Music Commons^™

Music For The (American) People: The Concerts At Lewisohn Stadium, 1922–1964, Jonathan Stern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Not long after construction began for an athletic field at City College of New York, school officials conceived the idea of that same field serving as an outdoor concert hall during the summer months. The result, Lewisohn Stadium, named after its principal benefactor, Adolph Lewisohn, and modeled much along the lines of an ancient Roman coliseum, became that and much more. Lewisohn Stadium was for over forty years the summer home of America's oldest symphony orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. More importantly, the Lewisohn concerts witnessed a particularly impressive and innovative array of talent, creative as well as interpretive. For …

From Contradanza To Son: New Perspectives On The Prehistory Of Cuban Popular Music, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

While it is often claimed that the Cuban son emerged from rural Oriente and “invaded” Havana in the early 20th century, serious Cuban musicologists have clarifi ed that the true consolidation of the genre took place in Havana after around 1910–1920. Examination of 19th-century sources can help us trace with greater specifi city the origins of the particular musical features that distinguished the traditional son. Editions and descriptions of 1850s–1860s Havana contradanzas illuminate much about urban popular dance music of that milieu. In par-ticular, they reveal the presence of features typically associated with the son, such as melodies in duet …

Playing With A Different Sex: Academic Writing On Women In Rock And Pop, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

This annotated bibliography of academic writing on women in rock in pop should provide an overview of most of the scholarly literature on the topic and reflects my personal interest in methodology. When I returned to graduate school in the late 1990s to study American studies and popular culture, I discovered that academe had changed considerably from my undergraduate days when I studied history of art. Although traditional academic disciplines continue, I found that in the humanities and social sciences, there were no longer neat categories for disciplines and disciplines no longer were isolated from each other.

The topic of …

“Etc. Etc.” Reliquias Y Fragmentos De Una Sonata De Schubert, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Resumen:

Tomando como ejemplo el caso de Reliquie, Sonata para piano en do mayor D. 840 de Schubert, este ensayo explora los entresijos que generan las obras musicales incompletas. ¿Qué diferencia hay entre un fragmento amputado y uno inacabado? ¿Qué autoridad tienen las reconstrucciones de obras incompletas? ¿Qué opciones tiene el intérprete a la hora de ejecutar esta obra? ¿Por qué nos atraen los fragmentos? La Sonata para piano en do mayor consiste en dos movimientos completos y otros dos inconclusos. Si bien algunos pianistas como Paul Badura-Skoda han grabado esta obra con su propia compleción, Sviatoslav Richter interrumpe su …

Experience And Consciousness: Enhancing The Notion Of Musical Understanding, Adriana Renero

Publications and Research

Abstract:

Disagreeing with Jerrold Levinson’s claim that being conscious of broad span musical form is not essential to understanding music, I will argue that our awareness of musical architecture is significant to achieve comprehension. I will show that the experiential model is not incompatible with the analytic model. My main goal is to show that these two models can be reconciled through the identification of a broader notion of understanding. After accomplishing this reconciliation by means of my new conception, I will close the paper by discussing some reasons to accept an enhancing notion of musical understanding that includes levels …

"A Kind Of Construction In Light And Shade": An Analytical Dialogue With Recording Studio Aesthetics In Two Songs By Led Zeppelin, Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how the sound of a recording contributes meaning to the song, working in conjunction with the song’s lyrics, harmonic and rhythmic structures, album artwork, and within its cultural context. Two songs by the rock group Led Zeppelin, “When the Levee Breaks” and “Stairway to Heaven,” are taken as analytical examples in which special attention is paid to the acoustic properties of the recordings, that is, where the instruments are situated within the stereo sound field; how they are timbrally manipulated with effects such as reverb, echo, distortion, and chorus; their relative levels of prominence; and how these …

Brigadoon: Lerner And Loewe's Scotland, Jennifer Oates

Publications and Research

Since the 1950s, Brigadoon has been accepted as a representation of Scotland. Brigadoon’s Scotland consists of a highland landscape with lochs, mists, castles populated by fair maidens, warlike yet sensitive kilted men and bagpipers. Much of this comes from the invented traditions of Scotland, particularly kilts and clan tartans; late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scottish literature; Scottish propaganda for tourism following WWII; and Scottish popular culture. In spite of Lerner’s well-written book, Loewe’s charming music, and Agnes De Mille’s exciting choreography, the Scottishness of the work received, and still receives, the most attention. Brigadoon’s inauthentic or dubious depiction of …

Contradance And Quadrille Culture In The Caribbean, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Chowtal Rang Bahar: A Treasury Of Chowtal Songs From India And The Caribbean, Ramnarine Sasenarine, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Ken Russell: Musical Mythmaker, Michael Adams

Publications and Research

Iconoclastic English film director Ken Russell (1927-2011) made more films about music and musical figures than any other filmmaker. His theatrical films and BBC films from 1959 to 2002 are examined.

Post-Structuralism And Music Theory (A Response To Adam Krims), Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

In a recent article in this journal, Adam Krims has argued that mainstream music theory, with its organicist bias, is fundamentally incompatible with post-structuralist thought. This commentary is a defense of theory-based analysis in a postmodern world.

A Symbolic Sonification Of L-Systems, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

This paper describes a simple technique for the sonification of branching structures in plants. The example is intended to illustrate a qualitative definition of best practices for sonification aimed at the production of musical material. Visually manifest results of tree growth are modelled and subsequently mapped to pitch, time, and amplitude. Sample results are provided in symbolic music notation.

Flocking In The Time-Dissonance Plane, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

This paper describes a technique for the sonification of an idealized model of the flocking behavior of birds, fish, and insects. Flocking agents are represented by pitches that move through time to produce chords of variable dissonance. The objective of each agent is to move toward more consonant chord formations with other agents. The output of the sonification is intended to provide material for use in musical composition.

A Critical Review Of Violin Solos Section Of The Nyssma Manual, Di Su

Publications and Research

The New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) runs an annual evaluation of students' musical performance. The purposes of the evaluation are to promote music programs in the schools and communities of New York State, and to provide a means of objective evaluation of musical performance. The evaluation is influential because the selections of participant for All-State, All-County, and other music festivals are mainly based upon NYSSMA scores. To familiarize the evaluation criteria and to prepare students to meet the requirements, New York State music teachers use the "NYSSMA Manual" as an important teaching guide. Aiming at future revisions, this …

North Indian Sufi Popular Music In The Age Of Hindu And Muslim Fundamentalism, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

From Bulls To Music: Social, Religious, And Economic Aspects Of A Pilgrimage To Nuestra Señora, La Vírgen De Altagracia, Angelina Tallaj

Publications and Research

Every August 10th, about 800,000 pilgrims begin a five-day pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Altagracia in Higüey, Dominican Republic. In this paper, I will show some interesting aspects of this pilgrimage’s economy that, while not unique to this pilgrimage, become much more tangible because of the presence of bulls as alms. I will continue, through the study of the music making and ritual, to show the role that music (and especially improvisation) plays in the social and devotional aspects of this pilgrimage. By examining the complex web of assumptions and expressions that contains the acts of music …

Scholarly Monographs On Rock Music: A Bibliographic Essay, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

Purpose This article is an overview of scholarly monographs on rock music from 1980 to the present. It provides an overview to the literature for practical purposes of collections development as well as giving the reader insight into key issues and trends related to a interdisciplinary topic that attracts scholars from many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Design/methodology/approach This bibliographic essay, focusing on works related to American culture and of a general nature, includes an overview and historical background; a discussion of how music and ethnomusiciological scholars approach the topic; geographic approaches; literature on four key icons (Elvis, …

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Toward A General Theory Of Polymeter: Polymetric Potential And Realization In Elliott Carter's Solo And Chamber Instrumental Works After 1980, Ève Poudrier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation proposes a conceptual framework and tools for the analysis of polymeter in contemporary musical practices applied to the short instrumental works of Elliott Carter, where multiple temporalities have been identified as an essential aesthetic component. Three works are discussed in more detail: Changes for guitar (1983), Esprit rude/Esprit doux I for flute and clarinet (1985), and 90+ for piano (1994). The composer's use of metrical modulations and structural polyrhythms is re-evaluated in the context of a theory of polymeter. Structural polyrhythms are represented by means of proximity charts, and Carter's compositional strategies are explored, including rhetorical use of …

Tonalidad, Tradición, Y El Sabor Del Son Cubano, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

A discussion of dual tonicity in Cuban popular music.

Disability And “Late Style” In Music, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

“Late style” is a longstanding aesthetic category in all the arts. Late-style music is presumed to have certain internal qualities (such as fragmentation, intimacy, nostalgia, or concision) and to be associated with certain external factors (such as the age of the composer, his or her proximity to and foreknowledge of death, lateness within a historical period, or a sense of authorial belatedness with respect to significant predecessors). Upon closer inspection, it appears that many of these external factors are unreliably correlated with a musical style that might be described as late. Late style is often better correlated with the bodily …

Mc5 (Motor City Five) And John Sinclair, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Talking Heads, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Rock Music Scholarship, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

My challenge is to take my master’s thesis, a lengthy annotated bibliography of academic monographs on rock in American culture, and make it come alive and, in the process, provide a sense of how the academic rock discourse has evolved.

Mode, Melody, And Harmony In Traditional Afro-Cuban Music: From Africa To Cuba., Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Stacking The Wax: The Structure Of Laura Nyro's Studio Albums, Patricia Spence Rudden

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Review Of Help!, Michael Adams

Publications and Research

Review of Richard Lester's Help!: http://www.media-party.com/discland/2008/01/help.html

Edward Said And The Study Of Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

My first encounter with Edward Said’s work was in the 1980s with the book, Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975). I was exploring a semiotic approach to late 18^th-century music, specifically, a beginning-middle-ending paradigm (an Aristotelian paradigm) that seemed to me to capture the rhetorical intentions of Classic composers. Said’s wide-ranging reflections and ruminations on beginnings – as inaugural moments, as sites for the establishment of difference, as authorially privileged moments, and as "first steps in the intentional production of meaning" – proved inspiring. My enduring impression of him at the time was that he was a very good …

To Cite Or Not To Cite? Confronting The Legacy Of (European) Writing On African Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

English Abstract:

The current citational practice in Western scholarship is ideologically loaded, being far more suited to a written economy than a primarily oral culture in which knowledge is preserved in memory and disseminated through repeated performance. The impact of orality on musical scholarship should be more closely investigated; African scholars have all too often become informants rather than theorists of their own traditions. It is therefore proposed that the routine citation of a body of scholarship developed without Africa's historically-specific intellectual needs and ambitions in mind should in fact be discouraged.

German Abstract:

Die heutige Zitierpraxis der westlichen Wissenschaft …

The Riddim Method: Aesthetics, Practice, And Ownership In Jamaican Dancehall, Peter L. Manuel, Wayne Marshall

Publications and Research

The Jamaican system of recording and performance, from the 1950s to the present, constitutes a distinctive approach to notions of composition, originality and ownership. Emerging from a tradition of live performance practice mediated by (and informing) sound recordings, the relative autonomy of riddims and voicings in the Jamaican system challenges conventional ideas about the integrity of a song and the degree to which international copyright law applies to local conceptions, as enshrined in decades of practice, of musical materials as public domain. With the spread of the ‘riddim method’ to the sites of Jamaican mass migration, as evidenced by similar …