Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no. 1 (Spring 1997)
Members in the News
Ezra Schabas was presented the Order of Ontario September 26, 1996, by the lieutenant-governer
of Ontario in a ceremony at the legislatue. The award recognizes those who have enriched the lives
of others by attaining the highest standards of excellence and achievement in their fields. Professor
Emeritus Schabas of hte Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto was recognized for having a
profound influence on music in Canada.
Al Benner's Psalm 100 was premiered on September 1, 1996, by soprano Lisa Benner and pianist
Elaine Moss at the Union Congregational Church, Green Bay, Wisconsin; Five Variations for Piano was
played by Louis Wendt on September 13, 1996, on a Louisiana Sinfonietta Solo Series Concert in Baton
Rouge; and Three Preludes (jazz string quartet) was performed on October 5, 1996, by the Prosser String
Quartet at the SCI Region IV Conference, St. Petersburg, FL. Benner is also the series editor for
the newly created "Music of America" reprint series books from Conners Publications; and his column
"Point of View" can be found in the recent bulletins of NACUSA.
J. Bunker Clark compiled and prepared for reprint The Sylviad; or, Minstrelsy of Nature
in the Wilds of North America (Boston, 1823-26), by the Bohemian-American Anthony Philip Heinrich
(1781-1861), which has to be "the most extraordinary opus 3 in the history of music." It is now
actually published, with introduction by Clark, due to the enthusiasm of Sonneck member Al Benner
(of Conners Publications) who is hoping that sales will warrant other such editions in the series,
entitled Music in America. This books is available by check or money order for $65.95 plus
$5.95 S&H through Conners Publications, 6780 State Road 57, Greenleaf, WI 54126-9738; phone
414/864-3465; email: ALMEI@aol.com.
Donald Martino was Composer in Residence at the Festival Internacional de Musica de Morelia,
in Michorcon, Mexico, July 19-August 6, 1996, where he gave two public lectures, conducted three
seminars, and heard a concert of his music. He served as Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for
the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, January 19-February 15, 1997.
Victor Cardell recently became music librarian at the University of Kansas, leaving a position
as bibliographer for music and curator of the Chicago Jazz Archive, University of Chicago. Before that
he had been head of the Archive of Popular American Music, then music librarian for special collections,
UCLA. His latest publication is a booklet concerning the exhibition "From Dreamland to Showcase:
Jazz in Chicago, 1912 to 1996" at the University of Chicago.
A recent volume of The Hymn (47/4, October 1996) was devoted in part to articles marking the
250th anniversary of the birth of William Billings. Included were contributions by Sonneck members
Karl Kroeger, one of the foremost scholars on the music of Billings, who discussed the composer's
approach to the setting of hymn texts in "William Billings Sets the Tune"; David W. Music,
retiring editor of The Hymn, who examined twenty-Nine Tunebooks that included compositions
by Billings ("William Billings in the Southern Fasola Tunebooks, 1816-1855"; and George N. Hller
and Carol Pemberton (who is current editor of The Hymn), examining Lowell Masons's Boston
Handel and Haydn Society Collection which represented a reaction against the music of Billings and
his contemporaries.
Frederick Fennell will continue his long relationship with The United States Marine Band when he
takes the podium on Thursday April 24, 1997, to conduct the band's annual concert in Baltimore's
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Dr. Fennell is best known for founding the Eastman Wind Ensemble in
1952 and is one of the most widely recorded conductors in the country.
Walter S. Hartley's latest compositions were premiered in 1996. On March 9 in Bradford,
Pennsylvania, Duo Allegro presented Suite for Two Pianos. The Fredonia Saxophone Ensemble,
SUNY College at Fredonia, premiered Quartettino for Saxophones, April 18. On July 25
at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, Romance and Sonorities VIII, for bass
saxophone and piano, was heard in a performance with Mark Taggart and Hartley.
Daniel Kingman's An Orkney Cycle (based on poems by George Mackay Brown) for soprano,
clarinet, English horn, and harp was heard in a first performance at the Festival of New American
Music in Sacramento, California, on November 17, 1996.
Marilyn J. Ziffrin's premiers for 1996 included performances of her Trio for Clarinet,
Bassoon, and Piano at the University of Wisconsin Center-Baraboo on February 23; at Carroll
College, Waukesha, Wisconsin, on March 3; and the First Unitarian Meeting House, Madison,
Wisconson, on March 16. Jane Ann McSwiney and Ziffrin premiered Fantasy for Two Pianos April 16
at Colby-Sawyer College, North London, New Hampshire.
Leonard Lehrman's Battle Cry of the Administration of the Music Library Association,
for SATB chorus received its premiere performance by the C.W. Post Collge Chamber Singers, Alexander
Dashnaw, conductor, on November 13, 1996, at a concert of the Long Island Composers Alliance in
Brookville, New York.
Updated 4/01/98