Description
H. Earle Johnson, pioneer scholar of music in America, was a founding member, former Vice President, and first Chairman of the Publications Committee of the Sonneck Society (now the Society for American Music). He served the Society with enthusiasm and dedication tempered by realistic vision and sound judgment. His contributions to scholarly study of music in America are numerous, the quality and significance of which are reflected by ubiquitous references to his works in scholarly publications. Johnson was a member of the music faculty at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1937–1942 and 1946–1953, a visiting professor of music at Temple University in Philadelphia, and a professor in the Eminent Scholars Program of the College of William Mary in 1975. He continued at William and Mary as a visiting professor until his retirement in 1983. Early in his career, as a critic for the New Haven Register, Earle developed an ear and heart for the performers of music. Though music criticism ceased to serve as his means of livelihood, he retained an avid interest in concert life and continued to be charitable in supporting and encouraging performers and organizations. In recognition of his many contributions to the history of American music and his service to the Society, H. Earle Johnson was elected as an Honorary Member in 1986. The H. Earle Johnson Book Publication Subvention Award of the Society for American Music is intended to support the costs of the publication of significant books on American music.
The maximum award is $2,500.
Eligibility
Authors must be current members of the Society for American Music.
Deadline
October 15
Publications Supported by the Johnson Subvention
| Year | Winners |
|---|---|
| 2026 | S. Andrew Granade, The Musical Identities of Harry Partch: History, Theories, Performance Amy Skjerseth, Instrumental Presets: The Visible Past of Popular Music |
| 2025 | Sarah Gerk, "Music in a Nation of Immigrants" Kristen Turner, "Singing Like Citizens: Opera and Race in American Popular Entertainment during the Ragtime Era" Danielle Ward-Griffin, "Televising Opera: Broadcasting and Performance in Anglo-American Culture, 1945-75" |
| 2024 | Samantha Ege, South Side Impresarios Nancy Rao, Chinese Opera Theater in 19th-Century America |
| 2023 | Matthew D. Morrison, Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in America Braxton Shelley, An Eternal Pitch: Bishop G. E. Patterson, Broadcast Religion, and the Afterlives of Ecstasy |
| 2022 | Gretchen Carlson, Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music Through Jazz Lauron Kehrer Queer Voices in Hip Hop: Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance |
| 2021 | Kimberly Teal, Jazz Places: How Performance Spaces Shape Jazz History Panayotis League, Echoes of the Great Catastrophe: Re-Sounding Anatolian Greekness in Diaspora John Howland, Hearing Luxe Pop: Glorification, Glamour, and the Middlebrow in American Popular Music |
| 2020 | Sarah Eyerly, Moravian Soundscapes: A Sonic History of the Moravian Missions in Early Pennsylvania Evan Rapport, Damaged: Musicality and Race in Early American Punk |
| 2019 | Amy Lynn Wlodarski, George Rochberg, American Composer: Personal Trauma and Artistic Creativity (University of Rochester Press) Suzanne Robinson, Peggy Glanville-Hicks: A Life (University of Illinois Press) Ryan Bunch, Oz and the Musical: Performing the American Fairy Tale (Oxford University Press) Mark Katz, Build: The Power of Hip-hop in a Divided World (Oxford University Press) |
| 2018 | Sandra Jean Graham, Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry (University of Illinois Press) Christopher J. Smith, Movement Revolutions: Bodies, Space, and Sound in American Popular Culture (University of Illinois Press) Maria S. Guarino, Listen with the Ear of the Heart: Music and Monastery Life in Weston Priory |
| 2017 | Nathan Platte, Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood (Oxford University Press) Nichole Rustin-Paschal, The Kind of Man I Am: Jazz Masculinity and the World of Charles Mingus (Wesleyan University Press) |
| 2016 | The Cole Porter Companion, eds. Don Michael Randel, Matthew Shaftel and Susan Forcher Weiss (University of Illinois Press) Michael Heller, Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s (University of California Press) |
| 2015 | Marian Wilson Kimber, Feminine Entertainments: Women, Music and the Spoken Word (University of Illinois Press) Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Music in America’s Cold War Diplomacy (University of California Press) |
| 2014 | Ryan Bañagale, Arranging Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and the Creation of an American Icon (Oxford University Press) Sherrie Tucker, Dance Floor Democracy: The Social Geography of Memory at the Hollywood Canteen (Duke University Press) |
| 2013 | Melissa de Graaf, The New York Composers’ Forum Concerts: 1935-1940 (University of Rochester Press) Christopher Smith, The Creolization of American Culture: William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy (University of Illinois Press) |
| 2012 | Sheryl Kaskowitz, God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song Carol Hess, Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan American Dream |
| 2011 | John Spitzer, ed., American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century |
| 2010 | John Koegel, ed., Music, American Made: Essays in Honor of John Graziano Steve Swayne, Orpheus in Manhattan: William Schuman and the Shaping of America’s Musical Life |
| 2005-2009 | John Koegel, Music in German Immigrant Theater: New York City, 1840-1920 Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Performance of Identity Howard Pollack, George Gershwin: His Life and Legacy Judith Tick, Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion Catherine Parsons Smith, Making Music in Los Angeles: Transforming the Popular Mark Zobel, The Third Symphony of Charles Ives Larry Hamberlin, That Opera Rag: Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era James Lovensheimer, South Pacific: Paradise Rewritten |
| 2004 | Elizabeth B. Crist, Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War Gayle Murchison, The American Stravinsky: The Style and Aesthetics of Copland’s New American Music, the Early Works, 1921-1938 |
| 2003 | Doris Evans McGinty, A Documentary History of The National Association of Negro Musicians Ron Pen, Louis Dolive, and Richel Brett Harley, eds., Kentucky Harmony and Supplement to Kentucky Harmony |
| 2002 | Tim Brooks, Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 Liane Curtis, A Rebecca Clark Reader Leta E. Miller, Lou Harrison |
| 2001 | R. Allen Lott, Grand Tours: Five European Piano Virtuosos in the New World |
| 2000 | Carol Oja, Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s Ellen Koskoff, Music in Lubavitcher Life Kai Fikentscher, “You Better Work!” Underground Dance Music in New York City |
| 1999 | Bell Yung and Helen Rees, Understanding Charles Seeger Catherine P. Smith, Study in Contradictions: Toward a Biography of William Grant Still Charles K. Wolfe, Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry Alan C. Beuchner, Sons of Harmony |
| 1998 | Adrienne Fried Block, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian Michael Hicks, Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions Andrea Olmstead, Juilliard: A History |
| 1997 | Ralph P. Locke, Cyrillia Barr, Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activities Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World Karen Ahlquist, Democracy at the Opera: Music, Theatre, and Culture in New York City, 1815-60 |
| 1996 | Judith Vander, Shoshone Ghost Dance Religion Nolan Porterfield, The Last Cavalier: John A Lomax, 1867-1948 |
| 1995 | Cecelia Conway, African Banjo, Echoes in Appalachia |
| 1994 | Marilyn Ziffrin, Carl Ruggles |
| 1993 | Katherine K. Preston, Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States, 1825-1860 Ellen Knight, Charles Martin Loeffler: A Biography |
| 1992 | Barbara Heyman, Samuel Barber: The Composer and his Music |
| 1991 | Thomas McGeary, The Music of Harry Partch: A Descriptive Catalogue |