capacity would bebetween seven hundred and fifty to onethousand. By March 1871, the stockholdersof the Academy were forced to borrow tenthousand dollars to complete its construc-tion. Public concern grew and the localpress called the incomplete structure “astanding disgrace to Petersburg.”7 InSeptember, the directors entered into a deedof trust to secure ten thousand dollars withthe agreement that the Academy would besold at public auction in the event of defaultof the payment of notes.8 Still not quitecomplete, the Academy of Music was “lit

up” for the first time on 17 October.9 Theopening of the Academy a few nights laterfeatured a performance by Ford’s ComedyCombination Troupe, of Ford’s OperaHouse in Baltimore. After its opening, theAcademy lay idle until December when thePMC presented its second entertainment ofthe season there. This was followed byperformances by pianist Thomas Green“Blind Tom” Bethune, the Duprez andBenedict Minstrel Troupe, the TheodoreThomas Orchestra, the Peak Family Classicaland Comical Concerts and Original Swiss

Bell Ringers, the Bernard-RichingsOpera Troupe, the Berger Swiss BellRingers, and Skiff and Gaylord’sMinstrel Company. Drama wasprovided by Junious Brutus Boothand his company. Ironically, the firstseason of the Academy was the finalseason for the PMC due to thedemanding schedule of its director.

During its early years, theAcademy of Music hosted violinistOle Bull, various opera troupes, theMendelssohn Quintette Club, a

second appearance by pianist ThomasGreene “Blind Tom” Bethune, and localtalent. But, it also had on its stage otherkinds of entertainment, such as minstrel andpantomime troupes, wizards, and noveltytroupes (complete with acrobatics and balltossing), and Buffalo Bill. In October 1879,the members of the PMC were calledtogether for the purpose of reorganizing andreturning to the task of overseeing the“musical elevation” of the city. WithNoltenius and his family on a one-year visitto Europe, the leadership of the new orga-nization fell to a young Antonia Dickson, anative of Scotland who had recently movedto Petersburg. The local press supported theventure by stating that “efforts for theadvancement of cultivation of what is purein art, should receive the commendationsof every true musician and the patronageof our people.”10 One major differencebetween this new organization—called theMendelssohn Musical Association—and theold PMC seems to have been that atten-dance at concerts of the former was notrestricted to members. When theMendelssohn ceased its meetings for theseason, it was never active again.

The Advent of Music Festivals in Late 19th-Century Petersburg, Virginia

—Ethel Norris HaughtonVirginia State University


As explained by a local reporter,

the 1884 festival “was the ripe

and luscious fruit of success

plucked from the sturdy tree

of earnest and

intelligent preparation.”


By the summer of 1881, public desire fora regular series of concerts led to the orga-nization of the Petersburg MusicalAssociation (PMA) by twenty-one men,among whom was Noltenius. The object ofthe PMA was to encourage the culture ofmusic in our community by giving annuallyfrom October to June, a series of entertain-ments—probably eight or ten—at whichour best home talent will assist, and forwhich artists form other parts—both vocaland instrumental—will be engaged, as faras the means placed at the disposal of theassociation will permit.11

The PMA had two categories ofmembership. Regular members, whopaid an annual membership and amonthly fee, had voting privilegesand received three tickets for eachconcert given during the season.Contributing members, who paid amonthly fee, received two tickets foreach concert. Single tickets were soldif space in the Academy allowed.

The artists presented during theAcademy’s first season includedpianist William H. Sherwood, violin-ist Teresa Liebe (with her brother,cellist Theodore Liebe), harpist MadameChatterton-Bohrer, the Royal Hand BellRingers, pianist and former director of theMendelssohn Musical Association AntoniaDickson, and the chorus of the PMA At theend of the season, the PMA held a MusicConvention to include representatives ofother musical organizations in Virginia.Fourteen delegates, representing Petersburg,Richmond, Lynchburg, and Norfolk, met todevise some plan of concerted actionwhereby the best interests of their respec-tive associations could be served in thematter of engaging artists to assist in the vari-ous concerts given by the societies, and topromote the general welfare of musicalinterests in the cities represented.12

The number of delegates at the 1883convention rose to eighteen, with Farmvilleadded to the list of Virginia cities repre-sented. Invitations extended to music asso-ciations in North Carolina were met withgreat interest, but also with regrets of beingunable to participate. By 1884, associationsfrom both Virginia and North Carolina sentdelegates to the conventions. In addition toplanning a cooperative effort among theassociations to engage professional artistsat manageable costs, convention delegates

discussed the introduction of vocal musicin public schools.

As part of the hospitality shown to theconvention delegates, the PMA plannedchoral concerts, organ recitals, and concertsby local and professional solo artists alike.The total cost of the programs for the 1882convention was six hundred dollars.13 At the1883 convention, Noltenius recommendedthat the choruses of the individual associa-tions perform with the professional artistsengaged during the regular concert seasonso that they might develop their musicalskills. Selected choruses would, then, create“one grand chorus which might renderoratorios, accompanied by the best orches-

tras and under the leadership of acknowl-edged masters.”14 After some discussion ofthis idea, the delegates decided

That the several choruses shall render theircompositions selected for the benefit of all,at annual conventions in which all thechoruses shall be united in one grand chorusfor the rendering of musical works, bothsecular and sacred, under the leadership ofsome eminent conductor and accompaniedby the very best orchestra, and thus the waymay be paved for the holding of annualmusic festivals on a scale which mayfavorably compare with those held in theNorth, East, and West.15

In October 1883, the Board of Directorsof the PMA assumed the task of presentinga festival the following spring in the “fullestconfidence” that the citizens of Petersburgwould contribute to a guarantee fund andprovide housing for festival participants.16

The citizens more than met the Board’sexpectations by financing a guarantee fundin the amount of ten thousand dollars. JohnQ. Jackson, president of the PMA, creditedthe support to the musical educationprovided by the association. Because of this,Petersburg’s citizens were no longer content

to listen to mere “tunes;” mere sing-songcompositions fail to satisfy their musicalpalate which, by degrees, has become morefastidious and finds but little taste in aughtbut material well seasoned and wellserved.17

Other proof of local interest in the festi-val is the response to ticket sales, with thefirst day of sales ending with more thanone-third of the seats in the Academyhaving been taken. Petersburgers alsoeagerly offered to afford every amenityimaginable to visitors who would be in thecity for the festival. From the beginning, thefestival was looked upon as more thanculturally enriching:

It will be a feast of soul as well as ofmusic. It will bind closer ties offriendship already existing, and will beinstrumental in forming new ones.18

Although North Carolina wasrepresented at the convention, onlyVirginia was represented at the festi-val. The choruses that joined withthe PMA chorus to form a chorus of150 to 175 voices were the MozartAssociation and Concordia GleeClub of Lynchburg, the St. CeciliaSociety of Norfolk, and the

Gesangverein Virginia of Richmond. Theorchestra, under the direction of H. R.Palmer, numbered twenty-four. Vocalsoloists engaged for the opening concertwere Zelie de Lussan, soprano, and IvanMorawski, baritone, who were accompa-nied by pianist George W. Colby.Instrumental soloists were H. Singerhoff,violin, and Theodore Hoch, cornet. Withthe exception of the Gesangverein Virginia,each of the choruses was featured individ-ually on the program.

For this opening concert, the Academy wastransformed into what, but for the pinkbackground, one might designate as a forestscene. A huge roof serving as a soundingboard covers the stage[.] By skillful andtasteful arrangement this roof is made toappear as a sky at night, fleecy cloudsfloating in space, while stars and the circleof the moon glitters among these.19

The elaborate decorations also includedscenery, a pink background with a goldenlyre, monogram initials of the PMA on theproscenium arch, and bountiful stands andbaskets of flowers and potted plants.

The festival events continued the nextafternoon with an organ recital at a local

It will be a feast of soul

as well as of music.

It will bind closer ties

of friendship already existing,

and will be instrumental

in forming new ones.

—Daily Index-Appeal, 22 May 1884

“Advent” continued from page 61


church by Frederic Archer who was joinedby vocalists and a harpist. That evening, asecond concert was performed at theAcademy by the orchestra and choruses,joined by Hoch, cornet, Frederick Lax, flute,Courtney, tenor, and Sherwin, soprano.20

Thursday’s afternoon concert includedinstrumental and vocal solos and ensem-bles, and the Petersburg chorus.

The final concert, which opened with aperformance of Mendelssohn’s “95th Psalm”by the united chorus, equaled the openingconcert both in musical quality and visualspectacle. Before the performance of thefinal chorus of the evening, Noltenius camebefore the audience to express his appre-ciation to the performers. As he tried toleave the stage, a spontaneous ovationerupted.

Cries of “Noltenius” sounded upon everyside and when Dr. Palmer fairly drew thatgentleman upon the stage there came around of applause and clapping of handsand there was a sea of waving handkerchiefsin front of and on the stage. Dr. Palmerproposed “Three cheers for Mr. Noltenius”and they were given with a hearty good will.Then some gentleman in the audience, firedby the spirit of the moment, cried out again,“Three cheers for Noltenius,” and they rangout with undiminished force.21

This acknowledgment of Nolteniusmerely hints at his influence on the succeed-ing festivals. In January 1885, Noltenius ledthe effort to keep the festival alive after theplan of the convention delegates to hold theevent in Norfolk went awry. A committeeof three members of the PMA Boardsuccessfully raised a guarantee fund in theamount of seven thousand two hundreddollars and plans for a festival superior tothe first one began.22

The 1885 festival started a tradition thathelped to ensure the success of the events—the engaging of Carl Zerrahn as festivalconductor. The musical and financialsuccesses of the 1885 festival were repeatedat each festival from 1886 to 1890. Thenewly renovated Academy of Music, whichhad been purchased by the PMA in 1887,engendered additional interest in the event.The 1889 festival attracted more out-of-stateattention than any of its predecessors. TheWashington Post found a political side tothe story:

This is a sort of move in the solid south thatis calculated to do more good and advancesouthern interests, and promote northern

sympathy more than all the diplomacies ofthe political parties. The revival of musicalinterests in that section shows that the southis rapidly emerging from the somberness ofthe past, and regaining her old-time delightin social and artistic life. That her peoplehave time and inclination to restore theamusements and pleasures of which theywere such famous devotees in the old daysis a most cheerful sign.23

The 1890 festival was a success despitecompetition with other musical events:Richmond held its first May Festival in theearly part of the month, and North Carolinawas preparing for its first festival. A majorconflict with the third day of the festival wasthe unveiling of the Robert E. Lee monu-ment in Richmond; festival planners allowedfor this by not scheduling an afternoonrecital on that day.24 But, the festival stillmanaged to be a success. The impact of thefestivals was felt when the possibility of thecancellation of the festival in 1891 wasannounced. The outcry over this possibil-ity caused the PMA Board to revisit the idea.What became the final of the “annual jolli-fications” smaller than its predecessors andwas only hesitantly referred to as a festivalbecause of its small scale.

The sounds of “Old Hundred” that rangthrough the Academy of Music on 27 May1884 initiated a grand era for a city that hadsuffered the loss of its prominence and itseconomic status. Without doubt, the festi-vals demonstrated the strong desire ofPetersburg’s citizens for music of good qual-ity. But, the story of the festivals goes wellbeyond purely musical interests. Thegrandeur of the 1884 Festival and those thatfollowed, provided the white citizens ofPetersburg, especially those on the higherrungs of the social ladder, the opportunityto reclaim a small piece of antebellum glory.

A native of Petersburg, Virginia, EthelNorris Haughton wrote her 1994 dissertationon “Music in the Black and Whitecommunities in Petersburg, Virginia, 1865 -1900.” She is currently Associate Professior ofMusic at Virginia State University. Shecontinues to research music in the history ofPetersburg and VSU.

Notes1. Daily Index-Appeal, 28 May 1884.

2. Daily Index-Appeal, 30 May 1884.

3. The Daily Index, 25 Oct. 1865.

4. Constitution and By-Laws of ThePetersburg Musical Club (Petersburg, Va.: J. E.Routh & Co., 1868; Centre Hill Mansion,Petersburg, Va.), 3.

5. Petersburg Musical Club Constitution, 8.

6. The Petersburg Index, 23 Aug. 1870.

7. The Petersburg Index, 2 Aug. 1871.

8. Deed Book No. 33, p. 685; City Clerk’sOffice, Petersburg, Va.

9. The Daily Progress, 18 Oct. 1871.

10. Petersburg Index-Appeal, 21 Nov. 1879.

11. Daily Index-Appeal, 10 Sept. 1881.

12. Daily Index-Appeal, 1 June 1882.




16. Petersburg Musical Association Records,26 Oct. 1883.

17. Daily Index-Appeal, 10 June 1884.



20. Daily Index-Appeal, 29 May 1884. Hochsubstituted for pianist Julie Rive-King who wasto have been the featured performer, but whowas unable to appear because her husbandwas ill. She was also scheduled to perform onthe afternoon concert the next day.


22. The fund grew to $10,150 by early April.

23. Reprinted in the Daily Index-Appeal, 8May 1889.

24. This unveiling attracted thousands ofpeople. Civil war veterans alone numbered10,000 to 15,000.


Letter from the President

Greetings! Did you attend the Charlestonconference? By all accounts, it was an over-whelming success! Thank you and congrat-ulations to all of those involved in the plan-ning process. We had one of the largestgatherings ever and the quality of papersand performances were stellar. Special grat-itude goes to Paul Wells, Program Chair, andthe Program Committee (Rebecca Cureau,Nancy Ping-Robbins, Larry Worster, andDouglas Moore) for the wonderfully diverseprogram, which celebrated and embracedwith enthusiasm all aspects of Americanmusic. Special thanks goes also to KittyKeller and Jim Hines who oversaw everydetail of the local arrangements. I think wemight all agree that our stay in Charlestonwas close to perfect.

As I write this, our new ExecutiveDirector, Mariana Whitmer, has taken overfor Kitty Keller, who has officially retired.(Kitty is still busy with numerous SAM activ-ities, however!). Mariana lives in Pittsburghand has been working with Deane Root onthe “Voices Across Time” project. She has aPh.D. in musicology from the University ofChicago and has presented papers and writ-ten articles on Bruckner—the subject of herdissertation. Mariana brings exceptionaladministrative skills to this position. For tenyears, she worked at IBM where she devel-oped skills in financial and strategic plan-ning. She also has an in-depth knowledgeof computers—networking, databases, theInternet, and experience with spreadsheets,desktop publishing, and graphics. In addi-tion to the “Voice Across Time” project,Mariana serves as an early childhood musicspecialist and co-chairperson of thePittsburgh Kindermusik EducatorsAssociation. SAM is indeed fortunate to haveMariana as our new Executive Director andwe look forward to many years workingtogether.

About a month ago, Kitty and Bob Kellertransferred the SAM Executive Director filesfrom their home to SAM’s new nationaloffice at the University of Pittsburgh. Ournew address is: Society for American Music,1709 Cathedral of Learning, University ofPittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Thanksagain to Deane Root for pursuing this initia-tive on behalf of SAM! Kitty and Bob, what

are you doing with all of your newfoundspace?? Again, we thank you both for yourmany years of devoted service to theSociety. With this move, the Society beginsa new era. The fall meeting of the Board willbe held for the first time in our new nationaloffice in Pittsburgh—not in the Kellers’ livingroom!!!

The Board is very excited about all of thenew SAM initiatives and we hope themembership is as well. It has become appar-ent, however, that the Society needs toincrease its revenue. How do we build upthe resources that the society needs toundertake all of the new activity we havedeemed necessary? (For example, imple-mentation of the Long Range Plan, the hiringof a new Executive Director, and the main-tenance of a national office.) The Board hasdiscussed and will continue to discuss thispressing issue. Increasing revenue is neveran easy task and we will need to takeseveral approaches. Our dues have beenheld at the same level for a few years butwe will now need to increase them slightly.In addition, we will begin a developmentcampaign about which you will hear morein the future. We need to be proactive,aggressive, and creative in our efforts toinfuse the Society with funds in order tocontinue our dynamic activities. We wouldlike to endow awards (the Dissertation andStudent Travel Awards, for example); giftsof any kind and any amount will be put togood use. If you have any ideas or wouldlike to be involved in these efforts, pleasecontact Jim Cassaro, Chair of theDevelopment Committee.

Finally, I would like to extend a huge“thanks” to Larry Worster who has editedthe Bulletin for the past four years. Larry,who is stepping down to pursue othercareer challenges, has completely trans-formed the look of the Bulletin. It is now avery professional publication with the high-est standards in layout, writing, and editor-ial style. The Bulletin and American Musicare the very public faces of the Society forAmerican Music nationally and interna-tionally and through them the Society canboast of its efforts to promote Americanmusic scholarship and performance activ-ity. Larry, we appreciate your hard workand dedication these past several years.

As always, thanks to the Board, commit-tee chairs and members for their hard workand dedicated service to the Society.

Best,

Rae Linda Brown

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,This will be my last letter from the editor

as I am retiring as editor of the Bulletin topursue other responsibilities. I am sure thatyou have already noticed that this is acombined Summer/Fall issue, necessitatedby my assumption of greater-than-antici-pated duties as the chair of an expandingmusic department. Thank you for under-standing the delay in the Summer issue.

My four years as editor have been mostgratifying. I want to recognize all of themembers of the Society who have given metheir support, suggestions, submissions, andideas; you are the lifeblood of this publica-tion and I thank you. I also thank the finesupporting editors who have made my jobeasy: Ann Sears, Sherrill Martin, WilliamKearns, Joice Waterhouse Gibson, PetraMeyer-Frazier, Orly Krasner, Jim Farrington,and Amy Beal. Two of these deserve farmore credit than I can possibly acknowl-edge here: Joice Gibson, who worked tire-lessly as my copy editor and consultant inall matters, and Bill Kearns, my mentor andbest friend.

Replacing me will be Phil Todd, whommany of you may know as the co-chair ofthe Popular Music Interest Group. Iwelcome Phil as the new editor and encour-age the members of the Society to directyour communications his way. His infor-mation is listed in the Editors box on thesecond page of this issue.

Don’t be modest about sending in yourannouncements for the Members in theNews Department. As you might note, wehave several dozen members who are not,but around a thousand who are! Yourcolleagues want to know what you aredoing. Please remember that inquiriesconcerning research topics and other spec-ulative matters may be published in the

NEWS OF THE SOCIETY


most underused department of the Bulletin,Hue and Cry.

Each issue of the Bulletin is placed onlineapproximately three weeks after it appearsin your mailboxes. Please note that theSociety’s Web address has changed towww.american-music.org. If you havesuggestions as to how the Bulletin may bebest presented in its Web configuration,please address them to me.

The Bulletin is your voice to the worldand the world’s window on the Society.Don’t forget that the deadlines for Bulletinsubmissions are announced on page two ofthis publication. Please expect a two-monthlag time between the submission deadlineand the publication date. Plan ahead so thatyour announcements may be published ina timely fashion.

—Larry Worster

New Executive Directorand New Headquarters

Mariana Sonntag Whitmer has beenappointed the new Executive Director ofthe Society for American Music (formerlyThe Sonneck Society). Whitmer will workwith President Rae Linda Brown and theother ten members of the Board to carry outthe Society’s mission. Whitmer will beresponsible for maintaining the businessoffice and records of the Society to providecontinuity, and to help coordinate Societybusiness. Her primary role will be assistingin the execution of the goals of the Society,providing a focal point for Society business,and serving as official greeter for newmembers.

Whitmer brings to the Society a diversebackround, experienced in musical as wellas business concerns. Her academic creden-tials include a B.A. in Musicology from theUniversity of Southern California in 1978,and a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology fromthe University of Chicago in 1987. She devel-oped outstanding people management andcommunication skills, excellent presenta-tion abilities, and extensive computer expe-rience while working at IBM Corporationfrom 1985-1996, where she managed a teamof technical and marketing specialists incorporate sales.

Since March 1966 she has worked as anEarly Childhood Music Specialist, instillinga love of music in children ranging in agesfrom birth to seven years. In January 1999,she began working as a consultant withDeane Root, member and former Presidentof the Society, in assisting in the realization

of “Voices across Time,” a project of theSociety for American Music. This innovativecurriculum uses music as a primary sourcefor teaching American History and iscurrently being piloted throughout theUnited States. She has a native knowledgeof Spanish, good command of French andGerman, and a reading knowledge ofItalian. Whitmer is a member of the presti-gious Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburg andenjoys playing the piano and flute when notcaring for her two young children.

She says of her appointment, “With theescalating interest in American music, theSociety is poised to serve the needs ofcurrent and new members, particularlythrough the implementation of the newwebsite and the opening of the office onthe campus of the University of Pittsburgh.I am looking forward to working with allcurrent and new members of the Society aswe work together to stimulate the appreci-ation of American music.”

Whitmer will be managing the new officeof the Society located at the University ofPittsburgh. The new address of the SAMoffice is 1709 Cathedral of Learning,University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA15260; and the telephone number is421/624-3031. The website for the Societyfor American Music is www.American-Music.org. Information regarding email tothe Society office as well as membershipmay be obained via the website.

Upcoming activities of the Society forAmerican Music include participation in theannual conferences in “Port of Spain,Trinidad” with the Center for Black MusicResearch, 23-26 May 2001; and Lexington,Kentucky, 6-10 March 2002.

From the Executive Director

The new office of the Society has recentlyopened on the 17th floor of the Cathedralof Learning on the campus of the Universityof Pittsburgh. “In steel and stone, in char-acter and thought, they shall find beauty,adventure, and moments of high victory.”With these words University of PittsburghChancellor John Bowman declared hishopes for the inhabitants of the Cathedralwhen it was completed in 1937, and I’msure we will all endeavor to realize thosehopes.

The Cathedral of Learning culled its namefrom the “The Cathedral of Commerce,” theWoolworth Building in New York City, thefirst monumental Gothic skyscraper. Thetitle “cathedral,” with its allusion to a highercalling, was thought to have wide publicappeal and didn’t fail in calling attention toboth the Cathedral of Learning and theUniversity of Pittsburgh, particularly duringtimes of fund raising. The Cathedral wasbuilt in homage to education and designedto simulate the gothic style. Building wasbegun in 1926 and it officially opened 11years later, 1937. Originally intended as themain building for the University, its 42 floorshoused not only classrooms and offices, butlibraries, reading rooms, and a cafeteria. Itwas built high to allow for maximum occu-pancy on minimum acreage. Reportedlydesigned with inspiration from Wagner’sMagic Fire music from “The Valkyrie,” it isnot so much the height of the building butthe composition of the buttresses that reflectthe seemingly never-ending climaxes in themusic as they rise ever higher in “leaps.”

The new office in the Cathedral ofLearning is an ideal location to attend to theduties of Executive Director as it providesan impressive focal point for Society busi-ness. Many thanks to Deane Root, whoarranged for our use of the space. I lookforward to working in close proximity toDeane and the Center for American Music,which is located next to the Cathedral in theStephen Foster Memorial.

The Society for American Music has anew home and so have I. As the Society hasbeen re-located to a new physical space, sohave I found a new symbolic “home”; aplace where I feel at ease in the companyof scholars whose interests are similar tomine. Although my doctorate was earnedwith research on Anton Bruckner, mycurrent work on “Voices Across Time,” aproject of the Society, has turned my head



and I may never look back. This is an excit-ing time to be working in American musicas there is an ever-increasing interest in itsstudy and performance. It is a vibrant yetchallenging time as we seek new initiativesto stimulate enthusiasm for and educationin American music in all of its diverse andinteresting guises. My interest in Americanmusic was reaffirmed at the recent confer-ence in Charleston where I met so manywonderful people, heard such fascinatingpapers, and listened to a variety of intrigu-ing music.

We have taken recent changes in stride,but there are others I would not like to see.Let us not alter the spirit of camaraderiewithin the Society, the warmth of enthusi-asm for all things related to American music,and the genuine encouragement offered tonew members of the Society, who I hopewill find this their home as well. May we allfind “beauty, adventure, and moments ofhigh victory” together.

I close by extending a heartfelt thanks toKitty Keller who is working very hard to seethat I ease into my new position undauntedby the responsibilities which she has shoul-dered so well for so long.

—Mariana Whitmer

Annual Business Meeting

The annual business meeting of theSociety for American Music was held onSaturday, 4 March 2000 at the Mills HouseHotel in Charleston, South Carolina. Theminutes from the 1999 meeting wereaccepted. President Rae Linda Brown, inher remarks to the membership, made twoimportant announcements: (1) the Society,after conducting a national search, has hiredMariana Whitmer, a music historian (Ph.D,University of Chicago) as our new execu-tive director (succeeding the retiring Katevan Winkle Keller); she will begin work inJuly 2000, and (2) the Society has accepteda generous offer from the University ofPittsburgh (made through the efforts ofDeane Root) to establish a permanentnational office there. The address will be1709 Cathedral of Learning, University ofPittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brownturned her attention to two sobering issues.First, that the Society’s increased visibilityand expansion comes with a price, and thatwe will soon be launching a serious devel-opment campaign. Brown introduced JimCassaro as the new chair of theDevelopment Committee and solicited

ideas. Second, the SAM Board had decidedin Kansas City to meet in Charleston despitethe NAACP call for a boycott of SouthCarolina (because of the practice of flyingthe Confederate battle flag on the State capi-tol). The Board had sent a statement insupport of the boycott to the governor ofSC. Brown mentioned that she had receivednumerous messages on this issue from soci-ety members. Some have honored theboycott; others believe that the Societyshould not become involved in politics.There will be letters pro and con this in thespring Bulletin. Brown believes that theSociety is now large enough that we cannotpretend to have no impact and thereforemust take a stand on such issues as this. Ourpresence in Charleston—coupled with theprogram we are offering—stands as acontradiction to divisiveness. We supportthe whole of American music and its diver-sity.

A moment of silence was observed fordeparted members, including NorbertCarnovale, Mort Epstein, and Carolyn Lott.

Reports

A summary of the Treasurer’s Report wasdistributed by Bill Everett. He reported thathis report reflects numerous one-timeexpenses for the past year, but that it alsoclearly indicates steady growth from previ-ous years. He noted that the Society hadawarded $1400 this year to support studentattendance at the conference. The reportwas accepted by the membership.

Judith Tick, who requested permissionto speak, announced circulation of a peti-tion requesting removal of the Confederateflag from the State Capitol. The petition,circulated by Alexia Smith Seeger, MikeSeeger, and Judith Tick, will go to the gover-nor of South Carolina, who favors removalof the flag. Tick also solicited contributionsfor the Charleston Chapter of the NAACP.

Nominating Committee Chair Ann Searsthanked the members of her committee. Sheannounced that Katherine Preston (unop-posed) was reelected Secretary, that MichaelBroyles and Linda Pohly were newMembers-at-Large of the Board, and thatPaul Wells is President-Elect.

Christina Baade, chair of the StudentInterest Group (formerly the StudentCommittee) noted that there are forty-fourstudents in attendance at the conference, ofwhom fifteen gave papers. She thanked themembers of SAM for their on-going gener-ous support of students. She further noted

that many of the student members are non-traditional students: individuals who arecoming to musicology from other careers.She introduced Renée Camus as the newchair of the new IG.

Deane Root, chair of the EducationCommittee, described an important SAM-sponsored project called Voices Across Timethat has been funded by $160,000 in foun-dation grants since it began in 1998. Thisproject, which is designed to provide mate-rials on American music to teachers inelementary and secondary schools, willfulfill a major goal in the Society’s Five-Yearplan: that every child in an American schoolshould have the opportunity to learn aboutAmerican Music. The expected completiondate is 2001. Root will publish a report onthe project in the Bulletin.

American Music editor Rob Walser notedthat it had been a great year for the journal.He announced that he had completed 7issues in 15 months and that currently thejournal is only one issue behind. Hesolicited more articles on 18th- and 19th-century American music. Five issues are inpress; most of his remaining six issues arein process. He thanked his advisory boardand the numerous readers for their help.The new editor of the journal should takeover the task of acquisitions by September2000; Walser will be occupied with proof-ing and so forth for another year and half.Walser thanked Susan Key, outgoing bookreview editor, and solicited nominations foran individual to fill that position. Incomingmembers of the Advisory Board includeKyra Gaunt, Ralph Locke, H. WileyHitchcock, and David Brackett. Assistanteditor Glenn Pillsbury is also leaving thejournal; the new assistant editor is CharlesGarrett. Walser thanked his home institu-tion (UCLA) for its generous financialsupport of the journal.

Bulletin editor Larry Worster chidedmembers for not sending in acknowledge-ments of their own work. He noted that arti-cles are coming in steadily. The spring issuewill be out soon; summer is being planned.Book Editor Sherrill Martin is steppingdown; she will be replaced by Petra Meyer-Frasier. Bill Kearns is resigning as the bibli-ographer of recent articles; Joice Gibson willtake that position. Indexer Jim Farrington isalso leaving; his job will be taken on by AmyBeal.

Brown announced that those interestedin applying for the position of editor ofAmerican Music should send letters of appli-cation and curricula vitae to Anne Dhu

“News of the Society” continued from page 65


McLucas, Dean of the School of Music at theUniversity of Oregon by 1 June. The searchcommittee will consist of Tucker, Worster,Walser, Cockrell, and McLucas.

Those interested in applying for editor-ship of the Bulletin should also send appli-cations to McLucas, although she is not chairof the committee. The responsibilities willcommence with Spring 2001 issue. Qualifiedcandidates should have editorial experience,demonstrated ability to interact diplomati-cally with individuals, and a strong back-ground in American music studies.

Vice President Mark Tucker introducedthe Long Range Plan, which has beendrafted over the last 14 months. The first realmeeting of the committee was in January1999. Ideas and suggestions were solicitedof the membership over the summer andthe committee met in Kansas City inSeptember to draft a document that wasaccepted by the Board in November 1999.This document, on which the memberswere to vote, had been distributed by mailto the members. The current plan is a docu-ment that incorporates and expands uponthe earlier (Five-Year) Plan. In the ensuingdiscussion, reservations were expressedabout the encouragement of round tablesand panels in our conference programs, onthe basis that many universities do notconsider such to merit travel support.McLucas responded that this issue had beendiscussed but that the Committee is never-theless strongly in support of such formats.In response to a query about the apparentproposed tripling of the dues, Brownresponded that the wording (concerning“sustaining dues”) under Goal II, Action 2,objective a is unclear. The membershipapproved insertion of the word “sustaining”before “member” at the ambiguous spot.There were other questions about wordingthat Jim Cassaro clarified. The members alsovoted on and approved the suggestion thatthe full name of the Council of AmericanMusic Education Organizations be used(Goal I, Action 3, objective c) instead of theacronym (CAMEO). At this point themembers voted on and approved the docu-ment as a whole.

Kate van Winkle Keller, chair of the by-laws revision committee, introduced theissue. Our by laws have not been revisedfor 25 years. Versions of the new by-lawswere mailed to the entire membership; atthe meeting copies of the original by-lawswere distributed, with all the changes indi-cated. The committee goal had been to clar-ify and clean up the by-laws, in part by

updating our ideas, removing some too-specific language that unnecessarilyhampers the Board. There was discussionabout the time limitation on studentmemberships, which language was struck.Also in reference to student members, theterm “in active pursuit” was substituted for“in residence.” A motion was made toamend the wording of article XI(Amendments) to read as follows:

These bylaws may be altered, amended,or replaced, and new bylaws may beadopted, by a two-thirds majority vote atany meeting of the Board of Trustees,subject to ratification by the members of theSociety by a two-thirds majority of membersvoting. Ballots may be cast in person or byofficial signed proxy during a meeting atwhich there is a quorum present, providedthat notice of such meeting indicates thatan amendment or amendments of thebylaws will be acted upon at the meetingand indicates the general nature of theproposed amendment or amendments.

The members voted to approve thisamendment without alteration. The entireLong Range Plan was approved by themembers.

In response to an inquiry from the floor,Brown responded that the Society is notbecoming a political organization and thatour mission has not changed. There aretimes, however, when we must be sensitiveto what is going on around us. The Board,as an elected body, needs to be able tospeak for the Society.

The program committee for Charleston(Paul Wells, chair) was heartily thanked foran excellent program, as were LocalArrangements Committee Co-Chairs, JimHines and Kitty Keller, for all their work tomake this conference happen.

Program chairs for upcoming confer-ences, including Toronto (KatherinePreston) and Trinidad (Johann Buis)encouraged attendance at these upcomingmeetings. Preston described some of thehighlights of Toronto 2000 (1-5 November2000), which is shaping up nicely.Information about the conference can beseen on the conference website,http://www.utoronto.ca/conf2000/. Buissolicited paper abstracts for the Trinidadconference (Memorial Day weekend, 2001),the deadline for which is 10 September. RonPen, Local Arrangements for the 2002 con-ference in Lexington, KY, spoke brieflyabout the delights of Kentucky.

Honors and Awards

George Keck, chair of the Honors andAwards Committee, presented the 2000Lowens (Book) Award to Adrienne FriedBlock for Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian:The Life and Works of an AmericanComposer, 1867-1944 (Oxford UniversityPress, 1999). Keck also announced, withregret and apologies, that the committee forthe Lowens (Article) Award had beenunable to complete its work in time, so therewill be no award at this meeting. Thewinner will be announced in the near futurein as public a forum as possible.

Catherine Smith, a member of the disser-tation committee, named Mark DeWitt (onthe topic of Cajun Zydeco) and GillianRodgers (on male impersonation), as recip-ients of Honorable Mention. Smithpresented the award to David Anthony Akeof UCLA, for a dissertation titled “BeingJazz,” which is under contract with UC Press.

Josephine Wright, chair of the LifetimeAchievement award committee, read alengthy laudatory statement concerning thework and career of Eileen Southern, therecipient of the award. Southern, who wasunable to be in Charleston, had alreadybeen presented with the plaque. Membersof the Society were being asked to sign (inCharleston) a remembrance book for her.

President Brown read a citation writtenby Dale Cockrell to the recipient of theDistinguished Service Award, Deane L. Root,who was both surprised and touched by theaward.

Committee Chairs

President Brown announced new chairsof committees: Anne McLucas (SAM liaisonto ACLS), Denise von Glahn (RISM repre-sentative), and Judy Tsou (chair of theInterest Group Council). She also thankedretiring Board members David Nicholls andJean Geil, and gave special thanks to retir-ing past-president Anne Dhu McLucas.

Last but hardly least, she extended greatand heartfelt thanks to retiring executivedirector and woman-of-many-skills Kate vanWinkle Keller, who was presented with aplaque, a remembrance book, and oursincere best wishes. Jim Cassaro announcedthe establishment of a fund in her honor,donations to which are solicited.

The meeting was adjourned by accla-mation.



Members in the News

Cecilia Brauer appeared on a “Lost andFound” Episode on the History Channel thathad a feature on “Ben Franklin and theArmonica,” the musical glass instrument thathe invented in 1761. It was first aired on 24and 27 March, and will be seen on rerunsduring the year. David Runnion’s SerafinoTrio has recorded the Op. 5 trio of ArthurFoote. This is the first CD recording of thework and can be heard (and the CDpurchased) at http://mp3.com/serafinotrio.

At the annual meeting of the MusicLibrary Association, held in Louisville,Kentucky, the 2000 Dena Epstein Awardfor Archival and Library Research inAmerican Music was granted to Jo Burgessand Karen Rege. The award endowmentwas established through a generous giftfrom Morton and Dena Epstein to the MusicLibrary Association in 1995.

Susan C. Cook’s essay, “Watching OurStep: Embodying Research, Telling Stories,”which deals with her on-going research onragtime dance and which just appeared inAudible Traces: Gender, Identity, and Music(edited by Lydia Hamessley and ElaineBarkin. Zurich: Carciofoli Press, 1999: 177-212), just received the Gertrude LippincottAward from the Society of Dance HistoryScholars for the best article on dancepublished in 1999.

As part of the award for being named aMatthews Distinguished University Professorat Northeastern University, Judith Tick hasorganized “Copland at 100: Concerts,Symposia, Films,” which will be held atNortheastern University, Boston, 26 October2000. A new work for piano, commissionedfor the event from composer Libby Larson,will be premiered. Speakers include CarolJ. Oja, Vivian Perlis, and Howard Pollack.

A Fulbright American Studies Fellowshiphas been awarded to Nassim Balestriniwho will be spending the 2000/2001 acad-emic year at the University of California,Davis. Balestrini will be doing research onopera libretti based on works byWashington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne,and Henry James.

Elise Kirk is the consultant for a docu-mentary film based on her book, MusicalHighlights from the White House (Krieger,1992). The film is being produced by JohnGoberman and Sara Lukinson, producers

of the “Live from Lincoln Center” TV series,and will be aired on PBS this November.Kirk is also the consultant for the MENC’sseries of teachers’ guides currently beingadapted from her book. In May shepresented a lecture at the Smithsonian’sMuseum of American History that was illus-trated by a performance on the “GoldSteinway” presented to Theodore Rooseveltin the White House in 1903.

On 11, 12, and 13 May 2000, RenéeCamus performed her Masters Thesislecture/performance, “What Goes Around,Comes Around,” at American University inWashington, DC. The lecture/performancecompared two dances, the Cancan and theCharleston, and featured choreographybased on period sources. Ms. Camus grad-uated on 14 May, receiving her Master ofArts Degree in Dance.

Sondra Wieland Howe is theMusicologist for the Minnesota High SchoolMusic Listening Contest, a program spon-sored by Minnesota Public Radio. She haswritten the Study Guide and produced threeCDs for the 2001 Contest.

The National Federation of Music Clubshas given its year 2000 First Place award for“The Promotion and Performance ofAmerican Music” to Texas ChristianUniversity’s School of Music for its annualAmerican Music Week celebration,Contemporary Music Festival, Jazz Festival,and second biennial Latin American MusicFestival, reports Michael Meckna. Duringthe period covered (June 1999 to May 2000),TCU musicians gave a total of 213 perfor-mances of works by 138 Americancomposers on 70 programs. Some 21composers were present for their perfor-mances, and 13 works were given theirpremieres. In addition to concerts andrecitals, 15 visiting artists and lecturers partic-ipated in seminars, workshops, or masterclasses.

Teresa Conboy reports that NewCentury Saxophone Quartet premieredPeter Schickele’s “New Century Suite” withThe North Carolina Symphony in Raleigh,22 & 23 September. The composercommented, “I was excited about theprospect of writing this concerto; even moreso after hearing the New CenturySaxophone Quartet in concert, since theyplay so tastily and so terrifically in tune.”New Century will also perform the piece onthe following dates: 19 November 2000 with

the Canton Symphony (Ohio), 27 & 28January 2001 with the Waterbury Symphony(Connecticut), 21April 2001 with theWestern Piedmont Symphony (Hickory, NC)as well as future performances with theBillings Symphony (Montana) and theWinston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphonyin North Carolina.

Harry Eskew’s article “Shape-NoteHymnody” has been published in volume8 of the revised edition of Die Musik inGeschichte und Gegenwart. Bunker Clarkpublished an article entitled “CreativeContinuo: or, Examples of Enlivening aFigured Bass on the Harpsichord” inDiapason, April 2000. Most of it consists ofan annotated bibliography on the subject,and nine examples of how to be “clever”when in a Messiah orchestra, plus one fromBach’s 4th (flute) Orchestra Suite. BrianThompson is now the editor ofNaxos.com. SAM members are most likelyfamiliar with Naxos’s successful AmericanClassics series. Gail Levin and Judith Tickhave authored Aaron Copland’s America:A Cultural Perspective (New York: WatsonGuptill, 2000), the catalogue to an exhibi-tion of the same title that opened at theHeckscher Museum in Long Island, 4November 2000.

Deborah Hayes has recently published“New World Inspiration and Glanville-Hicks’s Opera Nausicaa (1961)” in Vistasof American Music: Essays andCompositions in Honor of William K. Kearns(Warren MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1999),and a related discussion of Sappho (1963)in “‘A Poem By a Woman’s Hand’: TheGreek Operas of Peggy Glanville-Hicks” inMusics and Feminisms (Sydney: AustralianMusic Centre 1999).

“News of the Society” continued from page 67


Lewis Spratlan Wins 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Music

Amherst College music professor LewisSpratlan received this year’s Pulitzer Prizein music for Life Is a Dream, Opera in ThreeActs: Act Two, Concert Version, an excep-tional work written twenty-two years agoas a commission for the New Haven LyricOpera, but only performed this year. It was“a complete surprise . . . I didn’t have aninkling, didn’t even know the prizes weregoing to be awarded,” Spratlan reported toLinton Weeks of the Washington Post (11April 2000). The award was given to

Spratlan on 22 May 2000 at ColumbiaUniversity, the site for this year’s awardsluncheon. The composer shared honorswith twenty other Pulitzer winners, drawnfrom the fields of journalism, letters, anddrama.

Spratlan, a native of Miami, was a studentof Mel Powell and Gunther Schuller at Yale.He taught and conducted at Tanglewood,the Yale Summer School of Music, andAmherst College. His music has been widelyperformed throughout the United States andEurope. He has received commissions andpremieres from the Boston Musica Viva,Springfield Symphony Orchestra, LydianString Quartet, and the Koussevitzky MusicFoundation, among others. Of particularmerit is the composer’s tour of Russia andArmenia as a guest of the Soviet Composers’Union. Toccapsody, for solo piano, and

Apollo and Daphne Variations werepremiered on this tour and Penelope’s Kneeswas presented in Moscow’s RachmaninoffHall under Emin Khatchatourian.

Life Is a Dream (published by G.Schirmer) was premiered on 28 January2000, by Dinosaur Annex in Amherst, Mass.The work was inspired by “a seventeenth-century Spanish play written by Calderonde la Barca” and makes use of traditionaloperatic themes of “family, politics, andmurder,” according to Molly S. Delano(Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11 April 2000).The story’s main character, PrinceSegmundo, is exiled by his father who fearshis son’s ascendency to the throne. On hear-ing the work, music critic Richard Dyer(Boston Globe, 22 April 2000) “was struckby the sheer theatricality of the music,”when he heard it performed. The “music isbrainy, heartfelt, and communicative.”

Following the awards lunch, GeorgeRupp, President of Columbia University,introduced Spratlan and described thecomposer’s work as “superb vocal andorchestral imagination.” Spratlan was thencalled to the podium to accept his prize, andbeamed with delight as the audience offellow honorees and guests applauded him.Congratulations to Maestro Spratlan!

—James R. HeintzeAmerican University

Research Opportunities in the NEH Summer StipendsProgram

The National Endowment for theHumanities (NEH) Summer Stipendsprogram supports two months of full-timeresearch on a project that will make a signif-icant contribution to the humanities with anaward of $4,000. Although regular facultymembers of colleges and universities mustbe nominated by their institutions, and eachinstitution may nominate a maximum of twoapplicants, independent scholars andadjunct faculty may apply for these grantswithout nomination. Information may beobtained at http://www.neh.gov or bycontacting NEH at [email protected] or at202-606-8200.

Open Content EncyclopediaCalls for Submissions About Music

A major new encyclopedia project,Nupedia.com, requests expert help inconstructing an “open content” encyclope-dia, planned to become the largest generalencyclopedia in history. The project hassignificant financial support, and its leadersand owners are committed to a years-long,intensive effort—to founding an open,public institution.

If you are an expert in any subject, yourparticipation in the project will be welcome.They are in need of well-qualified writers,editors, and peer reviewers, and will bedoing searches for subject area editors.Moreover, if you are a good writer andresearcher, you may be interested incontributing short biographies, descriptionsof works, and other brief entries.

What does it mean to say the encyclo-pedia is “open content”? This means thatanyone can use content taken from Nupediaarticles for almost any purpose, both for-profit or non-profit, so long as Nupedia iscredited as the source and so long as thedistributor of the information does notattempt to restrict others from distributingthe same information. Nupedia will be“open content” in the same way that Linuxand the Open Directory Project (dmoz.com)are “open source.” As has been the casewith those projects, they plan to attract ahuge body of talented contributors.

If you want to join the project or stayapprised of the progress of Nupedia, youcan go to the Nupedia website athttp://www.nupedia.com/ and become amember. (Becoming a member is free.)

American Music Education Initiative

The AMEI is a program designed torecognize and support teachers who useAmerican music in their classrooms. TheAMEI is open to teachers of any subject, inany grade K-12, and in any academic setting.

Teachers are invited to submit lessonplans that use American music. The plansare reviewed and evaluated by a distin-

BULLETIN BOARD



Lowens Memorial Book and Article Awards

The Lowens Memorial Book andArticle Awards are prizes for books andarticles published in the previous calen-dar year. The Committees would beimmensely grateful for nominations andself-nominations for articles, essays inanthologies, or books. Chairs for 1999Publications (awards to be conferred in2001): Book: N. Lee Orr, [email protected]; Article: Kim H. Kowalke, 207Todd, University of Rochester, Rochester,NY 14620. [email protected]

The Dissertation Prize

The Society for American MusicDissertation Prize is designed to recog-nize a single dissertation on Americanmusic for its exceptional depth, clarity,significance, and overall contribution.American music is interpreted in all itshistorical and contemporary styles andcontexts, including, but not limited to artand popular musics, the musics of ethnicgroups and minorities, and the full rangeof musical activities. “America” is under-stood here to embrace all of NorthAmerica, including Central America andthe Caribbean, and aspects of its cultureselsewhere in the world.

The period of eligibility for the Prize isfor doctoral dissertations successfullydefended during the previous calendaryear. Applicants need not be members ofthe Society. The submission process is not“blind,” there is no limit on the numberof submissions from any particular insti-tution, and there is no requirement fornomination by dissertation director(s).

Candidates should send three copies ofthe following, postmarked no later than28 February: title page and abstract; tableof contents, and one sample chapter. Oneof the three copies may be on a floppydisk in IBM format, using WP5.1 or Word6. Send your submission, with a cover let-ter, to Cyrilla Barr, Chair, 701 PennsylvaniaAve., NW Washington, DC 20004.

Non-Print Publications Subvention Awards

The annual deadline for applications forthe Sonneck Society Non-Print PublicationsSubvention Award is 1 December. Forinformation contact Mary Jane Corry, 8Joalyn Road, New Paltz, New York, 12561;[email protected].

Publication Subvention Awards

Maximum award: $2,500. Applicationsmay be made at any time, but applicantsshould anticipate a long waiting period.Applications should be received by 15November and include the following:publication plans. (Note: A publisher musthave agreed to print the work); detailedfinancial statement, including publicationcosts showing format and print run;specific request amount; and statementof impact of subvention on the price; briefcurriculum vita; outline and table ofcontents of proposed publication; samplechapter. Six copies of the applicationshould be sent to: Lenore Coral, MusicLibrary, Lincoln Hall, Cornell University,Ithaca, NY 14853-4101; [email protected].

guished panel of judges. The judges selectexceptional plans for one of three awardlevels: Finalist, Semi-finalist and HonorableMention. Finalist teachers receive grants of$1,000; semi-finalist teachers receive grantsof $500. All lesson plans chosen by thejudges are then published in an on-line data-base (www.nmc.org), where they are avail-able for free to other teachers.

Applications and guidelines were avail-able from the Foundation’s web site,www.nmc.org. They could also be obtainedby calling 1-800-USA-MUSIC. Applicationswere due to the Foundation’s New Yorkoffice (150 West 55th St., Suite 5C, New YorkNew York 10019) by 1 September 2000.

The National Music Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated toAmerican music. Its educational purpose isto preserve and celebrate our heritage ofAmerican music by encouraging andsupporting the use of American music inschools.

For further information contact ThomasJ. Heany, Director of Programming, at 1-800-USA-MUSIC.

Women Song Composers: A Listing of Songs

A new searchable database containing5116 songs and song sets by 515 womencomposers active in North America andEngland between 1890-1930 has recentlybeen posted on the Internet. Through thisdatabase, it is possible to document—atleast in part—an extraordinary rise anddecline of women song composers thatoccurred in the years before and after theFirst World War. The sustained publicationof songs by women grows from twenty-onenew titles in 1890 to a peak of 200 in 1912,tapering off to just eighteen in 1930.Christopher Reynolds discusses this andother aspects of the database in his pref-ace; both can be accessed at:http://musdra.ucdavis.edu/faculty/reynolds/Women_songs_home.html

Digital Libraries Initiative at IU

Indiana University (IU) has beenawarded a four-year, three-million-dollargrant from the Digital Libraries Initiative-Phase 2 program, with support from the

Society for American Music Awards“Bulletin Board” continued from page 69


Honors and AwardsCommittee Members

Honors and Awards: George Keck,chair (1999-2001), Marsha Heizer (1999-2001), Wiley Hitchcock (2000-2002),Sherrill Martin (2000-2002), Paul Wells(1999-2001)

Irving Lowens Award, 2000 Publications(Books): Edward Berlin, chair; WilmaCipolla, William Kearns, Judith Tick,Charles Wolfe

Irving Lowens Award, 2000 Publications(Articles): John Koegel, chair; Carol Hess,Paul Laird, Michael Pisani, Ann Sears

Dissertation Prize (1999 completions):Catherine P. Smith, chair; Adrienne F.Bloch, John Koegel, Gayle Murchison,David Patterson

Dissertation Prize (2000 completions):Cyrilla Barr, chair; David Ake, Liane Curtis,Homer Rudolf, Patricia Norwood

National Science Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Humanities,for a proposal entitled, “Creating the DigitalMusic Library.” The project will build on theachievements of IU’s VARIATIONS project,a digital library system for recorded musicand images of musical notation previouslydeveloped at the IU’s William & Gayle CookMusic Library.

The project will focus chiefly on test-beddevelopment and will investigate softwareand system architecture, to providenetworked access to digital music content(sound recordings, score images, encodedscore notations, etc.) both for instructionand library services. The team of investiga-tors will include faculty from IU’s Schoolsof Music, Law, Library and InformationScience, and its Department of ComputerScience, with support from the UniversityLibraries and University InformationTechnology Services. For further informa-tion, see the project’s web site athttp://dml.indiana.edu/index.htm.

Millennial Celebration of American Identities at SUNY Potsdam

SUNY Potsdam continues its year-longAmerica 2000 project which investigatesthe United States’ role in the new millen-nium and focuses upon the theme of“American Identities.” SAM member GaryBusch is founder and director of thiscampus-wide interdisciplinary initiative.

America 2000 consists of several keycomponents. The “American Year” featuresofferings exploring the American Identitiestheme, including music and dance perfor-mances, art exhibits, a film/discussion series,and the College’s inauguration of anAmerican Studies minor. “AmericanIdentities: Land, Body, Word, People, Spirit”is a national photography exhibition featur-ing over 100 black and white, color, digi-tally created and photo/mixed mediaartworks by 32 artists from across the coun-

try. Musical productions that further amplifythe American Identities theme will includeSondheim’s Assassins and ShermanEdwards’s 1776. A presentation of LibbyLarsen’s A Wrinkle in Time will precede aweek-long residency of the composerduring the Spring. Guest recitals byMetropolitan Opera soprano and SUNYPotsdam alumna Renee Fleming, the KronosQuartet, and Native-American singer BuffySaint Marie will also reflect the “AmericanIdentities” theme. The climax of theAmerican Year will be The AmericanIdentities Festival, a three-and-a-half day all-campus celebration, 14-17 March 2001. Acomplete description of the project may befound on SUNY Potsdam’s America 2000 website at http://www.potsdam.edu/am2000.

Search for New Music by Women Composers

The International Alliance for Women inMusic is pleased to announce the 20thIAWM (2001) Search for New Music byWomen Composers. Various prizes will beawarded. A composer may submit only onepiece, which must be unpublished, havewon no prior awards, and have no plans tobe recorded at the time of entry in thecompetition.

For information on the contest guide-lines, email [email protected] or visit the IAWM Website:http://music.acu.edu/www/iawm/oppor-tunities/snm.html, or contact MarilynShrude IAWM Search for New MusicCollege of Musical Arts Bowling GreenState University Bowling Green, OH 43403.Deadline: 12 January 2001.

21-25 February 2001: Music LibraryAssociation. The Music LibraryAssociation (MLA) will hold its 70thAnnual Meeting at the Grand Hyatt NewYork in New York City with members ofthe Theatre Library Association, the DanceLibrarians Discussion Group of the ACRLArts Section, and the Congress onResearch in Dance. The MLA LocalArrangements Committee, host of the 70thAnnual Meeting, is planning special toursof the Louis Armstrong House andArchives in Queens, the MetropolitanOpera Archives, and the archives of theNew York Philharmonic, as well as toursof several Broadway theaters. For moreinformation, contact Christine Hoffman at(212) 988-3792 ([email protected]), orwww.musiclibraryassoc.org/nycmeet/wh_meet_nyc.htm.

8-10 March 2001: Society of EarlyAmericanists Conference, Norfolk, Virginia.The first SEA conference last year featuredpapers and presentations from individu-als in art history, theater history, literature,material culture, social and political history,and music history, among others. Pleaseconsult the SEA home page atwww.hnet.uci.edu/mclark/seapage.htmand note other information about theconference. For more information, pleasecontact Jeffrey H. Richards, SEA 2001Program Chair, Department of English, OldDominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529or email: [email protected] or DennisMoore, SEA 2001 Associate Program Chair,Department of English, Florida StateUniversity, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1580 oremail: [email protected].

15-17 March 2001: SoutheasternHistorical Keyboard Society annual con-clave in Charlottesville, Virginia. Topicswill include those relating to the Federalperiod, Thomas Jefferson, and early musicin the mid-Atlantic states, as well as thosethat relate closely to the clavichord, harp-sichord, fortepiano, or historic organ and their repertoires. Questions regardingthe conclave may be directed to ArdythLohuis by fax 804/827-0230 or e-mail: [email protected]. SEHKS can be foundon the web at http://www.sehks.org.

22-24 March 2001: VirginiaCommonwealth University announces anInternational Samuel Barber Symposiumto be held in Richmond, Virginia. Papersand lecture demonstrations on topics relat-ed to the life, work, and influence ofSamuel Barber will be presented.Questions about the Symposium may bedirected to Mr. John Patykula atDepartment of Music, VirginiaCommonwealth University, 922 ParkAvenue, Richmond VA 23284-2004;phone: 804/828-8008; fax: 804/827-0230;email: [email protected].

19-21 April 2001. Shepherd CollegeConference on Music of the Civil WarEra. Shepherd College is pleased topresent its first annual Conference onMusic of the Civil War Era. This year’skeynote speaker is slated to be RonMaxwell, director of the movie“Gettysburg.” The conference will includeperformances by the Wildcat RegimentalBand (a re-enactment band with periodinstruments) and the PhiladelphiaAmbassadors Chorale and Ensemble (achoral group specializing in African-American music of the “Mother Bethel”AME church in Philadelphia during thisperiod). Other events include paperpresentations, workshops, battlefield tours,and a display of period instruments. Pleasecontact Dr. Bruce Kelley (Department ofMusic) at (304) 876-5290 for more infor-mation, or go to the web site : www.shep-herd.wvnet.edu/gtmcweb/seminars.htm

2-5 August 2001: Hollywood Musicalsand Music in Hollywood. The AmericanMusic Research Center at the College ofMusic, University of Colorado at Boulderinvites the submission of abstracts andpanel proposals for the third triennial SusanPorter Memorial Symposium, a four-dayconference to be held in Boulder.Proposals due 8 January 2001. For furtherdetails including submission requirementsand contact information, please seehttp://www-libraries.colorado.edu/amrc/.

15-18 November 2001: AmericanMusicological Society. The 2001annual meeting of the AmericanMusicological Society will be held inAtlanta, Georgia from Thursday, 15November to Sunday, 18 November. Seehttp://www.sas.upenn.edu/music/amsfor details.

The American Musicological Society isa non-profit organization to advance“research in the various fields of music asa branch of learning and scholarship.” TheSociety holds its annual meetings withconcurrent sessions to accommodate thereading of about 125 papers as well asstudy sessions, panel discussions andforums on a variety of topics. Concerts,exhibits, and social and business functionsengage the time and interests of membersbeyond the scholarly sessions.

15-18 November 2001: CollegeMusic Society. Forty-Fourth AnnualMeeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Seewww.music.org for details.

Conferences of The College MusicSociety provide a forum for the exchangeof ideas on a wide variety of issues. Theconference programs feature plenarysessions, presentations, panels, andperformances in the areas of composition,ethnomusicology/world music, musiceducation, music in general studies, musi-cology, performance, and theory, as wellas new areas which emerge as the profes-sion responds to change. The Society'sprogram differs from those of discipline-specific organizations by virtue of itsgreater attention to the art of teaching andits disciplinary inclusiveness.

25-28 October 2001: Society forEthnomusicology. 2001 Annual Meeting,Marriott Renaissance Center, Detroit,Michigan. Sponsored by the University ofMichigan. The 2001 Conference theme is“Teaching and Learning in the Twenty-First Century”; the proposal deadline is 7March 2001. For information, contact: SEM2001 Program Committee, Society forEthnomusicology, Morrison Hall 005,Indiana Univeristy, Bloomington, IN47405.


CONFERENCES


ELAN: MUSIC FROM MEXICO ANDTHE U.S. Elliott Schwartz: Elan: Variationsfor Five Players. William Toutant: Bagatelle.Max Lifchitz: Three Songs for voice andTrumpet. Silvestre Revueltas: Cincocanciones de niños. Mary Jeanne vanAppledorn: Passages and Passages II.Daniel Kessner: Two Visions. DanielKessner, alto flute, conductor; TheNorth/South Consonance Ensemble; FrankCassara, marimba; Kathleen L. Wilson,soprano; Robert Stibler, trumpet; MaxLifchitz, piano; Don Lucas, trombone; AlanD. Shinn, percussion. North/SouthRecordings, N/S R 1020, 1999. Onecompact disc.

The intriguing disk Elan presents aneclectic group of compositions in a vari-ety of styles, composed within the lasteighteen years, and mostly scored forunusual combinations of instruments.Elliott Schwartz, a native New Yorker withnumerous performances of his works tohis credit, contributed the title work, Elan:Variations for Five Players. The work isscored for flute with piccolo doubling, clar-inet, violin, ‘cello and piano. The variationsare derived from the opening section,rather than from a theme. The style isgenerally atonal, lyrical, and light in texturewith pointillistic elements and rapid shiftsof mood between variations.

Three Songs for Voice and Trumpet byMax Lifchitz on poems by Don Padgett,Steve Levine, and Gary Lenhart arewonderful fun. The poems are a light-hearted commentary on animals, insects,and the human condition. The soprano isrequired to use Sprechstimme (minimally),and talk and sing in approximately equalmeasure. The trumpet supplies traditional-sounding military fanfares and flourishes,melodic accompaniment, and highly effec-tive insect sounds. The result is a delight-ful, if brief, song cycle.

Passages for trombone and piano, andPassages II for trombone and percussionby Mary Jeanne van Appledorn are impres-sive additions to the trombone repertoire.Ms. Appledorn is a composer of imagina-tive and inventive musical gifts. Theseworks display an accessible and lyric styleand a remarkable range of color and

drama produced with limited means.Passages makes use of such special tech-niques as harmonics produced by “stop-ping” the low B and C strings inside thepiano, and the use of sympathetic vibra-tions that result when the player aims thebell of the trombone into the strings of thepiano while the pianist holds down thedamper pedal. Each work consists of fivebrief movements.

William Tourant’s Bagatelle is a cheer-ful composition for alto flute and marimbawith a focus on balance and clarity andinspired by 18th-century forms. DanielKessner’s Two Visions for flute, clarinet,violin, cello, and piano is also included.The performances range from serviceableto good, but are rarely inspired.

Silvestre Revueltas’s Cinco Cancionnesde Niños for soprano and piano were writ-ten in 1940, two years before thecomposer’s untimely death at age forty.These five songs, inspired by the folkmusic and syncopated dance rhythms ofMexico, set poems by the Spanish writerFederico Garcia Lorca. They exhibit aperfect synthesis of lyricism and humorthat raise the light and amusing texts to thelevel of high art. These songs alone wouldbe worth the price of the recording.

—Amy CamusQueensborough Community College,

CUNY

TAQUACHITO NIGHTS: CONJUNTOMUSIC FROM SOUTH TEXAS.Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, SFWCD 40477, 1999. One compact disc.

While Texas-Mexican conjunto music(the accordion-led ensemble) will be famil-iar to a wide audience because of its recentnational and international exposure, thedifferences between regional variants ofconjunto (San Antonio and Lower RíoGrande Valley styles, for example) and therelated música norteña tradition of north-ern Mexico will be more familiar to thoseliving in Texas and the Southwest.Taquachito Nights: Conjunto Music fromSouth Texas, recorded live at the 16 deSeptiembre Conjunto Festival in SanBenito, Texas in 1998, presents some of

the highlights of this two-day annual eventheld in conjunction with MexicanIndependence Day (16 September) cele-brations. It is especially fitting that the festi-val has been sponsored since 1992 by theNarciso Martínez Cultural Arts Center inSan Benito, since that organization isnamed in honor of conjunto pioneer andlocal resident Narciso Martínez (1911-1992), known as the “Huracán del Valle”(“hurricane of the Lower Río GrandeValley”). With 19 pieces (recorded by 17conjuntos), including examples of thepolka, chotís (schottische), redova, bolero,cumbia, danzón, canción ranchera, andhuapango, Taquachito Nights presents awide range of conjunto artists, genres, andpopular styles. It also represents a multi-generational conjunto audience. The musi-cians with the longest reputation in andoutside the Lower Río Grande Valleyinclude Valerio Longoria (b. 1924), thesenior conjunto accordion player whoperforms the canción ranchera “Noche deAmores” (“Night of Love”); Tony de la Rosa(b. 1931), playing his famous version ofthe conjunto standard “Atotonilco” (polka);Mingo Saldívar (b.1936), who sings andplays the bilingual cumbia “El Sinaloense”;and Rubén Vela (b. 1937) performing acumbia especially geared towards theyoung people in the festival audience, “Elcoco rayado” (“The Stripped Coconut”).

The sound engineering on the record-ing is uniformly excellent and a success-ful attempt has been made to capture theambiance of the live festival atmosphere.The interesting liner notes are extensiveand historically informed, and help tobring this tradition to life for audiencesfamiliar and unfamiliar with the style.Smithsonian Folkways is to becommended for issuing another finerecording dedicated to one of the manyHispanic music traditions in the UnitedStates. (Earlier releases include collectionsof music from Southern Arizona and NewMexico and other areas). Hopefully, evenmore Hispanic/Latino music traditions willbe represented in their catalog in thefuture.

—John KoegelUniversity of Missouri–Columbia

REVIEWS OF RECORDED MATERIALS

Edited by Orly Leah Krasner, City College, CUNY



RICHARD DYER-BENNET: SONGSWITH YOUNG PEOPLE IN MIND.Smithsonian Folkways, SFW CD 45053,2000. One compact disc. ELLA JENKINSAND A UNION OF FRIENDS PULLINGTOGETHER. Smithsonian Folkways, SFWCD 45046, 1999. One compact disc. ELLAJENKINS: SEASONS FOR SINGING.Smithsonian Folkways, SFW CD 45031,2000. One compact disc. SUNI PAZ:ALERTA SINGS & SONGS FOR THEPLAYGROUND/CANCIONES PARA ELRECREO. Smithsonian Folkways, SFW45055, 2000. One compact disc. PETESEEGER: AMERICAN FOLK, GAME &ACTIVITY SONGS FOR CHILDREN.Smithsonian Folkways, SFW CD 45056,2000. One compact disc. TALES TOLD INTHE WINDS. Roupen Shakarian: TheTurnip, Clock and the Kid. Huntley Beyer:Tales Told in the Winds. Kathleen DavisMacferran, conductor; Rainier ChamberWinds; Paul Prappas, Allan Barlow, narra-tors. MMC Recordings, MMC 2071, 1998.One compact disc.

These six discs sample a few of themany choices available to parents andeducators from the realm of music for chil-dren. Tales Told in the Winds representsthe world of art music. When you’ve runthrough the traditional favorites, these areengaging stories, both aptly narrated andmusically painted. Roupen Shakarian’s TheTurnip, Clock and the Kid is actually threeshort tales, with charming musical detailsin each. The second, “The WonderfulCounting Clock,” creates a contrastingmood to accompany each hour. At threeo’clock, for example, three frogs dance tothe accompaniment of a foot-tappingfiddler; the music features a swirling violinline over a boom-chuck bass line withcomical wind interjections. The ensembleconsists of oboe, clarinet, bassoon, Frenchhorn, trumpet, trombone, violin, doublebass, and percussion.

The most extended work (at twenty-four minutes) on this CD is “TheFisherman’s Son” from Huntley Beyer’sTales Told in the Wind. Beyer uses onlywind instruments to depict the story of afisherman’s son who releases the magnif-icent scarlet fish his father has told him towatch. Typical fairy tale consequences

ensue and the music ranges from the lyri-cal to the dramatic. The liner notes includepictures of the instruments and suggestedactivities.

The singer Ella Jenkins has an impres-sive discography to her credit; these tworecordings bracket her career. Ella Jenkinsand a Union of Friends Pulling Together isa 1999 recording celebrating “the ideas ofunity, cooperation, and labor unionsthrough songs, recitation, and poetry.”There may be a bit too much recitation forsome tastes, but the musical numbers arewell performed and several of Jenkins’sharmonica solos are interspersed through-out. The cover suggests that this CD isappropriate for children ages four totwelve, but parents may find it more inter-esting, especially if they read the extensiveliner notes. In a classroom environment,individual selections could be used to greatadvantage. Seasons for Singing, a reissue,was recorded at a summer program inChicago in 1969; the suggested audienceis three- to nine-year-olds. Most of thematerial uses verse-chorus form with chil-dren participating in each number. Theaccompaniments vary among guitar,kazoo, rhythm sticks, and bongos. Thesongs are also ethnically diverse; “CarryMe Ackee” is Jamaican, “Tee-Kah-Nees” isGreek, and there are several spirituals,including “This Train” and “All Night, AllDay.” The sound quality of this CD isgenerally good, although it is occasionallyapparent that the original was recordedseveral decades ago. Surprisingly, very fewof these numbers sound dated.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be saidfor ALERTA Sings & Songs for thePlayground/Canciones Para El Recreo bySuni Paz. This disc is a re-release of twoalbums from 1977 and 1980, respectively.ALERTA (A Learning EnvironmentResponsive To All) is a curriculumdesigned by educators who believe in the“beauty of multiculturalism.” Paz is at herbest in the Spanish songs; the English-language numbers (including Jamaicanand African-American songs) soundprecious. The diction feels overly precise,and the voice is often pitched in a way thatfeels artificially high, the way one mightspeak to a child. There are several exam-ples of skip-rope rhymes, such as “Pizza,Pizza Daddy-O,” but this material is betterhandled on various albums in the NewWorld Record series. The accompanimentsfor the first half are generally perfunctory;

the Spanish playground songs are morecolorfully accompanied by charango,bombo, cuatro, afuche, and bells. The linernotes are good, and the Spanish songs, ifused selectively, would be useful in someclassroom settings.

Richard Dyer-Bennet was a major figurein the mid-century folk music revival; thisCD, originally released in 1958, capturesthe feel of a live concert. Dyer-Bennet’svoice is a light, refined tenor accompaniedby his own guitar playing. His selectionsdraw equally from the Anglo-Celtic andAmerican repertory, encompassing balladssuch as “Frog Went a-courtin’” and theNorth Carolina nonsense lyric “BuckeyeJim.” Even in the comical “Little Pigs,” withits imitative snorts and whistles, Dyer-Bennet never sounds less than elegant.This is not entirely a positive thing.Although the CD has a warm, intimateambience, singer and audience seem tomaintain a respectful distance.

Pete Seeger’s American Folk, Game &Activity Songs for Children combines twoalbums first released in 1953 and 1962. Asis the case with the other SmithsonianFolkways recordings discussed here, theliner notes are excellent. A personal notefrom the performer suggests that peoplecontinue to use the folk process to alterthe occasional lyric that has become polit-ically incorrect in the decades between theoriginal release dates and the present.Although some of this material is nearly ahalf-century old, it still feels fresh and vital.The CD opens with “Bought Me a Cat,”arranged by Ruth Crawford Seeger, andPete’s performance is pure joy. Anotherten of his stepmother’s arrangementsfollow and are equally delightful. But evenin simple numbers like “Skip to My Lou”with banjo accompaniment or the acappella “Yankee Doodle,” Seeger trustsin the value of the music and he nevercondescends to his young audience.Although the cover suggests that this CDis especially suitable for children three toseven, don’t be surprised if this timelessrecording becomes a family favorite.

“Reviews of Recorded Materials” continued from page 73

NOTES IN PASSING


Huronne,” an art song by CélestinLavigueur. Although Indianist in subject,there are none of the clichés associatedwith the genre here.

The marches and dances receive themost spirited performances. These includesophisticated, composed examples, suchas the “Marche de la St. Jean-Baptiste” byJ.-C. Brauneis II, and traditional pieces likethe “Reel du pendu” (“Reel of the hangedman”) authentically fiddled by DavidGreenberg with his own foot-tappingaccompaniment.

Ultimately one responds to this fine CDas to a plate of delicious hors d’oeuvres;one waits with a sense of wonder for theensuing main course. These tantalizingmorsels should encourage both moreperformances and more research.

Mademoiselle, Voulez-vous Danser?picks up where the “Reel du pendu” and“Valse-clog medley” from À la clairefontaine left off. This dynamic CD is theresult of an ethnomusicology seminar atDartmouth College. Fanning out fromHanover, New Hampshire, the studentscollected their sampling of Franco-American material in 1996-97. The linernotes are extensive and provide a contex-tual overview as well as specific informa-tion for each piece.

This is a richly textured and varied col-lection. A contemporary ballad by DonnaHébert (b. 1948) opens this CD. “TheShuttle” describes the rigors of working ina New Hampshire mill. It is performed byChanterelle, a young Massachusettsensemble devoted to establishing “a con-temporary cultural identity for Franco-American music and musicians.” Its pol-ish contrasts with the homey simplicity ofMaria Perrault’s a cappella rendition of “Tesouviendras-tu de moi?” (“Will YouRemember Me?”), a song she learned fromher father. Similarly, “Les bûcherons” (“TheLumberjacks”) was recorded at a soirée.These house parties, dedicated to pre-serving and increasing interest in theFranco-American heritage, are informalgatherings for music-making, French con-versation, and spontaneous dancing.Several excerpts on this CD were record-ed at soirées attended by anywhere fromtwelve to thirty people. The timber indus-try figures prominently in the folklore ofthe region, and this song, led by Paul Baril(a stonemason by trade) includesantiphonal responses by soirée partici-pants. Many of the performers here,

À LA CLAIRE FONTAINE: MUSIC INKRIEGHOFF’S QUEBEC/LA MUSIQUEQUÉBÉCOISE AU TEMPS DEKRIEGHOFF. The Beckwith Ensemble.Opening Day Recordings, ODR 9321,2000. One compact disc. MADEMOI-SELLE, VOULEZ-VOUS DANSER?:FRANCO-AMERICAN MUSIC FROMTHE NEW ENGLAND BORDERLANDS.Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, SFWCD 40116, 1999. One compact disc.A retrospective of the paintings ofCornelius Kreighoff, a nineteenth-centuryCanadian artist, spurred the recording À laClaire Fontaine: Music in Krieghoff’sQuebec. Prepared in conjunction with theexhibition, the repertoire highlights sixaspects of contemporary life as depictedby the painter: traditional songs, echoesof First Nations music, sacred music,marches and dance music, art songs, andtheatre music. John Beckwith’s informa-tive, bilingual notes establish the contextand explain the connections between thevisual and the musical.

“Echoes of First Nations music,” forexample, refers to three Indianist pieces,including Ernest Gagnon’s “Stadaconé,”subtitled “danse sauvage.” This charmingwork, with its programmatic dissonancesand ostinati, features the ensemble’s fourinstrumentalists—John Beckwith, piano;Dianne Aitken, flute, David Greenberg,violin; and Trevor Tureski, percussion. Theduet “We never tell a lie” from CalixaLavallée’s operetta TIQ (The IndianQuestion) features the ensemble’s twosingers—soprano Lisa Lindo and tenorDarryl Edwards. Its open-fifth ostinato,melismatic war cries, and suggestive danceinterludes warrant its inclusion under theFirst Nations banner, but it could just aseasily have been grouped with the twoother theater excerpts, also by Lavallée(1842-1891).

Calixa Lavallée travelled throughoutNorth America as an itinerant theater musi-cian. He is represented by three additionalworks on this CD: the “Shake AgainGalop” and two numbers from his operettaThe Widow. The delightful Waltz Song“Smiling Hope,” however, seems to pushthe soprano’s limits; she sounds morecomfortable in the folk and sacrednumbers, particularly the lyrical and haunt-ing “Au sang qu’un Dieu va répandre”(“With the blood shed by a Savior”) withviolin obbligato. The tenor is uniformlygood and convincingly presents “La

including Baril and Perrault, are in theirseventies, and the vocal timbres often havean appealing rawness.

The spirited instrumental numbers ofteninclude clogging. A notable example is“Reel St. Hubert,” performed by Dudleyand Jacqueline Laufman, both of whomfiddle and clog in this excerpt. DudleyLaufman is a well-known contradancecaller in northern New England. Theensemble Nightingale is also well knownin contradance circles; their performanceof “J’entends le moulin” (“I Hear the Mill”)turns this well-known French folk songinto a highly crafted presentation.

The breadth of this CD is one of itsstrengths. It embraces a cappella solos andensembles of four or five; polished perfor-mances by concertizing ensembles and amedley of materials culled from five hoursof music recorded at a soirée; voices roughwith age and suave, youthful renditions.If the question is, “Mademoiselle, Voulez-vous Danser?,” then the answer mostcertainly is, “Yes!”

—Orly KrasnerCity College, CUNY


CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY OFMUSIC BY WOMEN. Edited by James R.Briscoe. Bloomington, Ind.: IndianaUniversity Press, 1997. Pp. xii, 404.

In 1987, James R. Briscoe compiled andedited Historical Anthology of Music byWomen, an authoritative tool that greatlysimplified our re-telling of musical history.The present Contemporary Anthology isequally significant to the literature onwomen and music; however, this latestBriscoe anthology also exemplifies thecreative process in a challenging era—thelate twentieth century—with a breadth andinsight that others would do well to emulate.

Compositional dates range from 1955 to1995 and comprise seven works writtenprior to 1980, fifteen in the decade of the1980s, and twelve between 1990 and 1995.In this globally diverse compendium, theUnited States receives most of the attention,with approximately 45% of the composershaving been born here. Such a collectionnaturally favors those who communicatesignificantly through “the score”; theAmerican subset of this group includesDiemer, Kolb, La Barbara, Larsen, Monk,(Grace) Smith, Tower, and Zaimont. Theexpanse of American music is alsosuggested with more populist works, suchas Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” andan aria from Lucy Simon’s Broadway musi-cal, The Secret Garden.

Guided by merit and staying power,Briscoe chose wisely among an unprece-dented wealth of compositional expertise,then relinquished a fair amount of editorialcontrol by asking each woman to select hermost representative score or excerpt.Commentaries attached to each worksummarize data from pre-existing sourcesand a questionnaire, the latter of whichevoked a broad range of perspectives onthe profession and the degree to whichbeing female matters. Briscoe’s own prefa-tory insights, along with those of Susan C.Cook, further qualify the prose ofContemporary Anthology as a solid, appro-priately diversified lexicon on the artistry ofa period characterized by shifting musicalvalues.

The pièce de résistance of this project isa triple-CD recording of the Anthology,

released in 1999 (ISBN 0-253-33547-7), thatavails the listener of all except three works.Although veterans of the1987 recordingssuch as Anna Briscoe and the ButlerUniversity choral groups make distinguishedreturns in this set, approximately three-quar-ters of the bands are re-releases of commer-cial issues. The creator’s voice is again astrong presence; no fewer than ten excerptsfeature composers as performers and/orengineers.

Contemporary Anthology of Music byWomen should augment the collection ofany institution or individual concerned withthe study of twentieth-century music.

—Kay NortonArizona State University

GUITAR MUSIC BY WOMEN COM-POSERS, AN ANNOTATED CATALOG.Compiled by Janna MacAuslan and KristanAspen. Westport, CT, and London:Greenwood Press, 1997. ISBN 0-313-29385-6. Pp. 202.

With well over eight-hundred composerslisted in this important document, anuncharted musical land awaits exploration.For those interested in discovering theworks of women composers, Guitar Musicis an informative and well-organized guidefor finding this neglected repertoire. Musicalworks are organized by instrumentation(e.g., flute and guitar, concerto, strings andguitar). The composers and their pieces arealphabetically listed, often with a stylisticdescription, sometimes quite elaborate:“medium-lyrical, open, fluid tonality, Bartok-like.” The second half of the book isdevoted to short and concise biographiesof most of the composers listed. Add to thatappendixes listing the composers’ andpublishers’ addresses, a bibliography, andboth a composer and title index, and youhave the portal to what hopefully one daywill be an important addition to theguitarist’s repertoire.

—Robert NathansonUniversity of North Carolina

at Wilmington

THE SEARCH FOR THOMAS F. WARD,TEACHER OF FREDERICK DELIUS. ByDon C. Gillespie. Gainsville: University ofFlorida, 1996. Pp. xvi, 180.

I just kept turning the pages even thoughthe further I read, the more I realized thisbook had very little to do with music. TheSearch for Thomas F. Ward, Teacher ofFrederick Delius is a record of DonGillespie’s decades of work filling in thedetails of a very small footnote to musichistory: facts about an obscure Americanmusician who taught Delius for six monthsduring the latter’s first sojourn in Florida.Gillespie valiantly follows every possibleclue to discover who this obscure NewYork/Florida musician was and whathappened to him. Delius is just an excusefor the author to engage in the kind ofarchive work on Ward that most genealo-gists expend tracing their own roots.

Unfortunately there are moments in thebook when we, like several of the peoplehe interviews, question why he’s doing itand then wonder why we’re reading it. It isobvious that this had become the quest forthe Holy Ward and nothing was going tostop Gillespie until he had uncovered what-ever there was. Following the clues aboutthe consumptive Ward from his nativeBrooklyn to the healthier climate of Florida(where his path intersected with Delius’s),Gillespie tries to reconstruct the life of thisvague musician by examining the musicalscenes of every town he is known to havelived in—Gainesville, St. Augustine, Tampa,Shreveport, New Orleans, Houston, as wellas Brooklyn. These vignettes on the culturallife of late nineteenth-century and fin desiècle American cities provide some of themost interesting insights in the book,although Ward is at best only tangential tothe activities. Along the way we also learna lot about the political strife of severalmonasteries, including the still controver-sial Belmont Abbey, where Ward brieflytook vows.

This book is regrettably similar to hear-ing some ardent genealogist run on forhours about his fascinating ancestors whoare actually quite boring but lived in inter-esting times and places. You appreciate theresearcher’s fervor and devotion, but did

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Edited by Petra Meyer-Frazier, Metropolitan State College of Denverand Sherrill V. Martin, University of North Carolina at Greensboro


you want to spend this much time hearingabout it? Then again, this tale is a page-turner and if you like a good mystery, thisbook is like Dorothy Sayers or P.D. Jamessans corps but rich in the marginalia youlearn while following the clues.

—Vern Sutton, Ph.D. and ProfessorUniversity of Minnesota

FIRE IN MY BONES: TRANSCENDENCEAND THE HOLY SPIRIT IN AFRICANAMERICAN GOSPEL. By Glenn Hinson.Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress, 2000. Pp 424, 24 b/w illustrations.

This book is an examination of the mean-ing of “soul” and “spirit” and the subjective“experience” of them in the AfricanAmerican “sanctified” community. As such,it becomes an ethnography of feeling, or“touch,” of the Spirit. It is not, however,touchy-feely in style. The data are carefullyorganized and presented in great detail. Theorganizational framework is a single gospel-singing program, the twentieth anniversaryof the Branchettes, a female duo in NorthCarolina. Hinson tries to show how everyobservable part of the program fits togetherto make the whole—preaching, testimony,prayer, gesture, song, instrumental sounds,announcements, etc. Since this is a singingprogram, the greatest emphasis naturally ison song. His running description of theprogram is crosscut by his discussions of itsmeaning, interview statements of partici-pants, accounts of conversations with othersingers and church people not a part of theprogram, observations of other music andworship events, and so forth.

Hinson treats the experiences and testi-monies of “saints” as real, not merely associal constructs or things attributable tofamiliar psychological patterns to be ratio-nalized and explained away. As an anthro-pologist and folklorist, he tries to harnesssubjectivity to science, with the goal “toexplore the metaphysical and experientialworlds of the program’s participants” (p. 7).The main text is thus entirely the author’sdescriptions and the words and song lyricsof saints. The interpretations of other schol-ars on similar material are kept in the notes.

This book explores the elaborate rhetoricof “experience,” of “getting happy” andbeing “on fire.” Much of this rhetoric is cen-tered around music, so that we get muchdiscussion of such in-group terms as “drive,”“zooning,” “gift of song,” being “noisy,” etc.There is however, little discussion of musi-cal form and style using any of the usualanalytical musical terminology and no tran-

scribed musical examples or excerpts eitherin standard western notation or any alter-native system. The discussions of terminol-ogy are very valuable for the student ofAmerican music, but we are left somewhatin the dark as to how these terms may berelated to specific harmonic, scalar, melod-ic, and rhythmic usages.

Hinson speaks of his informants as col-leagues and “consultants.” He sees them asindividuals and seems to reject many of theassumptions of anthropologists about “cul-ture” as something shared, or at least aboutcultural “patterning.” By playing experience,particularly spiritual experience, into aninstitutional or behavioral framework, hefeels much real understanding is lost to theinvestigator, and the experience can thenbe manipulated and interpreted while itsimmediacy and force are reduced. With thisattitude he blurs the line between insiderand outsider. This, or course, is easier to dofor nearly any American investigator ofsomething such as the African American“sanctified” community because of sharedelements of culture, language, music, etc.,between the community and the investiga-tor, and because of the case of movementbetween home and the “field.” This wouldnot be so easy to do for someone studyingthe sacred musical performances of a verydifferent society in another part of the world.Thus one might be a bit disturbed byHinson’s criticism of some anthropologicalanalyses of such material as “ontologicalcolonialism” (p. 331). In a sense, Hinson’srole is that of organizer of this community’sbeliefs, ritual activity, and spiritual experi-ences, letting his presentational frameworkand the depth and detail of his probing andreporting stand for analysis. (There is, ofcourse, much self-analysis in the statementsof his many “consultants.”) Although he dis-cusses other potential and actual scholarlyanalyses of these phenomena in his notesand an appendix, he is reluctant to givethem precedence over the testimony andexplanations of the “saints.” Anthropologistsand folklorists can debate whether or notthis is good professional methodology.Whatever the ultimate verdict (if any), stu-dents of American music are left with a richmine of information about one importanttype of musical activity and its basis in beliefand spirituality.

—David EvansThe University of Memphis

EDWARD MACDOWELL: AN AMERICANMASTER. Alan H. Levy. Lanham, MD andLondon, The Scarecrow Press, 1998.

Two meanings of the word “amateur”come to mind on reading Levy’s EdwardMacDowell. As amateur, the author bringsto his subject love and enthusiasm, but alsodemonstrates a lack of skill that togetherwith hubris invalidates his noble intentions.Of these, the zeal to rehabilitateMacDowell’s reputation—a rehabilitationalready made elsewhere—exposes Levy’scredulity. In addition, his lack of contextualknowledge leaves him prey to errors andpreconceptions. Thus, even access to therecently opened MacDowell Papers at theLibrary of Congress, an opportunity denieduntil now to other scholars because thepapers were sealed in the 1930s to appeaseMacDowell’s widow, has not resulted innew insight into the composer’s characterand work.

Given Levy’s credentials as professor ofhistory concentrating on American culture,one might have expected from him differ-ent, more well -rounded interpretations ofMacDowell’s life than those written by musi-cologists. Apparently believing mere tran-scription sufficient to make his case,however, Levy never bothers to explicatethe new texts. Instead, he presents them tothe reader raw and undigested. Whateverlacunae, misconceptions, idiosyncratic opin-ions, or obscure references containedtherein are left hanging in air without correc-tion or comment.

Note the material [p.109] taken fromletters, “Steele MacKage to MacDowell,December 1892” [Note 36, p. 132] and“Edward MacDowell to Marian, undated[Note 37, p.132]”:

When Steele MacKage, director of theGeneral Columbian Celebration Company,wrote MacDowell asking him to “undertakecomposition of the most important musicalwork for [the] World’s Fair,” MacKage soughtto underscore his sense of excitement,mentioning, “Dvorák declares it the grandestopportunity ever offered a composer andwould seize it himself (!!!) if free.”36

MacDowell never wrote back and confidedto Marian, . . . “I can’t do anything with it . . . I wouldn’t take it after Dvorák anyway.”37

Of course, one of the most celebratedindividuals in American culture is notMacKage, but the veritable actor, playwright,producer, and theatrical innovator, SteeleMacKaye [1842-1894; pronounced “Ma Kai,”



according his son Percy who, among othercollaborations with American composers,wrote librettos for Frederick ShepherdConverse (see Scarecrow Press book,Converse, by Robert J. Garofalo, Note 71, p.31]. The impression left by Levy (perhapsbased on MacDowell’s hasty reading ofMacKaye’s request) is that MacKaye waswriting in his capacity as head of the World’sColumbian Exposition. In reality, MacKayewas soliciting MacDowell for a different,private organization, having no relationshipwith the Fair, or its music. The “GeneralColumbian Celebration Company” wasdedicated solely to MacKaye’s Spectatorium,a visionary theatrical auditorium that was tobe erected adjacent to the Fair grounds.

The reference in the letter to Dvorák hadto do with the composer’s diplomatic turn-down of MacKaye’s proposal that he writeorchestral music for his grandioseSpectatorio dealing with “the theme of theNew World Discovery” [see Percy MacKaye,Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye, New York,1927, Vol.II, pp. 354-65]. Dvorák’s magnan-imous suggestion—perhaps he had littlefaith in the speculative nature of theproject—may be interpreted as mereeyewash from a polite but savvy foreignerwho had just arrived on these shores.Nevertheless, all was not lost, since accord-ing to Percy MacKaye, it was his father’sconcept that eventuated in Dvorák’ssymphony From The New World!

Undaunted by Dvorák’s rebuff, and stillrequiring a vast supply of orchestral musicfor his Spectatorio, MacKaye systematicallymade inquiries among many Americancomposers. One of the reasons he calledupon MacDowell, in particular, may havevery well been, in addition to MacDowell’spremier position in American music, the factthat they both had attended the sameGrammar School No. 40 in Manhattan [P.MacKaye, Vol. II, pp. 46-8]. MacDowell’ssilence in the matter may be explained assagacious, given his recent negative expe-rience with a Fair commission. Furthermore,with MacDowell’s antipathy towardsDvorák, MacKaye’s invocation of theBohemian’s name may have had an effecton Edward contrary to the one intended. Inany case, MacKaye’s expensive schemecame to naught after the financial panic of1893.

The one commission MacDowell receivedearlier from the Fair proper, to write musicfor young Harriet Monroe’s Octe, was inex-plicably refused. Subsequently, it was

assumed successfully by George Chadwick.But in the retelling of this familiar episodein his subject’s career, Levy misspells thename of the poet as Munroe, refers to arequest for a piano score “to facilitaterehearsals” [my emphasis], implies thecancellation of the commission was mutual,when in fact, according to Margery M.Lowens [The New York Years of EdwardMacDowell, pp. 58-9], the Fair’s MusicBureau sent out a news release ofMacDowell’s acceptance, and finally, impliesmistakenly that Mrs. Beach, rather thanChadwick, took on the assignment of settingMonroe’s Ode, perhaps by confusing it withBeach’s concerted work, Festival Jubilate.That work, also commissioned by theColumbian Exposition, was composed forthe dedication of the Woman’s Building, not“for the opening ceremony” of the Fair [pp. 106-7].

Discussing another Columbian Faircontretemps involving MacDowell, Levymakes the uninformed suggestion that theSteinway pianos played by the composerwere made by a “German manufacturer”and denominates the company as “JosephSteinway and Sons [p.107]!”

Levy modestly recognizes his limitationsas a musical analyst. He prudently advisesthat those “who wish technical analyses of. . . MacDowell’s works can go to the scoresand make their own investigations [pp.x-xi].” Yet he cannot resist at least one stab atmusical explication. Displaying a full orches-tral score illustration of the first fivemeasures of the third movement of thePiano Concerto in A minor, Levy opines,“The chords that open [it] remind almostevery listener of the similar B-diminishedseventh tremolo that dramatically opens thepiano concerto in the same key by theNorwegian composer Edvard Grieg pg.12].”Here it takes no music-theory specialist tonotice that the only thing the two examplesmay have in common is the fact that theyboth begin with a timpani-roll crescendo:Grieg’s on A, MacDowell’s on E. Dispensingwith the illusory “B-diminished seventhtremolo,”—an effect that, were it present,would have truly demanded notice at thetime—Grieg’s first tutti chord is clearly thetonic of A minor. MacDowell’s similartimpani-roll punctuation (the chord onLevy’s page 11 example) approaches adiminished seventh, but not quite. Happily,MacDowell employs the less hackneyednon-dominant seventh chord on B, permit-ting him to introduce the solo piano in risingarpeggiated fifths and tritones on the super-

tonic of A minor. Perhaps this was why Liszt,upon hearing the young MacDowell playthe concerto solo with Eugen d’Albert[perhaps Eugène, but certainly not Eugèn,pp. 18-19] on the piano reduction of theaccompanying orchestral part, warned themore well-known composer to watch outfor the American.

If the gloss of only a few pages must yieldsuch corrective commentary, the reader maytake it for granted that a thorough consid-eration of Levy’s well-meaning biographywould be a project far beyond the limita-tions imposed on this review. It is appallingto realize that those searching for informa-tion on MacDowell’s life and works willaccept the author’s narrative as gospel andrepeat its errors, mistakes, and oversightsfor at least another generation. Caveat lector!

—Victor Fell YellinNew York University

IVES STUDIES. Edited by Philip Lambert.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1997. Pp. xi + 300. THE MUSIC OFCHARLES IVES. By Philip Lambert. NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1997. Pp. xii+ 244.

Ives scholarship over the last decade orso has been dominated by a small group ofresearchers, including Stuart Feder, H. WileyHitchcock, James Sinclair, Jan Swafford, andespecially J. Peter Burkholder. However, anumber of others have also been workingaway at the Ives legacy, but not always withthe same degree of public prominence orrecognition: notable amongst this group isPhilip Lambert, whose substantial contri-bution to the cause is suitably acknowl-edged through the appearance of this finepair of volumes. Ives Studies and The Musicof Charles Ives in many ways complementboth existing Ives scholarship and eachother. The former volume contains ten indi-vidual essays, addressing such generaltopics as the relationship of Ives’s music tothat of Europe; the chronology of hiscompositions; historical and biographicalcontexts for his work; and the unfinishedUniverse Symphony. Among the importantlinks here are the chapters by Robert P.Morgan (“ ‘The Things Our Fathers Loved’:Charles Ives and the European Tradition,”which ties in with the work of PeterBurkholder and Geoffrey Block, includingthe latter’s own contribution to the presenttome); H. Wiley Hitchcock (“Editing Ives’s129 Songs,” which relates to his forthcom-ing critical volume of Ives’s songs); and

“Reviews of Books” continued from page 77


Gayle Sherwood (whose “Redating Ives’schoral sources” provides a solid foundationfor the future revision of Ives’s composi-tional chronology).

Elsewhere in Ives Studies, Judith Tickprovides a fascinating insight into thecomposer’s political ideas, while StuartFeder explores the importance of Thoreauto Ives. Possibly the most interesting chap-ter is Wolfgang Rathert’s thoughtful andconvincing essay entitled “The idea ofpotentiality in the music of Charles Ives.”This develops Emerson’s concept of poten-tiality in the context of Ives’s musical andaesthetic thought, which—Rathert argues—“represents not only a fascinating challengeto performers, listeners, and scholars, butalso a powerful and inviting legacy of musicstill to come” (p. 132). Not unsurprisingly,given this stance, Rathert is picked out byPeter Burkholder in the concluding chap-ter, “Ives today,” for continuing to “stresshow different [Ives’s] music is fromEuropean music of the period, whileAmerican scholars have recently beenemphasizing the opposite” (footnote 32 onp. 278). This whole issue—of the mutuallycontradictory ways in which Europeans andAmericans perceive Ives and his oeuvre—would make a fascinating study in itself. Asit is, Burkholder’s “envoi,” a typically thor-ough and thoughtful survey of the varioustrends in Ives scholarship since thecomposer’s centenary, inevitably empha-sizes the current “revisionist” agenda at theexpense of other viewpoints.

Part Three of Ives Studies, which consid-ers Ives’s Universe Symphony, provides thestrongest link with The Music of Charles Ives.Indeed, the two “Universe” chapters in IvesStudies—Larry Austin’s discussion of hisrealization and performances of the work,and Lambert’s own intellectually magister-ial study of “Ives’s Universe”—are splendidlycomplemented by the analytical insightsprovided by Lambert in “A Universe inTones,” the final chapter of his Yale volume;together, the three essays create an absorb-ing and substantial picture of the semi-myth-ical work first described at the conclusionof Henry and Sidney Cowell’s Charles Ivesand his Music (1955). Elsewhere, Lambertprovides extended and insightful analysesof Tone Roads No. 1, Study No. 5, and TheCage, in the more general context of anexhaustive dissection of what he terms Ives’s“systematic” music (i.e. that usually referredto as “experimental”). Given Lambert’sexceptional pedigree as an analyst, TheMusic of Charles Ives can be pretty heavy

going at times, and sections such as “ATheory of Combination Cycles” (pp. 161-7)will probably appeal only to hardened theo-rists; however, this should not belittleLambert’s singular achievement in demon-strating so convincingly that some of Ives’smost challenging (and allegedly cranky)music is in reality both extremely rigorousand intimately connected to those other“expressive, colorful” pieces of his “that[capture] the essence of nineteenth-centuryAmerica and [speak] in tongues compre-hensible only to the human spirit” (p. vii).

—David NichollsUniversity of Southampton

SOFT BOUNDARIES: RE-VISIONINGTHE ARTS AND AESTHETICS IN AMER-ICAN EDUCATION. By Claire Detels.Westport, CT and London: Bergin & Garvey(Greenwood Publishing Group), 1999.

This book calls for a major restructuringof arts education from the present “hardboundaries” (each discipline and areaswithin taught as separate entities) to “softboundaries” (an interdisciplinary approachwith esthetics as a base). The author appearswell qualified to advocate such anapproach. She is informed in a number ofareas: music history, theory, education, andperformance; esthetics; and the major post-modern movements that have an impact onour musical thinking—gender, world music,and cultural context. She must also be askillful teacher, judging from the reportedexamples of techniques she uses in herclasses at the University of Arkansas,Fayetteville.

Soft Boundaries is organized in threesections: I. “The [hard] Boundaries of the[today’s] Arts and Aesthetics,” II. “TheBoundaries in Music,” and III. “SoftBoundaries and the Future.” The first twoparts of the 131-page text encompass 93pages, and the third part, only 38 pages.Thus, emphasis is on criticism of the presentsystem. The “re-visioning” is somewhatsketchy, as we will see.

The book as a whole is a vigorouspolemic, but it is marred by three tenden-cies. The first is one-sidedness. As the authorreviews the history of history, esthetics,music history, theory, education, andperformance, she selects only facts or opin-ions that support her argument. The secondis her procrustean effort to blame all of thefaults she finds on her thesis—that “hardboundaries” alone have created today’sdeplorable conditions. The third is a

declamatory, rather redundant writing style.Over and over we read of the evils theauthor attributes to hard boundaries and thevirtues of interdisciplinary education. Whatwe fail to find is a carefully developed argu-ment integrating the many facets of thisstudy and leading to a conclusion that willclinch the author’s argument. Thus, thebook is likely to convince only those whoare already won over to interdisciplinaryeducation. Let’s look at these problems indetail.

Two instances of lopsidedness areDetels’s overviews of the history of musicesthetics and music theory. According to theauthor’s view, esthetics went into declinefollowing a golden age (the late 18thcentury) marked by the writings of Kant andSchiller. By the late 19th century, “Art forArt’s Sake” prevailed, with its focus onformalism and neglect of historical andcultural context. Examining a piece of musicas a “thing in itself” appears to be anathe-matic to the author, and she disparages thework of 20th-century theorists who attemptto unravel music’s intrinsic meaning as so-much analytical puzzle solving, isolatedfrom the “real world” and, therefore, incon-sequential. Likewise contemporary estheti-cians who have made significant advancesin clarifying the roles of meaning andemotion in music, areas which the 19thcentury had treated with a vague grandilo-quence, are dismissed as mere nit-pickerswho argue over definitions. In an excellentchapter, “Uses of History in Some RecentAesthetic Writings,” Detels shows somesympathy for pluralism in historical inter-pretation, but in music theory and esthet-ics, she brooks no ideas other than theprimacy of contextual thinking about music.

Most rigid is Detels’s effort to establish“soft boundaries” as the magic formula thatwill cure all of the ills besetting the teach-ing of numerous intellectual areas—history,esthetics, psychology, and the musical disci-plines—which she so nimbly surveys. Oneof her major criticisms is canonic historicalteaching (great composers or works), whichshe believes encourages rote memorization.But isn’t such teaching a method that couldjust as easily take place in the “soft bound-aried,” interdisciplinary class as well as the“hard boundaried,” clearly defined disci-plines? More than an interdisciplinary struc-ture is needed to mitigate such a problem,if indeed it is one. Actually, the paramountmethodology in the teaching of musichistory today is style analysis and compar-



A BLUES LIFE. By Henry Townsend as toldto Bill Greensmith, Urbana & Chicago:University of Illinois Press, 1999 ISBN 0-252-02526-1. Pp. 145.

Henry Townsend’s biography is a storyof racism, survival and most of all, musicalcircumstances. As a St. Louis blues figurewho first began playing in the mid-1920s,his career has spanned the early days ofblues’ recording popularity through a periodof relative obscurity into the recent resur-gence of the music. Although primarily asideman, he knew and often accompaniedmany of the seminal blues legends, eitherin St. Louis or during his trips to Memphisand Chicago.

This book is an interesting document ofthe life of Townsend as told to BillGreensmith. At times the text is ramblingand seems like the unedited transcripts ofGreensmith’s interviews. A St. Louis resi-dent, Greensmith devotes too much spaceto specific descriptions of St. Louis streetsand areas. While this is interesting on alocal level and may be an important ingre-dient in a musicological study of the city’smusic, the information is superfluous formost readers.

Townsend’s story clearly illustrates theimportance of the cross-pollination of musi-cal influences that occurred between themajor river cities during the first half of the19th century. While it is generally agreed thatblues music found it’s first form in the Deltaregion near Memphis, the spread of themusic occurred via the transient populationthat regularly traveled up and down theMississippi River from New Orleans toChicago. Blues performers would makeoccasional recordings and perform in acollection of house parties and juke joints.As such, St. Louis was an integral compo-nent in the evolution of the music andHenry Townsend’s recollections of hisparticipation is an important document.

Unfortunately, Townsend’s abilities as amusician outshine his talents as storyteller.The book often bogs down in personalrecollections a skilled biographer mighthave edited. His observations about suchearly blues figures as Roosevelt Sykes andWalter Davis offer a fascinating glimpse intothe working blues musician’s world.Overall, A Blues Life is enjoyable reading forscholars interested in the history of themigration of the blues up and down theMississippi River.

—David LessMemphis, Tennessee

ison rather than memorizing lists ofcomposers or works.

In Part III, the author offers her solutionto the problems she has presented earlier;namely “an extension of [the] ‘comprehen-sive musicianship’ approach of combiningtheory and history instruction to includeconnections to the performance and expe-rience of Western art and popular music,and of prominent styles of non-Westernmusic as well (p. 110). Considering thebreadth and depth of her attack on theteaching of history, philosophy, and all ofmusic, this “re-visioning” seems very limited.The term “comprehensive musicianship,”on which Detels plans to build the neworder, is mentioned only in one place previ-ously: “Since the 1950s, there have beencollege music programs that offer a moreintegrated, ‘comprehensive musicianship’approach to the teaching of music historyand theory, but the influence of theseprograms declined in the wake of increas-ing specialization on most campuses duringand following the 1960s (pp. 108-109).”Surely the model on which she intends tobuild her program deserves more than oneprior mention. What is the history of thismovement that touched on nearly everycollege campus to some extent? What wereits successes? Its failures? Did it decline solelybecause of “increasing specialization?” If so,does this reason augur well for the successof a neo-comprehensive musicianship (nowinflated to include popular music and worldmusics as well) in today’s world, which isincreasingly specialized? Where will we findthe teachers who can “integrate historicaland theoretical issues with practice in a vari-ety of art forms and cultures” (p. 126)?

The author presents two outlines forchanging the music curriculum. The first isthe integration of music history and theoryinto a six-semester sequence (p. 111-112).The first semester is based on “folk andpopular musics around the world” in whichstudents study some basic theory: scalesystems and simple chord progressions. Theremaining five semesters offer the theoryand history of music in the traditional histor-ical sequence: “to 1600” [ancient andmedieval], “1600-1750” [baroque], “1750-1800” [classical], “19th c.” [romantic], and“20th c.’’ This “soft boundary” appears to bevery much the material taught in present“hard-boundary” courses, but with an occa-sional world music feature thrown in suchas “the development of Indian music underthe Mughal Empire” for the 1600-1750

period, and “global fusions of music in mini-malism and world beat” for the 20th century.How much integration would actually occurdepends on individual teachers. If thisproposal seems timid, the author offers afurther concession for those schools thatrefuse to take even the “tiny” step of teach-ing both theory and history as one course.She proposes a “realignment” in whichhistorians teach history and theory before1900 in their present history courses, andtheorists cover post 1900 (114-115). Neitherof these proposals appears to go very fartoward creating the vastly different systemof conceptual music education that theauthor purports to call for throughout thebook.

I have criticized this book vigorouslybecause the issues Detels presents are soimportant and because they extend farbeyond pat solutions such as “soft bound-aries.” Ideally, I support Detels’s proposalto make philosophically conceived historythe basis for interdisciplinary study of thearts, but I don’t think that a mere classroomarrangement is relevant to this goal. Rather,how we learn, each of us as individuals, is.In music, we usually start by singing orperforming on an instrument. We then add,depending on the degree of our interest,music theory and history. These accrue-ments take on the degree of major empha-sis for some of us. A few of us push on toesthetics and the relationship of music tothe other arts and to culture generally. Thislearning process of starting with one specificskill, adding others as needed, and eventu-ally seeing the “big picture” to the degreeeach of us can, has been going on forcenturies. The system has obviously growntopsy-turvy. Can we reverse the process, asthe author proposes? Detels suggests that“post-structural theory, cognitive learningtheory, and other recent theoreticalapproaches of the postmodern era” (p. 6)say that we can, but she doesn’t show how.Perhaps in her next book she will explorelearning psychology more thoroughly andflesh out an interdisciplinary approach thatdemonstrates a real contrast to “hard bound-aries.” Then, she may be able to interestmore of us than just the already converted.

—William KearnsUniversity of Colorado at Boulder



BILL EVANS: HOW MY HEART SINGS.Peter Pettinger, New Haven and London:Yale University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-300-07193-0. Pp 346.

For fans of Bill Evans, this biography isan essential tool for a deeper understand-ing of this genius’ work. Anyone who is notfamiliar with Evans’ music will find this tobe a very readable introduction to one ofthe great pianist of the twentieth century.Peter Pettinger, a concert pianist who hasundertaken this critical analysis of Evans lifeand music, offers a scholarly interpretationof the compositions and techniques usedby the late jazz artist.

A gifted musician, Bill Evans studied clas-sical music prior to his lifelong commitmentto jazz in the late 1940s. He was proficientas a sideman andcomposer but eventuallyfound his primary calling in the trio setting.As an early member of one of the greatMiles Davis groups, he gained fame withthe hip jazz loving audience. His later soloand duet recordings (including multi-tracked duets with himself) showcased hisbrilliant compositions and technique.However, it was in a series of trios thatEvans grew as an artist through the inter-play of the various sidemen.

Pettinger meticulously traces the artist’sdevelopment throughout his career, analyz-ing the recordings and notes from liveperformances. Fortunately, Evans’ liveshows were often recorded, although some-times without the permission of theperformers. This afforded Mr. Pettinger theopportunity to evaluate critically the devel-opment of specific ideas, compositions andthemes. Drug abuse is discussed in a non-judgmental fashion as a character flaw thatultimately dampened the genius of BillEvans and sometimes affected his perfor-mances.

The real strength of this book isPettinger’s analysis of the compositions andtechnique of Evans’ recorded performances.As a trained pianist he places Evans’ jazzand classical background into the contextof his music and the countless otherlegendary jazz artists with whom heworked. His descriptions of the various trioconfigurations help the reader understandthe role of “sidemen” in a small combosetting. An extensive discography isincluded and is helpful in allowing thereader to group the various trios into theirrespective periods in his career.

Ultimately Bill Evans: How My Heart Singscan be enjoyed on many levels. PeterPettinger has written a biography that not

only explains and critiques the music of animportant jazz artist but also paints a pictureof the life of a working musician. This bookis recommended for anyone interested injazz history, especially post WWII through1980.

—David LessMemphis, Tennessee

NEW WORLD SYMPHONIES: HOWAMERICAN CULTURE CHANGEDEUROPEAN MUSIC. By Jack Sullivan. NewHaven and London: Yale University Press,1999. ISBN 0-300-07231-7. Pp. 288. $30.00.

Jack Sullivan, Professor of English andChair of American Studies at RiderUniversity, convincingly shows for the firsttime the profound and transformativeinfluence of American literature, music,and mythology on European music.Beginning in the nineteenth century withGottschalk in Paris and Dvorák in NewYork, Sullivan traces the cross-culturalimpact of the New World to the Old; heconcludes with the spread of rock and rollaround the world. In addition, he presentsa fascinating account of the effects ofAmerican authors as diverse as Twain,DuBois, Melville and Langston Hughes onEuropean composers, including Dvorák’sfascination with Longfellow; Debussy andRavel’s obsession with Poe; and the inspi-ration Whitman supplied for Delius, Holst,Vaughan Williams, Hindemith, Tippett,Weill, and dozens more.

Sullivan writes with extraordinaryinsight of the lure of Broadway andHollywood for such composers as Weill,Korngold, and Britten, and most impres-sively about the influence of jazz onStravinsky, Bartok, Walton, and others.

Although Sullivan’s book is not com-prehensive (e.g., he does not includeAmerica’s experimental avant-garde), hedoes illuminate one of the most importantand overlooked aspects of American cul-ture in New World Symphonies, a fasci-nating, provocative study written for thegeneral reader as well as the scholar, andfor the literary as well as the musicalenthusiast.

A SOURCEBOOK OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN SACRED MUSICFOR BRASS INSTRUMENTS. By Mark J.Anderson. Music Reference Collection, No.59. Westport, CT, and London: GreenwoodPress, 1997. ISBN 0-313-30380-0. Pp. vi,130. $65.00.

Anderson begins his Sourcebook withan exploration of the parallel developmentof the brass band movement and religiousfervor in late nineteenth-century America.Intended as a “useful collection of musicto be used at appropriate times and places”(p.1), he also includes the scores for 22works for various solo instruments, as wellas small and large ensembles, transcribedfrom manuscript and original sources inthe Old Economy Village Music Archives,Pennsylvania Historical and MuseumCommission; the Manchester, NewHampshire Historic Association; the libraryof the Chatfield Band in Chatfield,Minnesota; and the New York City PublicLibrary.

DOWN AT THE END OF LONELYSTREET: THE LIFE AND DEATH OFELVIS PRESLEY. By Peter Harry Brownand Pat H. Broeske. New York: DuttonPublishing Company, 1997. ISBN 0-525-94246. Pp. xviii, 524. $25.95.

In Down at the End of Lonely Street,Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeskehave successfully written the first compre-hensive, objective, single-volume biogra-phy of Elvis Presley. Published on August16, 1977, the twentieth anniversary ofElvis’s death, this definitive, ambitious,meticulously-researched volume presentsa vivid account of Elvis’s life, career, death,and continuing influence. Brown andBroeske interviewed more than threehundred people, and pored over numer-ous documents, including the never-before-seen 600-page, court-orderedportrait of the final years of Presley’s life.Brown and Broeske have also enrichedthis biography with 32 pages ofphotographs of Elvis, some never beforepublished.

FILM COMPOSERS IN AMERICA: AFILMOGRAPHY 1911-1970. 2nd ed. ByClifford McCarty. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-511473-6. Pp. viii, 534. $75.00.

In Film Composers in America, therenowned film scholar Clifford McCarty

NOTES IN PASSING



William W. Austin (1920-2000), theGiven Foundation Professor of Musicologyemeritus at Cornell University, died at hishome in Ithaca, 15 March at the age of 80.Austin joined the Cornell faculty in 1947;he served as head of Cornell’s musicdepartment from 1958 to 1963.

An internationally respected musicolo-gist, Austin received some of the most cov-eted prizes in his field, including the E.J.Dent Prize from the InternationalMusicology Society and the Otto KinkeldeyPrize of the American Musicology Societyfor his influential book Music in theTwentieth Century: From Debussy toStravinsky (Norton, 1966). He alsoauthored Susanna, Jeanie and the OldFolks at Home: Songs of Stephen C. FosterFrom His Time to Ours (1975), a study ofFoster’s songs and their cultural signifi-cance. Austin also collaborated on sever-al important books, including New Looksat Italian Opera (1968, Cornell), andDebussy’s ‘Prelude l’aprs-midi d’un faune’(1970, Norton), and he authored numer-ous articles for Music Quarterly and MusicReview and was a contributor to GrovesDictionary of Music and Musicians. In1961, Austin received a GuggenheimFellowship and was an honorary memberof the American Musicology Society, thesociety’s highest honor.

Margaret Harris (1944-2000) A fewdays before Vivian Fine’s death, a muchyounger woman, Margaret Harris, died atthe age of 56. The first black woman toconduct the symphony orchestras ofDetroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis,Minnesota, and 11 other American cities,she, too, was a piano prodigy. At 10 sheperformed with the Chicago Symphonyand won a scholarship to the CurtisInstitute. She later earned Bachelors andMasters degrees from Juilliard. She gainedprominence also on Broadway, where shewas musical director of Hair, conductingan orchestra of seven men, all older thanshe. She also composed two ballets, theopera King David, and two piano concer-tos, among other works. A month beforeher death she was appointed associatedean of the Pennsylvania Academy ofMusic in Lancaster, a job she was to beginin June.

OBITUARIES attempts to identify every known composerwho wrote background musical scores forfilms in the United States between 1911 and1970. McCarty presents information onapproximately 20,000 films, spanning alltypes of American films, from features,shorts, cartoons, and documentaries tonontheatrical works, avant-garde films, andeven trailers.

McCarty corresponded with or inter-viewed hundreds of composers, arrangers,orchestrators, musical directors, and musiclibrarians. He also conducted extensiveresearch in the archives of the seven largestfilm studios: Columbia, MGM, Paramount,RKO, 20th Century Fox, Universal, andWarner Brothers. In this volume, McCartydocuments the work of more than 1,500composers, from Robert Abramson toJosiah Zoro, including the first to score anAmerican film, Walter C. Simon. McCartyalso provides an index that allows readersto quickly find the composer for anyAmerican film through 1970. FilmComposers in America is a welcomed toolfor serious students of film and a treasuretrove for film fans.

—Sherrill V. MartinUniversity of North Carolina

at Greensboro



ACOUSTIC GUITAR (Aug 00): DavidSimons, “Rock Foundation [EverlyBrothers],” 54. (Nov 00): Steve Boisson,“Passion Plays: Ian Anderson’s threedecades of visual songwriting with JethroTull,” 86.

AMERICAN MUSIC RESEARCH CENTERJOURNAL (98-99): Robert R. Fink, “ADedication to William Kearns and AmericanMusic,” 1; William Kearns, “MUSA: AnAmerican Monument,” 7; Thomas L. Riis,“The Glenn Miller Mystery: An Interviewwith William Suitts and Alan Cass,” 19; ArielA. Downing, “Music as Artifact: The JohnsonCounty War Ballads,” 35; Rodney Sauer,“Photoplay Music: A Reusable Repertory forSilent Film Scoring, 1914-1929,” 55; Ann B.Reagan, “Eugene Luening, GermanAmerican-Musician—The MilwaukeeGermans and die heilige deutsche Kunst(Holy German Art),” 77; Gisele Glover, “TheLife and Career of Edward Boatner and anInventory of the Boatner Papers at theSchomburg Center,” 89; Bart Platenga, “WillThere Be Yodeling in Heaven?”, 107.

AMERICAN MUSIC TEACHER (Apr/May00): Joseph Rezits, “Howard Wells: ‘TheMost Special Teacher of Them All,’” 22.(Aug/Sep 00): Reed Sampson, “ForBarbershoppers, the Music Never Ends[history of SPEBSQSA],” 38.

THE AMERICAN ORGANIST (May 00):John D. Witvliet, “The Blessing and Bane ofthe North American Megachurch,” 50. (July00): Marilyn Perkins Biery, “New Music forOrgan at the End of the Twentieth Century[Libby Larsen],” 76. (Sep 00): Marilyn PerkinsBiery, “New Music for Organ at the End ofthe Twentieth Century [Emily MaxsonPorter],” 50.

THE AMERICAN RECORDER (Sep 00):Scott Paterson, “Anthony Burgess: The Manand His Recorder Music,” 11.

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE (Mar 00):Molly Gia Foresta, “Playing Fiddle withMeryl Streep,” 9; Jack Sullivan, “Soundingthe Unconscious [Hitchcock’s film music],”20. (May 00): Richard S. Ginell, “RevueltasRevived,” 9; John Fleming, “Frank Zappa:

Never Strictly Genteel,” 12; RichardTraubner, “The Bible at Bam: Kurt Weill’sEternal Road Returns,” 31; Paul Moor,“Weill’s Kuhhandel: a premiere productionin need of help,” 32.

AMERICAN STRING TEACHER (May 00):William Terwilliger, “An UndiscoveredRepertoire: Copland’s Complete Works forViolin and Piano,” 78.

ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUNDCOLLECTIONS JOURNAL (Sp 00):Frederick Williams, “Giuseppe Creatore:Flambouyant Genius of the Concert Stage,”1 and “Giuseppe Creatore [1871-1952]:Discography,” 37; Tim Brooks, “EarlyRecordings of Songs from Florodora: TellMe, Pretty Maiden...Who Are You?—ADiscographical Mystery,” 51 and “FlorodoraRecordings (1901-1902): Discography,” 65;rev. of Geoffrey Wheeler, Jazz By Mail:Record Clubs and Record Labels, 1936-1958,by Jack Litchfield, 117; rev. of MichaelTisserand, The Kingdom of Zydeco, byRichard Spottswood, 119; rev. of RickKennedy and Randy McNutt, Little Labels—Big Sounds: Small Record Companies andthe Rise of American Music, by Tim Brooks,120; rev. of Timothy C. Fabrizio and GeorgeF. Paul, Antique Phonograph Gadgets,Gizmos & Gimmicks, by Tim Brooks, 124.

BASS WORLD (Sum 00): Joëlle Morton,Nancy Merriam, “The Adventures of JonDeak,” 16.

BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH JOURNAL (Sp99): Wayne D. Shirley, “Religion in Rhythm:William Grant Still’s Orchestrations forWillard Robison’s Deep River Hour,” 1; JohnAndrew Johnson, “William Dawson, ‘TheNew Negro,’ and His Folk Idiom,” 43; JeffreyMagee, “Fletcher Henderson, Composer: ACounter-Entry to the InternationalDictionary of Black Composers,” 61; TimothyRommen, “Home Sweet Home: Junkanooas National Discourse in the Bahamas,” 71;Sherrie Tucker, “The Prairie View Co-Eds:Black College Women Musicians in Classand on the Road during World War II,” 93.

BLUES ACCESS (Sp 00): Nadine Cohodas,“Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothersand the Legendary Chess Records,” 12.

BLUES REVIEW (Sep 00): Scott Jordan,“Henry Butler: Bop, Boogie & Barrelhouse[jazz, ragtime, classical and Caribbean influ-ences],” 25. (Oct 00): Tom Hyslop, “JohnPrimer: A Blues Life [sideman of MuddyWaters],” 27.

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MUSIC EDUCA-TION (July 00): Rev. of Peter Mason,Bacchanal! The Carnival Culture ofTrinidad, by Vic Gammon, 209.

THE BULLETIN OF HISTORICALRESEARCH IN MUSIC EDUCATION (Sp99): Rev. of Sondra Wieland Howe, LutherWhiting Mason: International MusicEducator, by George N. Heller, 82.

CANADIAN FOLK MUSIC BULLETIN(Mar/June 00): Sherry Johnson, “GenderConsciousness Among Women Fiddlers inOntario Fiddle Contests,” 3; Jim Hiscott,“Inuit Accordion Music—A Better KeptSecret,”16.

CANADIAN UNIVERSITY MUSIC REVIEW(20/1, 99): John Beckwith, “CUMSRemembered/Souvenirs de la SMUC,” 1; rev.of Robin Elliott, Counterpoint to a City: TheFirst One Hundred Years of the Women’sMusical Club of Toronto, by Glenn Colton,101; rev. of Diane E. Peters, CanadianMusic and Music Education: An AnnotatedBibliography of Theses and Dissertations, byGlenn Colton, 104.

CENTER FOR BLACK MUSIC RESEARCHDIGEST (Sp 00): Edward A. Berlin, “OnRagtime: Review of The Rag-TimeEphemeralist,” 8; Elizabeth Sayre, “CubanBatá Drumming and Women Musicians: AnOpen Question,” 12.

CHAMBER MUSIC (Apr 00): Kyle Gann,“American Composer: George Tsontakis,”39. (June 00): Kyle Gann, “AmericanComposer: Arthur Jarvinen,” 39. (Aug 00):Kyle Gann, “American Composer: ElodieLauten,” 25.

SOME RECENT ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

Joice Waterhouse Gibson, University of Colorado at Boulder



CHORAL JOURNAL (Apr 00): TeresaBowers, “The Golden Age of Choral Musicin the Cathedrals of Colonial Mexico,” 9.(Aug 00): Fritz Mountford, “Fred Waring’sTone Syllables: His Legacy to AmericanChoral Singing,” 8.

CLASSICAL CD (June 00): Jeremy Pound,“Composer Interview: John Tavener,” 38.(Oct 00): Simon Trezise, “The Musician forOur Time [Leonard Bernstein],” 42.

COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL (Sum 00):Trevor Wishart, “Sonic Composition inTongues of Fire,” 22.

CURRENT MUSICOLOGY (63/1999): BrianHarker, “‘Telling a Story’: Louis Armstrongand Coherence in Early Jazz,” 46; rev. ofAndrew Meac, An Introduction to the Musicof Milton Babbitt, by Jason Eckardt, 84; rev.of Susie J. Tanenbaum, UndergroundHarmonies: Music and Politics in theSubways of New York, by Stephen Mamula,116; rev. of Martha Bayles, Hole in Our Soul:The Loss of Beauty and Meaning inAmerican Popular Music, by Daniel N.Thompson, 122.

THE DIAPASON (Sep 00): R. E. Coleberd,“Three Kimball Pipe Organs in Missouri,” 16.

DIRTY LINEN (Aug/Sep 00): Steve Winick,“Anglo Lomax: English-Language song fromthe Alan Lomax Collection,” 68.

DOUBLE BASSIST (Fall 00): John Fordham,“Bass Greats: Basie’s Walter Page,”17.

THE DOUBLE REED (23/2, 00): RobertStarner, “The Introduction of Double Reedsto New Mexico 1624-1633,” 73.

ETHNOMUSICOLOGY (Win 00): PeterManuel, “The Construction of a DiasporicTradition: Indo-Caribbean ‘Local ClassicalMusic,’” 97; rev. of Lorna McDaniel, The BigDrum Ritual of Carriacou: Praisesongs inRememory of Flight, by Rebecca S. Miller,172. (Sp/Sum 00): Tara Browner, “Makingand Singing Pow-wow Songs: Text, Form,and the Significance of Culture-basedAnalysis,” 214; rev. of Robin D. Moore,Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismoand Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940, by Julian Gerstin; rev. of Frances R.Aparicio, Listening to Salsa: Gender, LatinPopular Music, and Puerto Rican Culture,by Marisol Berríos-Miranda, 336; rev. of

Robert A Stebbins, The Barbershop Singer:Inside the World of a Musical Hobby, byGage Averill, 341; rev. of video, Plenty ofGood Women Dancers: African AmericanWomen Hoofers from Philadelphia, by KyraD. Gaunt, 359.

EX TEMPORE (Sum 98): Rosário Santana,“Musical Discourse and Rhythm in ElliottCarter,” 37; Brenda Ravenscroft, “TheAnatomy of a Song: Text and Texture inElliot Carter’s ‘O Breath,’” 84.

FANFARE (May/June 00): Raymond Tuttle,“Star-Child’s Father: George Crumb Turns70,” 84; rev. of John Ardoin, ed., ThePhiladelphia Orchestra: A Century of Music,by James Miller, 327.

FILM SCORE MONTHLY (Jan 00): Variousarticles about John Williams’s music forSuperman. (Feb 00): Nick Redman, “Musicby Jerry Fielding,” 24. (May 00): JonathanZ. Kaplan, “Tora! Tora! Tora!: An Analysisof [Jerry] Goldsmith’s Musical Strategy,” 34.

GUITAR REVIEW (Win 00): Brian Hodel,“20th Century Music and the Guitar [incl.American composers],” 8.

GRAMOPHONE (July 00): BradleyBambarger, “Bernstein: Ten years after,” 8.

HARMONY: FORUM OF THESYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INSTITUTE(Apr 00): Joel Mandelbaum, “The AmericanComposers Orchestra,” 47.

THE HYMN (July 00): Dennis M. Weber,“The Transition of the Cantus Firmus fromthe Tenor to the Soprano in Anglo-AmericanHymnody,” 11; Brian C. Brewer, “Hymns ofInvitation in the Baptist Tradition: AHistorical and Theological Comparison ofAmerican and Southern Baptist Hymns,” 28.

INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN AMERICANMUSIC NEWSLETTER (Fall 99): HowardPollack, “Copland’s Hope for AmericanMusic,” 1; Maya Gibson, “Rethinking Racein Nineteenth-Century Minstrelsy,” 4; DavidEvans, “Demythologizing the Blues,” 8; rev.of Adrienne Fried Block, Amy Beach,Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work ofan American Composer, by Laurie Blunsom,11. (Sp 00): Guthrie P. Ransey, Jr., “The Muze‘N the Hood: Musical Practice & Film in theAge of Hip Hop,” 1; rev. of David A. Jasenand Gene Jones, Spreadin’ Rhythm Around:Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930, by Edward

A. Berlin, 6; rev. of Philip Lambert, IvesStudies, by Tom C. Owen, 8; rev. ofJonathan Bernard, ed., Elliott Carter:Collected Essays and Lectures, 1937-1995,by Judy Lochhead, 11.

THE INSTRUMENTALIST (Mar 00): KathleenGoll-Wilson, “I Could Have Laughed All Night[P.D.Q. Bach],” 32; Robert Foster, “CommunityBands Thrive From Coast to Coast,” 38. (May00): Joseph E. Maddy, “Early American Schooland College Bands,” 86. (June 00): WilliamKenny, “The Joys of Playing Ragtime Music,”34. (Sep 00): Michael Johns, “A History ofBrass Ensembles,” 72. (Oct 00): JeffreyRenshaw, “Seating Bands for the Music:Musical Chairs for Artistic Goals [historical],”18; Frederick Fennell, “The History ofAmerican Bands,” 66.

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FORWOMEN IN MUSIC JOURNAL (Win 00):Florence Aquilina, “An Interview withJennifer Higdon,” 1; Magaly Ruiz, “Womenand Classical Music in Cuba,” 4; RuthSchonthal, “Ruth Schonthal: A 75th BirthdayCelebration,” 7; rev. of Adrienne FriedBlock, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian, bySylvia Glickman, 14; Lydia Ledeen,“Remembering Amy Beach: A Conversationwith David Buxbaum,” 17; rev. of CyrillaBarr, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge: AmericanPatron of Music, by June Ottenberg, 52.

INTER-AMERICAN MUSIC REVIEW (Sp-Sum 00): Tribute to John Beckwith, 1; IsmaelFernández de la Cuesta, “Spanish PlainchantPublications to 1601,” 3; “Cathedral Music inMontreal: Historical Precedents, Part I,” 25;John Koegel, “Manuel Y. Ferrer and MiguelS. Arévalo: Premier Guitarist-Composers inNineteenth-Century California,” 45; “NewLight on Two Maximum Mexican Composers:Coloquio Internacional Centenario de CarlosChávez y Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1999),” 67;Victor Barletta, “Renaissance and BaroqueMusical Sources in the Americas, NameIndex,” 71; rev. of Arthur J. O. Anderson,trans., Bernardino de Sahagún’s PsalmodiaChristtana (Christian Psalmody), 93; rev. ofOscar Mazín Gómez, ed., Archivo capitularde Administración Diocesana Valladolid-Morelia, Catálogo, 100; rev. of GabrielPareyón, Clemente Aguirre (1828-1900):Semblanza, tabla de obras musicalles y collec-ción editada de partituras, 1, 104; rev. ofRicardo Miranda, Manuel M. Ponce: Ensayosobre su vida y obra, 105; rev. of CarlosChávez, ed., Música Revista Mexicana, 110;rev. of José Antonio Robles Cahero, ed.,

“Recent Articles and Reviews” continued from page 83


Heterofonía Revista de investigación musical,110; rev. of John Beckwith, Music Papers,Articles and Talks by a Canadian Composer1961-1994 [NB: Title erroneously listed asMore Papers...], 116.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOC. OF JAZZRECORD COLLECTORS JOURNAL (Win00): Rev. of Tom Lord, The JazzDiscography, Vol. 22, by Russ Chase; rev. ofLee Tanner, Images of Jazz, Lee Tanner andLee Hildebrand, Images of the Blues, ScottYanow, Duke Ellington, [iconographies], byStuart Kremsky, 81. (Sp 00): Rolf Ljungquist,“Some Notes on Charlie Parker andSweden,” 28; rev. of Warren W. Vaché, JazzGentry, Aristocrats of the Music World, byRuss Chase, 87; rev. of Linda Dahl, MorningGlory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams,by Stuart Kremsky, 88; rev. of EddieLambert, Duke Ellington: A Listener’s Guide,by Russ Chase, 88; rev. of Christopher Page,Boogie Woogie Stomp: Albert Ammons andHis Music, by Russ Chase, 89. (Sum 00):Michael P. Zirpolo, “In Duke’s [Ellington]Head,” 19.

INTERNATIONAL TRUMPET GUILDJOURNAL (Mar 00): John La Barbera,“Maynard Ferguson: The King,” 6; WilliamF. Lee III, “A Maynard [Ferguson] Snapshot,”23; Keith Winking, “Ray Crisara: Teachingby Example,” 33; Jack Burt, compiler,“Uncommon Man, Uncommon Musician:Tributes to Ray Crisara from Colleagues andStudents,” 40; rev. of William F. Lee, MFHorn: Maynard Ferguson’s Life in Music,by Kelly Rossum. (June 00): RalphDudgeon, “Credit Where Credit is Due: TheLife and Brass Teaching of Donald S.Reinhardt,” 26; Stephen L. Glover, “RobertKing: Brass Music Advocate and PublishingIcon,” 43. (Oct 00): Michael Caldwell, “ThereWill Never Be Another Doc: An Interviewwith the Incomparable Doc Severinsen[historical info],” 37.

JAZZ EDUCATORS JOURNAL (July 00):Kevin Whitehead, “Jazz: The First Century,39. (Sep 00): Michael Rossi, “[Dr.William]Prince is a Prince [jazz history],” 34.

JOURNAL OF ARTS MANAGEMENT, LAWAND SOCIETY (Sp 00): Rev. of WilliamWestbrook Burton, Conversations AboutBernstein, by Joseph Wesley Zeigler, 73.

JOURNAL OF BAND RESEARCH (Sp 00):Lavern J. Wagner, “Music for America’sHometown Bands: Tracing the Southwell

Publishing Firm, 1; Robert J. Meaux, “ASelected Bibliography of the MarchingBand: 1980-1998,” 75.

JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCHIN MUSIC EDUCATION (Oct 99): CarolynLivingston, “The WPA Music Program asExemplified in the Career of CharlesFaulkner Bryan,” 3; Steven N. Kelly, “JohnBarnes Chance and His Contributions toMusic Education,” 21; Michael D. Martin,“Band Schools of the United States: AHistorical Overview,” 41; Blair L. Martin,“The Influence and Function of Shape Notesand Singing Schools in the TwentiethCentury: An Historical Study of the Churchof God,” 62; rev. of Sondra Wieland Howe,Luther Whiting Mason: International MusicEducator, by Marie McCarthy, 101.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICALINSTRUMENT SOCIETY (XXV/1999): PeterSpohr, “Some Early American BoehmFlutes,” 5; rev. of Robert F. Gellerman, TheAmerican Reed Organ and the Harmonium:A Treatise on its History, Restoration andTuning, with Descriptions of SomeOutstanding Collections, 148. (XXVI, 2000):William E. Hettrick, “The Dolceola: A Storyof Musical Enterprise in Toledo, Ohio,” 141.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICO-LOGICAL SOCIETY (Fall 99): Rev. ofJoseph N. Straus, The Music of RuthCrawford Seeger, by Jeffrey Stadelman, 634.(Sp 00): Amy C. Beal, “Negotiating CulturalAllies: American Music in Darmstadt, 1946-1956,” 105; rev. of Dale Cockrell, Demonsof Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels andTheir World, W. T. Lhamon, Jr., RaisingCain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crowto Hip Hop, and William J. Mahar, Behindthe Burnt Cork Mask: Early BlackfaceMinstrelsy and Antebellum AmericanPopular Culture, by Charles Hamm, 165;rev. of Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland:The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man,by David Nicholls, 191.

JOURNAL OF MUSIC THEORY (Fall 99):Steven Strunk, “Chick Corea’s 1984Performance of ‘Night and Day,’” 257; SteveLarson, “Swing and Motive in ThreePerformances by Oscar Peterson,” 283;Matthew Shaftel, “From Inspiration toArchive: Cole Porter’s ‘Night and Day,’” 315.

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL MUSICALASSOCIATION (Part 1, 00): David Metzer,

“Musical Decay: Luciano Berio’s Renderingand John Cage’s Europera 5,” 93.

LIVING BLUES (Mar/Apr 00): Brett Bonner,“Taj Mahal: The easiest thing to carry aroundwith you in this life is knowledge,” 30; TomFreeland, “Robert Johnson: Some Witnessesto a Short Life,” 42; John Anthony Brisbin,“Jay McShann: Music Was A Good Life!”, 50;Chris Thomas King, “Blues at 2000: A Forumon the State of the Blues [various inter-views],” 56. (May/June 00): David Nelson,“Joe Louis Walker: ‘I’ve Always BeenRestless Musician,’” 14; Bill Dahl, “Gene‘Daddy G’ Barge: The Soulful Saxophone,”22; John Anthony Brisbin, “A Tribute toEddie Taylor,” 32. (July 00): Guido Van Rijn,“Reverend J. M Gates,” 48, “Reverend‘Gatemouth’ Moore,” 52, “Georgia TomDorsey,” 53.

MODERN DRUMMER (July 00): Mike DeSimone, “Mel Lewis [big band],” 124. (Nov00): Jim Payne, “Tito Puente: Tribute to aKing,” 76.

MORAVIAN MUSIC JOURNAL (Sp 00):Albert H. Frank, “Johann Christian Bechler,”3; Jewel Smith, “Moravian music, women,and pianos,” 5; C. Daniel Crews, “JohannFriedrich Peter,” 7; Paul Larson, “Till, fatherand son,” 9; Nola Reed Knouse, “Musicnotation,” 9; Trudi Vorp, “Moravianhymnody,” 11; Nola Reed Knouse,“Summary: Reflections on Moravian MusicResearch,” 14.

MUSIC ANALYSIS (Mar 00): Bob Gilmore,“Reinventing Ives,” 101.

MUSIC AND LETTERS (Feb 00): Rev. of AlanH. Levy, Edward McDowell: an AmericanMusic, and Adrienne Fried Block, AmyBeach, Passionate Victorian: The Life andWork of an American Composer, by PeterDickinson, 132. (May 00): Rev. of Cyrilla Barr,Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge: American Patronof Music, by Carol J. Oja, 326; rev. of Leta E.Miller, Lou Harrison: Composing a World, byBob Gilmore, 339; rev. of Simon Frith,Performing Rites: Evaluating Popular Music,by Dai Griffiths, 343.

MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL (Mar 00):Michael L. Mark, “From Tanglewood toTallahassee in 32 Years,” 25; Jon R. Piersol,“Wiley Housewright on Music’s ChangingTimes,” 29.



MUSIC TEACHER (Sep 00): Joan Upton-Holder, “Out of the Archive,” 23.

THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY (Fall 99):Joseph N. Strauss, “The Myth of Serial‘Tyranny’ in the 1950s and 1960s,” 301. (Win99): Tammy L. Kernodle, “Arias,Communists, and Conspiracies: The Historyof Still’s Troubled Island,” 487; Arved Ashby,“Frank Zappa and the Anti-FetishistOrchestra,” 557.

THE MUSIC TIMES (Sum 00): StephenBanfield, “That’s Entertainment: ThreeRecently Published Perspectives on theBroadway Sound,” 48; rev. of Howard Pollack,Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of anUncommon Man, by Robin Holloway, 51.

MUSICWORKS (Sum 00): Rev. of Paul Bley,Stopping Time: Paul Bley and theTransformation of Jazz, by DavidRothenberg, 59.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGEWIND AND PERCUSSION INSTRUCTORS(Sp 00): Daniel Adams, “Recent SoloTimpani Compositions and the Influence ofElliott Carter’s Eight Pieces for FourTimpani,” 4.

19TH CENTURY MUSIC (Fall 99): GayleSherwood, “‘Buds the Infant Mind’: CharlesIves’s The Celestial Country and AmericanProtestant Choral Traditions,” 163.

NOTES: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THEMUSIC LIBRARY ASSOC. (Mar 00): Rev. ofLewis A. Erenberg, Swingin’ the Dream: BigBand Jazz and the Rebirth of AmericanCulture, by Jeffrey Magee, 668; rev. ofRobert G. O’Meally, The Jazz Cadence ofAmerican Culture, by Burton W. Peretti,671; rev. of Brian Ward, Just My SoulResponding: Rhythm and Blues, BlackConsciousness, and Race Relations, by KyraD. Gaunt, 673; rev. of Dale A. Olsen andDaniel E. Sheehy, eds. South America,Mexico, Central America, and theCaribbean, by Walter Aaron Clark, 685; rev.of Mark N. Grant, Maestros of the Pen: AHistory of Classical Music Criticism inAmerica, by Karen Ahlquist, 691; rev. of BillF. Faucett, George Whitefield Chadwick: ABio-bibliography, by Wilma Reid Cipolla,699; rev. of Karen Ahlquist, Democracy atthe Opera: Music, Theater, and Culture inNew York City, 1815-60, by Katherine K.

Preston, 717; rev. of Wayne Schneider, TheGershwin Style: New Looks at the Music ofGeorge Gershwin, by Sandra Barnes, 722;rev. of Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland:The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man,by Larry Starr, 724; rev. of Bob Gilmore,Harry Partch: A Biography, by Carol J. Oja,726; rev. of Christopher Shultis, Silencingthe Sounded Self: John Cage and theAmerican Experimental Tradition, by Paulvan Emmerik, 729; rev. of Taylor AitkenGreer, A Question of Balance: CharlesSeeger’s Philosophy of Music, by StephenBlum, 731; rev. of William HowlandKenney, Recorded Music in American Life:The Phonograph and Popular Memory,1890-1945, by B. Lee Cooper, 733; rev. ofBetty N. Smith, Jane Hicks Gentry: A SingerAmong Singers, by Chris Goertzen, 738. (Sep00): George Boziwick, “Henry Cowell at theNew York Public Library: A Whole World ofMusic,” 46; rev. of James B. Sinclair, ADescriptive Catalogue of the Music of CharlesIves, by David Nicholls, 114; rev. of VeraBrodsky Lawrence, Strong on Music: TheNew York Music Scene in the Days of GeorgeTempleton Strong, Vol. 3: Repercussions,1857-1862, by John Graziano, 131; rev. ofGeneva Handy Southall, Blind Tom, theBlack Pianist-Composer (1849-1908), byBrian Thompson, 133; rev. of HenryTownsend and Bill Greensmith, A Blues Life,by Jane Bowers, 153; rev. of Albert Fuller,Alice Tully: An Intimate Portrait, byElizabeth L. Keathley, 155; rev. of MavisBayton, Frock Rock: Women PerformingPopular Music, by Kate Daubney, 159; rev.of Jeff Smith, The Sounds of Commerce:Marketing Popular Film Music, by RobynnJ. Stillwell, 163.

OPERA (June 00): Patrick J. Smith, “‘Nixon’in London,” 637. (Oct 00): MartinBernheimer, “What opera? What America?”,1147; Jack Sullivan, “Operas for a NewWorld,” 1173; Peter Davis, “The Americansinger,” 1180.

THE OPERA JOURNAL (Mar 00): Rev. ofJohn Rockwell, All American Music:Composition in the Late Twentieth Century,by Charles S. Freeman, 39.

OPERA NEWS (July 00): Joan Peyser, “TheBernstein Legacy,” 22.

THE OPERA QUARTERLY (Sp 00): JimMcPherson, “Before the Met: The PioneerDays of Radio Opera—Part 2, The NBCNational Grand Opera Company,” 204.

(Sum 00): Jim McPherson, “Before the Met:The Pioneer Days of Radio Opera, Part 3,Cesare Sodero, the Music Man,” 407.

OPERNWELT (June 00): Robert Hilferty,“Was es bedeutet, Amerikaner zu sein [VirgilThomson’s and Gertrude Stein’s ‘The Motherof Us All’ in New York],” 64.

ORCHESTER (Apr 00): Hans-Jürgen Schaal,“Kurt Weill—zwischen Brecht undBroadway,” 2.

THE ORGAN (Aug-Oct 00): LuciusWeathersby, “Out of Africa: An Introductionto the Organ Music of African and African-American Composers,” 125.

PANPIPES (Sp 00): Adrienne Provenzano,“Help Your Students Learn About WomenComposers [multimedia resource kits, incl.many American women composers],” 6.

PERCUSSIVE NOTES (Apr 99): TerryGunderson, “Discography ofUnaccompanied Jazz Vibraphone,” 48.(June 00): Lauren Vogel Weiss,“Répercussion: Canadian Crusaders,” 6.

THE PERFORMING SONGWRITER (Mar00): Paul Zollo, “Pete Seeger,” 81.

PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC EDUCATIONREVIEW (Sp 00): Andrea Boyea, “TeachingNative American Music With Story forMulticultural Ends,” 14.

PIANO & KEYBOARD (May/June 00):Linda Holzer, “From Somber to Samba [EllenTaafe Zwilich],” 36.

POPULAR MUSIC (Jan 00): Mark Duffett,“Going down like a song: national identity,global commerce and the Great CanadianParty,” 1; Murray Forman, “‘Represent’: race,space and place in rap music,” 65.

POPULAR MUSIC AND SOCIETY (Sp 00):Juanita Karpt, “Populism with ReligiousRestraint: William B. Bradbury’s Esther, theBeautiful Queen,” 1; Joshua Gunn, “GothicMusic and the Inevitability of Genre,” 31;John M. Sloop, “The Emperor’s NewMakeup: Cool Cynicism and Popular MusicCriticism,” 51; Steve Waksman, “BlackSound, Black Body: Jimi Hendrix, theElectric Guitar, and the Meaning ofBlackness,” 75; rev. of Sister Souljah, NoDisrespect, by Gary Burns, 115; rev. ofHernando Calvo Ospina, Salsa! Havana

“Recent Articles & Reviews” continued from page 85


Heat, Bronx Beat, by George Plasketes, 116;rev. of Joli Jensen, The Nashville Sound:Authenticity, Commercialization, andCountry Music, and Richard A Peterson,Creating Country Music: FabricatingAuthenticity, by B. Lee Cooper, 118; rev. ofGuy A. Marco, Literature of American MusicIII, and Checklist of Writings on AmericanMusic, by B. Lee Cooper, 120. (Sum 00):Peter Mercer-Taylor, “Two-and-a-HalfCenturies in the Life of a Hook,” 1; Joe Gow,“Rockin’, Rappin’, and Religion:Programming Strategy on Z MusicTelevision,” 17; Frank W. Oglesbee, “SuziQuatro: A Prototype in the Archsheology ofRock,” 29; Mike Butler, “‘Luther King Was AGood Ole Boy’: The Southern RockMovement and White Male Identity in thePost-Civil Rights South,” 41; Neal Ullestad,“American Indian Rap and Reggae: Dancing‘To the Beat of a Different Drummer,’” 63;B. Lee Cooper and William L. Schurk,“You’re the Cream in My Coffee: ADiscography of Java Jive,” 91; George H.Lewis, “Treasures Left Behind:Remembering Kate Wolf,” 101; rev. of RonMoore, Underground Sounds, by GaryBurns, 121; rev. of Alan Young, Woke Me UpThis Morning: Black Gospel Singers and theGospel Life, by William D. Romanowski, 123;rev. of George Plasketes, Images of ElvisPresley in American Culture, 1977-1997,by George H. Lewis, 125; rev. of IsaacSequeira, Popular Culture: East and West,by Timothy E. Scheurer, 127; rev. of TimNeely, The Goldmine Standard Catalog ofAmerican Records, 1950-1975, by B. LeeCooper, 128; rev. of Billy Poore, Rockabilly:A Forty-Year Journey, by B. Lee Cooper, 129.(Fall 99): Gary Burns, “Marilyn Manson andthe Apt Pupils of Littleton,” 3; GeorgePlasketes, “Things to Do in LIttleton WhenYou’re Dead: A Post Columbine Collage,”9; David Sanjek, “Paying the Cost to Be theBoss,” 25; Dick Weissman, “Some Thoughtson the Columbine Shootings,” 29; MelindaMorrow, “‘But Beavis, Everything DoesSuck’: Watching Beavis and Butt-head WatchVideos,” 31; Laurence W. Etling, “Al Jarvis:Pioneer Disc Jockey,” 41; Scott R. Hutson,“Technoshamanism: Spiritual Healing in theRave Subculture,” 53; B. Lee Cooper andBill Schurk, “Singing, Smoking, andSentimentality: Cigarette Imagery inContemporary Recordings,” 79; rev. of RoyShuker, Understanding Popular Music, byTony Mitchell, 101; rev. of Kenneth J.Bindas, All of This Music Belongs to theNation: The WPA’s Federal Music Projectand American Society, by Jerry Rodnitzky,

103; rev. of Deborah Pacini Hernandez,Bachata: A Social History of a DominicanPopular Music, by Donna Goldstein, 105;rev. of Ruth Sheldon, Bob Wills: Hubbin’ It,by Robert G. Weiner, 108; rev. of Ronald L.Smith, Goldmine Comedy Record PriceGuide, by B. Lee Cooper, 110; rev. of BillGriggs, Buddy Holly—His Songs andInterviews: The Technical Stuff, by RobertG. Weiner, 111; rev. of Philip Norman, RaveOn: The Biography of Buddy Holly, by B.Lee Cooper, 112; rev. of Stephen Banfield,Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals, and PhilipFuria, Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist,by Timothy E. Scheurer, 113; rev. of KeithNegus, Popular Music in Theory, by GlennPillsbury, 119; rev. of Charles Wolfe, In CloseHarmony: The Story of the Louvin Brothers[country music], by Don Cusic, 121; rev. ofKrin Gabbard, Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazzand the American Cinema, by Neil Lerner,122; rev. of Ronnie Pugh, Ernest Tubb: TheTexas Troubadour, by Don Cusic, 124; rev.of Theodore Gracyk, Rhythm and Noise: AnAesthetics of Rock, by B. Lee Cooper, 125.

PULSE! (Sep 00): Michael Jarrett, “Top ofthe Pops [Louis Armstrong],” 24.

REVISTA MUSICA LATINO (Fall/Win 99):Ketty Wong, “Directory of Latin Americanand Caribbean Music Theses andDissertations (1992-1998),” 253; rev. ofYvonne Daniel, Rumba, Dance and SocialChange in Contemporary Cuba, by OlavoAlén Rodríguez, 313; rev. of Cristobal DiazAyala, Cuando salí de La Habana, 1898-1997. Cien años de música cubana por elmundo, by Robin Moore, 319.

RHYTHM (June 00): Patricia Meschino,“The Marley Brothers: Shining Sons,” 24.

SCHWANN OPUS (Sum 99): MatthewDaines, “Michael Daugherty: Putting HisWorlds Together,” 14A.

SYMPHONY (Mar/Apr 00): Peter G. Davis,“Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest,” 32; ChesterLane, “A Voice for Children [Americancomposers],” 40. (May/June 00): RebeccaWinzenried, “A Tale of Two Cities [Americancontemporary works],” 24; Alan Rich, “JohnAdam’s Harmonium,” 28; Molly Sheridan,“American Sound Redefined [Brent MichaelDavids],” 32.

TEMPO (Apr 00): Howard Pollack,“Copland in Paris,” 2. (July 00): Calum

MacDonald, “Statements and Connotations:Copland the Symphonist,” 26.

THE TRACKER (43/4, 99): Richard Weber,“St. Bernard’s Church, Watertown,Wisconsin: Its Music, Musicians, andOrgans,” 10; John Bishop, “The StonehamOrgan,” 18.

21ST CENTURY MUSIC (Jan 00): MarkAlburger, “Interview with John LutherAdams,” 1; Jeff Dunn, “Interview with JudithLang Zaimont,” 13; Richard Kostelanetz,“John Cage: The Text Pieces I,” 23. (Mar 00):Andrew Shapiro, “Interview with MichaelRiesman [Philip Glass Ensemble],” 1. (May00): Sabine M. Feisst, “Serving Two Masters:Leonard Rosenman’s Music for Films andthe Concert Hall,” 19. (June 00): AntonRovner, “Sessions with Joel Feigin,” 1; DavidBündler, “Some Questions for Augusta ReadThomas,” 4; David Cleary, “The BostonNew-Music Scene: Present and Recent Past,with Special Emphasis on Composers in RedSneakers,” 13.

WOMEN OF NOTE QUARTERLY (Feb 00):Thomas Erdmann, “A Conversation withLibby Larsen,” 1.

THE WORLD OF MUSIC (41/3, 99): VickiL. Brennan, “Chamber Music in the Barn:Tourism, Nostalgia, and the Reproductionof Social Class,” 11; Mark F. DeWitt,“Heritage, Tradition, and Travel: LouisianaFrench Culture Placed on a California DanceFloor,” 57; Jeff Todd Titon, “‘The Real Thing’:Tourism, Authenticity, and Pilgrimageamong the Old Regular Baptists at the 1997Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” 115; MartinStokes, “Music, Travel and Tourism: AnAfterward,” 141; rev. of Frances R. Aparicio,Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin PopularMusic, and Puerto Rican Cultures, by J.Lawrence Witzleben, 161; rev. of GageAverill, A Day for the Hunter, A Day for thePrey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti, bySuzel Ana Reily, 163.

THE BULLET IN OF THE

SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC

Philip ToddP. O. Box 2456Shawnee, OK 74804

Change Service Requested

Printed in USA

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PA IDBoulder, COPermit No. 94

Nominee for SAM TreasurerThe nominee for Treasurer was inadvertently left off the ballot. George Keck is running uncontested. Should anyone be

against George’s election to the office, or would like to suggest a write-in candidate, please do so by February 2, 2001 toMariana Whitmer.

George R. Keck earned a Ph.D. degree in Musicology from the University of Iowa and is currently Addie Mae MaddoxProfessor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music History and Literature at Ouachita University in Arkadelphia,Arkansas. Author of Francis Poulenc: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1988), co-editor (with Sherrill Martin) of Feelthe Spirit: Studies in Nineteenth-Century African-American Music (Greenwood Press, 1990), and author of numerous arti-cles on American music, the French Six, and Francis Poulenc. Member of SAM Membership Committee since 1988; currentchair of the Honors Committee, and past editor (1993-97) of the Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin.

Twenty-seventh Conference, Society for American Music–23-27 May 2001The Society for American Music will hold its twenty-seventh conference in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Memorial Day

weekend, 23-27 May 2001. See announcement elsewhere in this issue for more information or visit:http://american-music.org/confers.htm

SAM Announces New EditorsDavid Nicholls has been named the next editor of American Music. Philip Todd has been named the next editor of

the Bulletin.

Notes from the SAM Tickler File

modernism: the bulletin · 2018-07-09 · modernism: music in vanity fair, 1914-1925 —mary e....

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