Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 3 (Fall 1999)
Oscar Sonneck and Recent Developments in the Study of American Music
By Alan C. Buechner, Queens College, CUNY
Note: Dr. Alan Buechner, the recipient of the Sonneck Society's 1999 Distinguished Service
Citation, presented a paper on the early days of the Society to the Special Research Interest
Group (SRIG) session "New Directions in Historical Research in Music Education," Eastern Division,
MENC conference, Laske Kiamesha, New York, 1 April 1982. This abstract was found while going
through his papers; it was felt that this might serve as a preliminary survey of the Society's
history and an homage to Alan and his work on behalf of the Society.
One of the ironies in the history of musicology in this country is that the precedents set by the
man who at his death was hailed as "the Father of Musicology" in America, namely Oscar G. Sonneck
(1873-1928), were almost completely ignored by those who followed after him. As the first Chief
of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, and later as the first editor of the Musical Quarterly,
Sonneck worked constantly for the recognition of historical studies in music, and for the adoption
of the widest possible program of inquirty. An inspired workaholic, he produced on ground-breaking
study of early American music after another, only to find them greeted with indifference by the musical
public. It was only toward the end of his life that he began to receive the recognition he deserved.
After Sonneck's death the increasingly favorable climate for the nurturance of studies in American
music reversed itself for reasons which are not entirely clear. Sonneck himself had no immediate
disciples, and those who went on to establish musicology as an academic discipline did little
to encourage such endeavors. The attitudes which underlay this not-so-benign neglect emerged many
years later at a meeting of the American Musicological Society, held at Washington, D.C., in 1964.
The acrimonious debate that followed Donald McCorkle's paper on "Finding a Place for American Studies"
[subsequently published in JAMS 19/1 (Spring 1966): 73-84] left little doubt in the minds of younger
scholars present that pursuit of such studies would place their careers in jeapardy. For this reason
Sonneck's mantle passed to those persons whose careers were outside of musicology -- that is, to
certain ethnomusicologists, music educators, folklorists, social historians, music critics, and
performers. Already active in the field, they lacked only an organization of their own to meet
their special needs and interests.
The movement of establishing a society named in honor of Oscar Sonneck and dedicated to the
furtherance of his ideals was initiated at a conference on early American music held at Old
Sturbridge Village in May 1973. Follow-up consultations led to a rump session held at the
close of the American Musicological Society's annual meeting held at Washington in 1974. It
attracted nearly 150 interested persons who authorized its organizers to proceed with the formation
of the Sonneck Society.
The first organizational meeting of the Society occurred in 1975 when its members where the guests
of the Society for Ethnomusisoclogy at its annual meeting held at Wesleyan College in Middletown,
Connecticut. Two papers were read at a joint session of the two societies, a constitution was adopted,
and a slate of officers, headed by Irving Lowens as president, was elected.
The Society's first meeting as an independent organization took place under extraordinarily difficult
circumstances. Devoted to "Two Centuries of American Music," it was held at Queensborough Community
College in May, 1976, on a weekend that coincided with the total shutdown of the City University of New York,
then in the throes of a severe fiscal crisis. Forced to move to a parish hall of a local church, the members
of the Society rallied and went on to enjoy a program that included many excellent papers, as well
as rousing performances by the Western Wind vocal ensemble; Neely Bruce, pianist; the After Dinner
Opera Company; the Country Dance and Song Society; and the Harmonic Society of Queens.
The next opportunity for the Society to honor the memory of its namesake came in 1977 at a conference
held at the College of William and Mary, in association with Colonial Williamsburg. This meeting,
which was smaller in scale than the previous one, was devoted to consideration of the impact which the
phonograph, the invention of which was being celebrated as its centennial, upon the development of
American music of all kinds. A panel of experts drawm from academia, from the national archives,
and from the world of commerce, including country music, debated the issues at length. Opportunities
for working with Edison phonographs and cylinder recordings, for hearing the music Jefferson knew,
and for enjoying Tidewater Virginia cooking were also provided.
In an effort to expand its membership to the Middle West, the Society met the following year, 1978,
at the University of Michigan. The theme this time was American musical instruments and their makers.
A side-trip to view the collection of instruments at the Henry Ford Museum at Darborn was made, and papers
and performances on the hammered dulcimer were offered. The conference closed with a session on 19th-century
ballroom dancing accompanied by an orchestra composed of players from the School of Music.
The Society, acting again on its aspirations to become a national organization, held its next
annual meeting at New Orleans in 1979, where it was the guest of Tulane University. Given this
locale, it was inevitable that jazz would be the principal topic. Indeed the aficionados had a field
day between papers, panel discussions, live performances, and trips to local archives of jazz materials.
Some fine papers on other topics, such as "White Gospel Music," were read. Cajun music, the folk music
of French-speaking Louisianians, did not go unnoticed, nor was the city's delectable gumbo soup
neglected. Memorable, too, was a voyage on a Mississippi steamboat downriver to the see the site of the
Battle of New Orleans, and a visit to the French Cathedral where Louis Moreau Gottschalk played the organ
as a boy.
By this time the Sonneck Society had begun to gain real momentum. A delightfully outspoken,
occasionally controversial, and always helpful Newsletter edited by Nicholas Tawa served to
keep its members in touch. The publication of a festschrift dedicated to the memory of O.G.
Sonneck and comprised of articles in praise of him and of his lesser-known writings edited by William
Lichtenwanger was in preparation. A contract for its publication by the University of Illinois
Press was in the final stages of negotiation, and plans to initiate a new journal, to be called
American Music, were being brought to fruition. Under the editorship of Allen Britton, it would
strive for both the highest standards and the broadest possible coverage of its subject matter.
News of these developments was announced in 1979 at the Society's next annual meeting, which was
held at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. This conference, which was the finest to
date in regard to the quality and variety of papers read, was also notable for its "Salon des
Refuses," a session devoted exclusively to papers on American music that had earlier been officially
accepted and then rejected by the program committee of the American Musicological Society for its
annual meeting the previous November. These papers proved to be genuinely worthwhile, and the
inescapable conclusion was that the Sonneck Society does have an important role to play in
advancing the cause of historical studies in American music.
In closing, it was noted that in 1981 the Society will meet jointly with the American Society for
Theatre Research and the Theatre Library Association at the C.W. Post College, Greenvale, New York.
The program for this meeting is already set. The Society expects to solicit papers on diverse
topics for its 1982 meeting, which will be held at the University of Kansas.
Updated 12/15/99