Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no. 2 (Summer 1997)
Interest Group Reports
Twentieth-Century
In honor of the centennial birthday of Henry Cowell and the West Coast location of this year's conference,
the newly formed Twentieth-Century Interest Group devoted its first public session to the discussion
and performance of a single Cowell composition, 26 Simultaneious Mosaics [L923]. The
music was provided by the University of Washington Contemporary Group (William O. Smith, clarinet and
director; Jonathan Graber, violin; Loren Dempster, cello; and Greg Campbell, percussion) and Louis
Goldstein, piano. A striking feature of this session was the opportunity to hear the discussion of the
work by Wayne Shirley illustrated by the various members of the ensemble who demonstrated aspects of Cowell's
technique in individual mosaics. The presentation concluded with two performances of the complete
composition.
Henry Cowell's most significant contribution to the music of chance was probably his development in the 1930s of
Elastic Form as examplified in his Mosaic Quartet [L918], but, at the urging of music publisher Oliver Daniel,
he did write one piece of geniune "chance music," the 26 Simultaneious Mosaics of
November 1963. This composition for clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano, and percussion consists of a
set of brief pieces written for each of the instruments individually. Cowell's instructions state that "all
players start and stop as they please, and choose the order of the movements as they please--there is no
score." The mosaics provide a generous sampling of Cowell's compositional techniques both radical and
conservative, including a White-Note Jig, a Hymn, soft and loud tone-cluster pieces for piano, a piece for
"temple blocks and bowls" and a continuous-glissando violin piece.
Cowell was writing 26 Simultaneious Mosaics when he received the news of the death of John F.
Kennedy. The two pieces he wrote the next day -- the cello's original mosaics two and three -- were written as a
Hymn and Fuging Tune in memory of Kennedy. Cowell later extracted these two pieces, wrote B sections for
them, and published them as "Gravely and Vigorously: In Memory of President John F. Kennedy [L922].
He wrote two new pieces to serve as cello mosaics two and three. it is cello mosaic three, a vigorous multiple-stop
bouree which is the longest of the mosaics, which tends to organize the piece in actual performance;
thus what had started out as an I-can-do-it-too piece ended being paying homage to Kennedy's "vigah."
--Louis Goldstein
Musical Biography
The Musical Biography Interest Group's session at the Seattle conference of the Sonneck Society for American Music
featured a paper by Judith Tick, "Writing the Life of Ruth Crawford Seeger." In addition, Tick showed slides
of the family and played a tape recording featuring Seeger's voice. In attendance was Seeger's son,
Mike Seeger. The room was crowded, and a lively discussion period followed the paper. The group decided that
its next annual meeting be devoted to copyright problems, with discussants Judy McCulloh and Robert
Copeland. Those who wished to become more involved in planning the group's activities were invited to breakfast the
following day.
Eleven people showed up and agreed that:
*Marva Carter collect submissions for a bibliography on the craft of biography
*Steve Ledbetter prepare a proposal for a panel session on biography to submit to the program
committee for the Kansas meeting of the Sonneck Society. The topic will be the integration of
life and work in the writing of a biography. The panel will consist of Stuart Feder, Vivian Perlis, and
a third Person.
*We will meet twice a year, the second meeting to be held during the AMS conference. Louise Spizizen has written
the chair of the AMS program committee asking that time and a room be set aside for us, and stating that AMS members
will also be welcome at the meeting.
*This report be place on line, as well as sent to the Newsletter.
--Adrienne Fried Block and Chris Harlos
Folk/Traditional
Since its inception, the Sonneck Society has lovingly embraced both the cultivated and the vernacular aspects of American
music, so it was only meet, right, proper, and about time, that a Folk/Traditional Music Interest Group be
inaugurated to represent the vernacular aspects of our national music. Formally constituted during
the Fall of 1996, the Folk/Traditional Group presented Norm Cohen as guest speaker at its initial
session held during the Seattle Conference.
Cohen, author of Long Steel Rail and recent recipient of the Dena Epstein Award for Archival and
Library Research, presented an engaging paper on songsters for an audience of forty participants. The
talk, laced with a wealth of musical and visual examples, led to a lively exchange with audience
members including folksinger Mike Seeger and Paul Wells, Director of the Center for Popular Music which
recently acquired a large archive of songsters.
The Folk/Traditional Special Interest Group will convene again next year at the national conference. In
order to encourage communication, a web page and email list is in the process of being constructed. Any
suggestions regarding possible directions for the group or a guest speaker/performer for the Kansas City
meeting are welcome.
--Ron Pen
Research on Gender and American Music
At the Interest Group session, Diane Thome addressed approximately twenty Sonneck members concerning her creative
work. Thme has received awards from the Jerome nad Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, National Society of Arts and
Letters, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her music has been recorded on the Tulstar, CRI, Crystal, Centaur,
and Opus One labels.
Thome discussed her involvement with electronic music with special emphasis on the effects of burgeoning
technology on her compositions. The group appreciated, in particular, her analytical comments on several works, the majority of which
are recorded on Palaces of Memory, an eighteen-year retrospective of her electro-acoustic
music (Centaur). For several recorded works, Thome herself performed on piano, thus rendering a homogeneous
marriage of media, intent, and artistry.
Diane Thome wrote recently of her work in "Reflections on Collaborative Process and Compositional
Revolution" (Leonardo Music Journal 5 [1995]: 29-32), which is highly recommended to
interested Sonneck members.
Plans already are underway for the Interest Group Session in Kansas City next February. A panel representing
Meredith Monk's integration of life and art and including composers on hand for the concurrent meeting of the
College Band Directors National Association will highlight the session.
--Kay Norton
Musical Theater
The Musical Theater Interest Groups had a lively and informative discussion at the Seattle meeting. Among the
topics considered at the open-forum session were authenticity of editions, performance practice of historic
works, when does a work become "historic," the question of updating librettos, and other related issues.
A discussion group as part of the Society's homepage is being established, as is a homepage for the
Interest Group.
Next year's session in Kansas City will be a forum for the exchange of information. Members of the
Interest Group are invited to bring a five-minute presentation to the session, entitled "Musical Theater
obscurities," on an unknown topic to the musical theater genre. Participants may bring information on a
show, a composer, a librettist, a performer, a theater, or any other theme related to the musical
theater. Observers as well as participants are heartily invited to attend our session in Kansas City.
--William A. Everett
Popular Music
The Popular Music Interest Group hosted guest speaker Jonathan Bernard at our annual session at the Seattle
meeting. Professor Bernard, a music theorist well known for his work in twentieth-century music, discussed the
music of Frank Zappa, under the general rubric of Popular and Art Music in American Culture. The session
was well attended. The group has also submitted a pair of session proposals for the joint meeting of the
Society for Ethnomusicology and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music to be held in fall
1997 in Pittsburgh. If programmed, these sessions will offer the interest group the opportunity to make its
activities known to a broader range of scholars (and potential Sonneck Society members).
--John Covach
American Band History Research
CONCERNING THE MUSA SOUSA
At the meeting Jon Elkus shared an overview of his ongoing project with Frank Byrne to create critical
editions of the works of John Philip Sousa (1854-1932). Jon discussed the forthcoming A-R Editions MUSA
Sousa volume in which Elkus and Byrne will analyze, provide historiography, and present the music as Sousa
had actually intended for seven marches dating from 1889-1930. Each selected march represents a distinct aspect
of Sousa's compositional style and holds a prominent place in American musical history (e.g., "The Stars and Strips
Forever," "The Washington Post," "The Liberty Bell"). Desiderata that qualified works for inclusion in this
project were access to extant holograph full scores, manuscript parts with original markings, published first
editions, written and oral accounts of Sousa Band performance practice by musicians in the world-famous band,
consensus of prominent musicologists, recommendations by leaders in the American band movement, and Sousa Band
recordings.
Elkus will provide musical analysis and historiography, and Byrne will address period (and Sousa's) performance
practice and musical text. Elkus referred to Bryne's "monumental paper" regarding performance practice
of the Sousa Band in The Wind Ensemble and Its Repertoire (1994) edited by Frank Cipolla and
Donald Hunsberger, as well as the contribution made to twentieth-century perception of Sousa Band performance practice by
Keith Brion -- founder, artistic director, and conductor of "The New Sousa Band" -- as key elements that provided
impetus for the study.
Following the "Concerning the MUSA Sousa" presentation Patrick Hennessey and Richard Spicer, who both presented
band-related papers at the Thursday "Band" session, spoke briefly regarding their current research. Raoul Camus
solicited assistance in acquiring information regarding Frederick Innes, "the Paganini of the trombone." George
Foreman, founder and host of the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Kentucky, announced that Ragtime will be
explored at the Friday symposium and performed throughout the weekend. Franck Cipolla, coordinator for the Great American Brass
Band Festival Symposium, announced that he is currently conducting research for a forthcoming Patrick S. Gilmore
biography. Al Lang shared information regarding the California Gold Rush Band and the Western Heritage Museum; George
Foreman and Craig Parker, founder and conductor of the Sonneck Society Brass Band, informed the group of their
recently released CDs. Phyllis Danner told of activities at the Sousa Archives for Band Research at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champagn (see "Sousa Archives"). In anticipation of the 24th annual meeting of the Sonneck Society
in Kansas City in conjunction with the College Band Director's National Association, Kay Norton and Gary Hill
encouraged interest group members to submit proposals for band-related papers and reported that opportunities will abound
at that meeting to continue to promote band music and research in American band history.
Research Resources
The Sonneck Society's Research Resources Interest Group session featured special guest Joan Howard-Kutscher. Ms.
Howard-Kutscher is the daughter of John Tasker Howard (author of Our American Music and the first
Head of the Americana Collection in the Music Division of the New York Public Library. Interest Group
Coordinator George Boziwick and Deane Root, curator of the Foster Hall Collection at the University of
Pittsburgh, reminisced with Mrs. Kutscher about her father's work with the Foster Hall Collection and the
Americana Collection at the New York Public Library, as well as the writing of his book, Our American
Music, the first comprehensive history of music in America.
Part of the discussion of Howard's pioneering work on behalf of American Music was drawn from his papers which
are now in the American Music Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at
Lincoln Center. Of particular interest was Howard's radio broadcasts which were read in part during the session
from copies of the original transcripts and evoked quite nicely Howard's sense of educating a general listening
audience while simultaneiously breaking new musicological ground.
--George Boziwick
American Music in American Schools and Colleges
As a result of a decision made by the Interest Group following Cathering Sentman Anderson's 1996
presentation, a proposal has been made to the program committee of NASM for a session at their annual
conference (see "Help Get out the Troops). The Seattle session was devoted to exploring the possible
structuring of the planned presentation. Anne Dhu McLucas, President of the Society and Dean of the School of
Music at the University of Oregon, and Larry Worster, co-chair of the interest group, were the presenters.
The three-part session centered around the justification for American music in the curriculum, current
resources available, and practical curricular examples. After the organized presentation, a brief period of
questions and discussion ensued.
--Larry Worster
Latin American and Carribean
Sonneck members interested in joining the Latin American and Caribbean Interest Group please contact:
Henrietta Yurchenko, 360 West 22nd St., New York, NY 10011. Tel. and Fax: (212) 741-1669.
Interest Groups Council Report
In his final President's column, Dale Cockrell described the changing role of Interest Groups within the
Society. An Interest Group Council has been formed, consisting of the chairs of all groups plus a
coordinator who acts as liaison between Interest Groups and the Board of Trustees. The council will meet
once a year at annual conferences; a listserv has been organized to facilitate communication between council
members at other times throughout the year.
The first meeting of the Interest Group Council was held during the recent conference in Seattle. At this time
Cockrell announced that each group had been allocated an initial budget of $100, to be used for program-related
expenditures (such as honoraria for guest speakers, film or equipment rental, etc.). This money may be rolled
over from year to year, along with any subsequent allocations; Interest Groups are thus afforded an
enhanced degree of flexibility in planning their programs for upcoming conferences.
Reflecting the fact that Interest Groups have been playing a more prominent role in conference programming in
recent years, an effort will be made to establish at each annual meeting an "Interest Group Conference Room"
for the exclusive use of the various groups. Scheduling of events will be closely coordinated with other
program sessions to minimize the potential for scheduling two or more events of similar content at the same
time.
At its final meeting in Seattle, the Board approved the formation of a Historiography Interest Group. Paul
Charosh will act as convenor at its organizational session during the conference at Kansas City. If anyone
wishes to propose future directions for this new group, please contact Charosh at 224 Beach 141 St.,
Belle Harbor NY 11694; telephone (718) 945-6854; e-mail Sandbar141@aol.com.
Interst Groups have been encouraged to creat their own home pages, linked to the home page for the Society. Readers
may wish to check out the helpful information available on the home page developed by the American Music in
American Schools and Colleges Interest Group (http://clem.mscd.edu/~worsterl/AMinAS.html).
The Society's Interest Groups extend across a broad range of issues and topics, in keeing with our mission as a Society of
individuals with unusually diverse interests within the field of American music. A list of all twelve Interest Groups, with their
respective chairs, appears elsewhere in the Bulletin.
--Jean Geil, coordinator
SIG Homepage Template
Interest Groups wishing to develop a home page may use the template developed by Larry
Worster as a model for suggestions. A copy of the template may be ordered from Larry
Worster at worsterl@mscd.edu. It may be viewed
at http://clem.mscd.edu/~worsterl/sig.html.
Updated 9/22/97