Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 2 (Summer 1999)
Bulletin Board
A-R Editions Requests Proposals
A-R Editions requests proposals for scholarly critical editions of music to be included in its
Recent Researches series. Each edition is usually devoted to works by a single composer or to a
single genre of composition and contains an introduction to the music and its historical context,
a critical report, and translations of vocal texts.
The series includes, among other topics, Recent Researches in American Music and Recent Researches
in the Oral Traditions of Muisc. A-R accepts proposals at any time, but review them quarterly.
The next deadlines for submissions are 1 March 1999 and 1 June 1999. Proposals are reviewed by
A-R editorial staff and the appropriate series editor, and we will inform you as quickly as possible of
our decision. For further information, contact Paul Corneilson, Managing Editor, at
editors@areditions.com, 608/836-9000, or
www.areditions.com.
Call for Papers
Popular Music and Society is seeking article-length manuscripts for a special issue on nineteenth-century
American popular music to be published in 2001. All kinds of research in the area of music are invited;
manuscripts should not be exclusively musicological in focus and intent. Articles that explore the
issues of race, class, and/or gender are especially welcome. Deadline for receipt of manuscripts
is 1 May 2000. For each manuscript, four blind copies should be submitted, with author identified
only on a detachable title page. Manuscripts must be double-spaced, carry notes at the end, follow
MLA Handbook for style, and include a stamped return business envelope. Manuscripts must not
be under review with any other publication. Send manuscripts to Juanita Karpf, School of Music,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7287. Address inquires to nkarpf@arches.uga.edu.
Faculty Housing Exchange
The Faculty Housing Exchange is a Web site (www.facultyexchange.com)
intended to ease the chore of finding temporary housing for faculty on sabbaticals, fellowships, or one year
appointments. Housing Exchange features automatic e-mail notification of potential matches and the
ability to browse listings without entering any information, as the site is funded by institutional
subscriptions rather than payments by individuals.
The Society Listserv
Anyone who has an interest in any aspect of American music can subscribe to the Society for
American Music's electronic discussion/mailing list. One does not need to be a member of the
Society to subscribe. To subscribe to the discussion list, send the following message, leaving
the subject line blank, to listproc@nevada.edu:
subscribe sonneck [your first name] [your last name]
After you have subscribed, you will receive an email copy of all postings to list and be able to
post messages yourself. To post a message to the list, address the message to sonneck@nevada.edu.
The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music Online
Thanks to the generous support of the family of Lester and Eleanor Levy and a grant from the NEH, the
Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music is now available online at levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu.
The collection consists of nearly 29,000 pieces of popular American music spanning the period from
1780-1960. The online version includes color images of the covers and each page of music, accessible
through a searchable text record. An of the cover and each page of music will also be retrieved
if the music was published before 1924 and is in the public domain.
Lester Levy, a Baltimore businessman and philanthropist, began collecting sheet music over sixty years
ago. By the time he presented his collection to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library in the Bicentennial year
of 1976, the Levy archive included more than 30,000 pieces of sheet music as well as bound volumes and
books about American popular music, all lovingly cross-indexed. Like that of any genuine collector,
his affair was a lifetime commitment, so he continued to supplement and refine the collection. (A
recent project involved deciphering some Cherokee lyrics among the Native American items.) To
extend public awareness of popular music in our culture, his devoted family supported in his honor
a lectureship that has brough distinguished performing artists and scholars to Hopkins to discuss
American music, usually "in concert." Although Lester seemed genuinely embarrassed that this
event bore his name, he took a very lively interest in suggesting artists and speakers who would
attract a new generation of enthusiasts.
SAM Web Editor Needed
Do you enjoy surfing the World Wide Web and being in touch with people involved in American music?
The World Wide Web Editor of the Society for American Music is a volunteer position that offers the
opportunity to meet people within the society and to learn about all aspects of American music over
the Internet. The editor coordinates the peer review process of web sites to be linked to the Society
for American Music homepage. Specific duties, usually requiring less than five hours per week, include
"surfing" the web for possible sites to review and performing a preliminary screening of the sites,
maintaining a database of sites for review, gathering reviewers and corresponding with them throughout
the review process, and forwarding data updates electronically to the Webmaster. The Web Editor sits
on the Publications Council and on the American Music Network Committee.
The editor must be well organized, have good communication skils, and be fluent with email and the
Internet, including basic search engine search strategies. Knowledge of a database program is a must
and a basic knowledge of HTML is helpful. For more information, or to apply for this position,
please contact Cheryl Taranto at tarantoc@nevada.edu.
Call for Articles: The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Arts/Opinion section of The Chronicle of Higher Education is constantly expanding its coverage of
arts and culture. In the past this section has excelled in literature and film criticism. The editor
is currently seeking more commentaries on music, dance, and theater. The Chronicle does not run reviews
or artist profiles, but rather trend pieces about the arts or about teaching the arts. (For instance,
a cello professor in the SUNY system is writing about possible reforms in the studio-teaching system.)
Additional possibilities include review-essays -- commentaries wrapping in several new books, albums,
films, or theater productions. For more information contact Alexander C. Kafka, Assistant Editor,
Opinion/Point of View, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1255 23rd St., N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C.
2003, 202/46-1777, alexander.Kafka@chronicle.com.
Greenwood Companions to Celebrated Musicians
This is a new series devoted to those musicians whose genius, technique, and style have combined
to produce unforgettable music. While the editors foresee the possibility on a volume on a
pre-recording era musician, the subjects will most likely be drawn from the enormous pool of twentieth-century
luminaries, such as the Andrews Sisters, Leonard Bernstein, Maria Callas, Pablo Casals, Bing Crosby,
Ella Fitzgerald, Paganini, Luciano Pavarotti, Arthur Rubenstein, Frank Sinatra, Georg Solti, and Arturo
Toscanini. A volume on Barbra Streisand is scheduled for publication in 1999, and other volumes are
in various stages of preparation. Authors are invited to submit proposals to Michael Meckna, Series
Advisor, Texas Christian University, School of Music, Box 297500, Fort Worth, TX 76129; 817-257-6634;
m.meckna@tcu.edu.
NEC Festival Program Book Available
Copies of the stunning and informative program book for the New England Conservatory Festival,
Reclaiming the Past: Musical Boston a Century Ago," (see page 19 in this issue) is available by
sending a check for five dollars (made out to New Eng Cons) to Lizette Reyes, Office of the President,
New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115.
Fulbright Scholar Program
Opportunities for lecturing or advanced research in nearly 130 countries are available to college
and university faculty and professionals outside academe. U.S. citizenship and the Ph.D. or
comparable professional qualifications are required. For lecturing awards, university or college
teaching experience is expected. Foreign language skills are needed in some countries, but
most lecturing assignments are in English. Deadlines: 1 August for lecturing and research grants
in the academic year 2000-2001. For more information, contact USIA Fulbright Scholar Program,
CIES, 3007 Tilden Street, NW, Suite 5L, GNEWS, Washington, DC 20008-3009, www.cies.org,
202/686-7877.
1999 Pulitzer Prize for Music
Melinda Wagner has won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Concerto for Flute, Strings,
and Percussion (Presser 1998). For Wagner, composition is like "writing a king of love letter
to performers. They will be interpreting something that is incredibly personal to me, so it feels like a
love affair. As for the audience, I can't guess who they are in advance. In fact, to try to
second-guess them, to figure out what they're going to like and write that would be an insult to
them. I just hope they can plug into the communication that's happening between the performers
and me." Wagner studied with Richard Wernick, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran, and Jan Reise. For more
information on Wagner's music, see www.presser.com.
The Latest News from the ACLS
The American Council of Learned Societies and Oxford University Press are pleased to announce the
publication of the American National Biography (ANB). This 24-volume, 20-million word reference
work provides a collective portrait of America's history reflecting the incredible diversity of
men and women whose lives have shaped our nation. The ANB is comprised of 17,450 biographies written by
6,100 distinguished scholars and writers. The print version of the ANB was formally presented at the
Library of Congress in January 1999. On that occasion, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called the ANB "a
gift of inestimable value not just to the community of scholars but to Americans seeking to understand
what their country is all about and to people in other lands hoping to penetrate the great American
mystery." The electronic version of the ANB is scheduled for release in January 2000. The ANB
website, www.oup-usa.org/anb, offers a "biography of the
day," an outline of contents, and ordering information.
Voices from the Heartland
Following up on the theme of his acclaimed PBS broadcast "I Hear America Singing," America's leading
baritone, Thomas Hampson, created an original program as a benefit concert for the Center for American
Music at the University of Pittsburgh. The recital, in which Mr. Hampson was accompanied by
pianist Craig Rutenberg, was presented at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh on 21 March 1999, and
was recorded for radio. Titled "Voices from the Heartland: Music from America's Heritage, The Grassroots
of American Song," the program "surveys the music and poetry not only of a central geographic location, but also of
a spiritual homeland."
The first half was devoted to the nineteenth-century: I. Stephen Foster and the Anglo-Celtic Tradition;
II. Burns and the German Tradition (with settings by Robert Granz, Carl Loewe and Robert Schumann);
and III. Songs to Texts by the bard of Democracy (Whitman settings by Henry T. Burleigh, Charles
Naginski, and WIlliam Neidlinger).
The second half, works of the twentieth century, included: IV. Art Song and Folk Roots (MacDowell,
William Grant Still, and Samuel Barber); V. Paul Bowles "Blue Mountain Ballads" to texts by Tennessee
Williams; and VI. Old Songs Re-Sung (Clifford Shaw, John Jacob Niles, Stephen White, and Aaron Copland).
Anyone interested in further details of the program may contact the Center for American Music (
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; 412-624-4100).
The American Classical Music Hall of Fame Inductions
At a formal banquet in Cincinnati on 24 April fifteen American (or American by adoption) musicians were
inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. The include composers Milton Babbitt, Bela
Bartok, Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, William Schumann, William
Grant Still, Edgard Varese; performers Jascha Heifetz, Marilyn Horne, and William Warfield; conductors
Dmitry Mitropoulos and Max Rudolf; noted scholar H. Wiley Hitchcock; and the Music Divison of the Library of
Congress. The program also included a short recital of music by Griffes, Still, Beach, Schumann, Babbitt,
and Bartok, performed by pianist Richard Crosby and violinist William Goodwin. The concert that followed, by
the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, featured a new work by American composer Robert O. Johnson (Auttunnale
for oboe, English horn, and orchestra) and Gershwin's Concerto in F.
The American Classical Music Hall of Fame officially opened in 1998 with the induction of a similarly diverse
group of twenty-six of American music's most noteworthy names. The Hall of Fame declares in its mission
statement its intent to honor and celebrate "the many facets of classical music in the United States"
and "to recognize those who have made significant contributions to classical music in America." A small
but growing museum in downtown Cincinnati features photos and summaries of the accomplishments of all inductees.
Members in the News
(Apologies from the editor for omitting the first item from an earlier issue.) The Nevelson Duo, formed by
violinist Elizabeth Reed Smith and pianist Leslie Petteys received a Meet the Composer
Foundation grant for 1998. The Duo's proposal to commission a new work by Michael Golden was one of
twenty-one proposals funded by the foundation from a total of 145 applications. Named for the American
artist Louise Nevelson and specializing in performing works by American composers the Nevelson Duo
recently completed a thirty-three-concert tour during which they performed in nine eastern states, Colorado,
and Washington D.C. Their repertoire on this tour included the commissioned work by Golden, "Bidder to
Better," as well as works by Norman Dello Joio, Amy Beach, Marion Bauer, Maud Powell, Benjamin
Boone, Gwyneth Walker, Judith Lang Zaimont, Paul Whear, and Gardner Read.
June C. Ottenberg (Temple University, Emeritus) published the article "Gustav Hinrichs and Opera
in Philadelphia 1888-1896" in The Opera Quarterly 25/2 (Spring 1999), 196-223.
Elizabeth Bertman Crist has recently been awareded an AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowship for her
thesis titled "Aaron Copland's Third Symphony (1944-46): Context, Composition, and Consequence."
Ms. Bergman is currently a graduate student at Yale University whose dissertation advisors are
Robert P. Morgan, Daniel R. Melamed, and J. Peter Burkholder.
Leonard Lehrman is taking a short breather after having published 77 articles in
AUFBAU, many dealing with American music. AUFBAU is the only German-Jewish newspaper in America,
and Lehrman is the Music Critic of the English Section. His articles may be found at
www.artists-in-residence.com/LJLEhrman/articles/AufbauList.html.
His operas The Family Man and The Birthday of the Bank were both performed in September 1998.
Sam Floyd's two-volume International Dictionary of Black Composers was published 27 April
in Chicago and London by Fitzory and Dearborn. In addition to Floyd's work are essays on Dizzy
Gillespie and J.J. Johnson by Michael Meckna. Certainly many other SAM members were among the
106 other contributors.
Ralph Locke (Eastman School of Music) has published an essay -- a kind of "sermon," he tells us --
entitled "Musicology and/as Social Concern: Imagining the Relevant Musicologist," in Rethinking
Music, ed., Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 499-530. The
volume's editors describe this essay (in their Introduction) as "an extraordinarily wide-ranging
and thoughtful account" that proposes ways in which musicians and scholars might negotiate various
"questions of freedom and responsibility." Among the American topics whose scholarly literature Locke
evaluates are ballad opera, nineteenth-century concert life, leftist composers of the 1930s, and
ethnical conundrums of the academic life today.
Christopher Shultis, Professor of Music at the University of New Mexico has been selected to
serve as a Fulbright senior scholar at the Universitat Heidelberg, Germany for the 1999-2000 academic
year.
Harmonie Park Press has just published Vistas in American Music: Essays and Compositiosn in Honor of
William K. Kearns, edited by John Graziano and Susan Porter. Society members
are heavily represented among the 26 contributors to this rich volume. The table of contents may be
seen at falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~bclark/kearns.html.
Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner continue their tenth anniversary season with Top Hat --
Songs of Fred Astaire in honor of Astaire's 100th birthday in 1999. The show is a look at the songs, rather
than the dances, associated with Astaire, who premiered many "standards" on stage and film. The concert,
part of the fourth summer season of American Classics, was given in June at the Pickman Concert Hall of
the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Updated 08/31/98