Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no. 1 (Spring 1997)
Bulletin Board
Performances of American Music
Premieres of New Works. The University of California, Riverside, Orchestra, under the direction
of Anthony Ginter, presented premier performances of Barbara A. Bennett's Exchanges and Michael
Karmon's Two Movements for Chamber Orchestra at concerts on June 2 and 3, 1995. This program
was dedicated to the memory of William H. Reynolds, Professor Emeritus of the music faculty there. The
program also included Eric Knight's Canadian Tribute, based on folk songs, and the Ives-Schuman
Variations on "America." The orchestra and Professor Ginter also presented a premier performance
of Byron Adams's Suite from "Twelfth Night," at concerts on February 9 and 10, 1996.
George Boziwick's Fabliau of Florida and Quartet for Oboe and Strings were premiered by the
Catskill Chamber Players at the Greenwich House in New York City last March. His Out of the Blues
for toy piano has been performed on WNYC, CNN, and the BBC.
Leonard Lehrman's opera, Suppose a Wedding, based on Bernard Malamud's play, will be premiered
at Hebrew Union College in New York City in June.
Elliott Schwartz's Rainbow for orchestra was premiered in July at the International Youth Music
Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sixtieth birthday concerts were presented at California State University/
Dominguez Hills in November and at the British Music Information Centre (London) in December.
Irving Berlin Songs Discovered. An early Irving Berlin Christmas song, long considered lost by
scholars and collectors, was rediscovered by the Boston-based song duo, Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner.
In 1916 Berlin wrote Santa Claus: A Syncopated Christmas Song for one-time publication in the
December 24 Sunday supplement of the New York World newspaper. Because Berlin never republished the song,
and it was never connected to a major performer of the time, the song was quickly forgotten after its initial
publication.
On December 11, 1996, Sears & Conner gave the song its first modern performance in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, as part of the American Classics series.
Morton Gould Honored at Harvard. Morton Gould (1919-1996), recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize in
composition, was honored with a concert on December 7, 1996, at Harvard University. The program,
performed by the student Harvard University Wind Ensemble directed by Thomas G. Everett, provided an
overview of Gould's msuic from his first band composition Ballad (1943) to his television
documentary series, entitled Hymnal.
Events in American Music
Schmitt Music Company has been recognized by the National Association of Music Manufacturers for its
lifetime achievements in service to the music industry over the past century. The company was
praised for its understanding of the value of msuic making and for its strong support of music education.
Schmitt Music Company, in its fourth generation of family ownership, is one of the largest full-line
music retailers in the nation.
The Moravian Music Foundation has published two new monographs in its ongoing series. The first,
"Opening a Can of Worms: Reflections on Music and Worship in Today's Moravian Church," arose from a
series of lectures given by Nola Reed Knouse, Director of the Moravian Music Foundation, at the nineteenth
Moravian Music Festival in June of 1996. "Moravian Music: An Introduction" by Knouse and C.
Daniel Crews is an overview of the Moravian musical heritage. Crews is Archivist of the Moravian
Church in America, Southern Province. Each booklet is $4.00 plus shipping and handling, available from
the Moravian Music Foundation, 20 Cascade Avenue, Winston-Salem, NC 27127; phone 910/725-0651.
The Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley,
announces completion of the oral history of Felix Khuner, who performed and toured with the Kolisch String
Quartet for fifteen years. In 1938 he and his family fled Nazism and four years later, settled in the
Bay Area, where he was a leading violinist with the San Francisco Symphony and Oopera. In the oral
history he remembers conductors with whom he worked, including Richard Strauss, Franz Schalk, Karl Boehm, Pierre
Monteux, and others, and the two major figures who influenced his thinking, Demetrius Constantine
Dounis and Heinrich Schenker. A Violinist's Journey from Vienn'as Kolisch Quartet to the San Francisco
Symphony and Opera Orchestras (1996) may be ordered by calling 510/642-7395.
Composer Henry Cowell Honored in Citywide Centennial Festival. The 100th anniversary of the birth
of composer Henry Cowell (1897-1965) was celebrated March 12-25 by a group of major New York City cultural
institutions. A recital March 12 at Brooklyn College opened the series of concerts, lectures, panel
discussions, and an exhibition. The centennial festival was sponsored by the Institute for Studies in
American Music at Brooklyn College, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the New School,
the 92nd Street Y, and the World Music Institute.
Grant, Prize, and Publication Opportunities
The Music Library Association Calls for Nominations to the 1998 Dena Epstein Award. The Dena
Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music was created thorugh a generous
endowment from Morton and Dena Epstein to the Music Library Association in 1995. Requests are
currently being accepted for one or more grants to be awarded for the year 1998. The maximum value
of the 1997 award was $1,500. The decision of the Dena Epstein Award Committee and the Board of Directors
of the Music Library Association will be announced at the MLA annual meeting in Boston, February 11-15, 1998.
Grants may be awarded to support research in the archives or libraries internationally on any aspect of
American music. There are no restrictions as to an applicant's age, nationality, profession, or
institutional affiliation. All proposals will be reviewed intirely on the basis of merit.
Applicants must submit four copies of the following documents: 1) a brief research proposal (under 10
pages) that includes a description of the project and a detailed budget for the project, indicating
the amount of funding requested from MLA (Capital as computer equipment and furniture are eligible);
justification for the funding; additional sources of funding; a demonstration of how the applicant's
research will contribute to the study and understanding of American Music. 2) a curriculum vitae of the applicant.
III) three letters of support from librarians and/or cholars knowledgeable about American music.
The required documentation should be mailed to the chair of the Dena Epstein Award Committee at the
address below. Please note that awards may be presented to an individual applicant or divided among
multiple applicants during 1998. At its discretion the committee may choose not to award a grant during
any particular year. An applicant who has not received an Epstein Award for the first year of
application may resubmit a proposal in the two following years for any ongoing project. An applicant
may receive only one award for any one project.
For more information, contact Victor Cardell, Chair; phone 913/664-3496; e-mail vcardell@ukans.edu. The
deadline for receipt of applications is July 15, 1997. Applications received after that date will be
considered for funding in 1999.
Fulbright Awards for U.S. Faculty and Professionals. Opportunities for lecturing or advanced
research in over 135 countries are available to college and university faculty and professionals outside
academe. U.S. citizenship and the Ph.D. or comparable professional qualifications required. For
lecturing awards, university or college teaching experience is expected. Foreign language skills
are needed for some countries, but most lecturing assignments are in English. The deadline for lecturing
or research grants is August 1, 1997.
Contact the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program; Council for International Exchange of Scholars; 3007
Tilden Street, NW; Suite 5M; Box GNEWS; Washington, DC 20008-3009; phone 202/686-7877. Web page:
http:/www.cies.org.
News of Other Societies
American Antiquarian Society and Cambridge University Press have agreed to launch a new series
for the publication of books on American History and culture stemming from research in the Society's
collections. The establishment of the series coincides with the launch of a new fellowship program
at AAS, the Mellon Post-Dissertation Fellowship, funded by a grant to AAS from The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation. This fellowship is open to scholars nomore than three years beyond receipt of the Ph.D.
Recipients will use their year-long residency at AAS to extend reserach and revise the dissertation for
publication. They will be required to give first refusal on the resulting manuscript to the AAS-CUP
monograph series. The first deadline for applications for the fellowshiop will likely be in the fall
of 1997 for tenure during the 1998-99 academic year.
Meet the Composer has announced that thirty-eight performing and presenting organizations
have received grants in the first round of MTC's new commissioning program. The awards, totalling
$215,000, will enable twenty-two composers, of whom ten are emerging composers, to create new works
for orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus, and jazz ensemble. The program is a partnership between
Meet the Composer and the National Endowment for the Arts and is intended to support composer
commissioning fees for new work in all styles of music.
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music has announced the election of composer/conductor John Harbison
as its new President. Mr. Harbison assumed office following the retirement of Jacob Druckman. Harbison
is a distinguished composer, conductor, and teacher. He has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology since 1969, following studies at Harvard and Princeton Universities. He has served as a
composer-in-residence with several orchestras, chamber music groups, and musicfestivals. He is the recipient
of the MacArthur Fellowship, the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Music (for his cantata, The Flight into
Egypt), a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 1980 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award.
Meetings and Conferences
William Grant Still and His World, June (c. 6-10), 1998; Flagstaff, Arizona; sponsored by
Northern Arizona University and William Grant Still Music. This conference was originally scheduled
for June, 1997. It has been postposed for one year. A second call will be sent out when the dates
are finalized. Submissions already received need not be resubmitted.
Performances, papers, and presentations of all kinds are sought for a meeting n William Grant Still and
his world. In addition to papers on Still and performances of his music, presentations that link Still
to his varied cultural surroundings are also solicited. These might, to name only a few examples, deal
with Still and the Harlem Renaissance, the Hollywood Film Community, or poets and librettists such
as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Garrison Chapin. They may address his connections
with musicians (both commercial and "classical") and non-musicians. Presenters from fields of study
other than music are especially encouraged.
The meeting is a follow-up to numerous celebrations of Still's centennial in 1995, especially the
conference held at the University of Arkansas Fayetteville, where the William Grant Still and Verna Arvey
Archive is located.
Flagstaff, Arizona, in addition to being a vacation mecca and a getaway to Grand Canyon National Park,
is the home of William Grant Still Music, operated by Still's daughter Judith Ann Still. Northern Arizona
University includes in its collection copies of all the Still scores controlled by Still Music. At least
one major concert using performing forces at NAU and Northern Arizona will be scheduled.
To participate in this conference, please send a one-page abstract (four copies), a tape if appropriate
and a one-page vita to the address below before December 1, 1997: Catherine Parsons Smith, Program
Chair; Department of Music 226; University of Nevada Reno, NV 89557-0049; Fax 702/784-6986; email:
smithcp@scs.unr.edu.
May 6-7, 1997. Sidney Bechet Centennial, a conference honoring the centenary of the birth of jazz
great Sidney Bechet, born in New Orleans in 1897. The conference will include concert performances
and a two-day international symposium exploring the meaning and impact of Bechet's career. Contact the Sidney
Bechet Centennial; 147 Carondelet Street; Suite 1054; New Orleans, LA 70130; phone 504/552-9317; web page:
http://www.uno.edu/~sbcc.
May 29-31, 1997. Bowling Green Center for Popular Culture Studies and the Department of Popular Culture,
Bowling Green State University. Contact: Jack Santino; Department of Popular Culture; Bowling Green
State University; Bowling Green, OH 43403; phone 419/372-2983.
May 29-June 1, 1997. Tenth International Congress on Women in Music, California Institute of
the Arts, Valencia, California. Contact Jeannie Pool, ICWM Coordinator; Box 8192; La Crescenta CA 91224-0192;
email: 73201.2211@compuserve.
June 19-22, 1997. The Society of Dance History Scholars, Barnard College, New York. Contact
Rebecca Harris-Warrick; Department of Music; Lincoln Hall; Cornell University; Ithaca NY 14853-4102;
phone 607/255-7141.
July 13-17, 1997. The Hymn Society annual conference, Savannah, Georgia.
July 17-20, 1997. Inter-American Conference on Black Music Research, sponsored by the Center
for Black Music Research.
October 23-26, 1997. Society for Ethnomusicology and International Association for the
Study of Popular Music joint meeting at the Sheraton Station Sqare Hotel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Contact Carl Rahkonen; Cogswell Music Library; Cogswell Hall 310; Indiana University of Pennsylvania;
Indiana, PA 15705; phone 412/357-5644.
October 30-November 2, 1997. Joint meeting of the 62nd annual meeting of the American Musicological
Society and the 20th annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory. Phoenix, AZ. Contact
Amy Holbrook; School of Music; Arizona State University; Tempe, AX 85287-0405.
November 13-16, 1997. College Music Society annual meeting. Sheraton City Centre Hotel, Cleveland,
Ohio. Contact Tod Trimble; CMS; 202 West Spruce Street; Missoula, MT 59802.
June (c. 6-10) 1998. William Grant Still and His World. Flagstaff, Arizona; sponsored by Northern
Arizona University and William Grant Still Music. Contact Catherine Parsons Smith, Program Chair;
Department of Music 226; University of Nevada; Reno, NV 89557-0049.
Updated 4/15/98