What's new in music, sociology, anthropology, and women's & gender studies…from your librarian
Archive for Music
September 21, 2009 at 11:38 am · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology, Women's & Gender Studies
*Births, Stages, Declines, Revivals*
*2010 Conference of the **International Association for the Study of Popular Music, U.S. Branch
New Orleans, Louisiana, April 9-11*
New Orleans has long been known as the “birthplace of jazz;” more recently, it has become a signifier for ruin. The chaos wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 signaled a shocking sense of loss in the music world: some musicians lost their lives and many lost their livelihoods; the city’s ubiquitous choirs, marching bands, and parades were disrupted and displaced. Residents of New Orleans, particularly the working poor, were evacuated and have yet to permanently return. And yet, at the same time, both remaining and former residents have fought to hold on to and even revive their cherished culture.
Performers, bands, and fans have commuted from their temporary homes, worked to replenish instruments, continued the city’s parades and festivals, and cultivated the spirit of music for which the city is so well-known. These circumstances in New Orleans raise broader issues of birth and death, change and endurance, as music is practiced by people in cities and regions across the world:
What is the appeal, use, or meaning of thinking about musical origins?
How can we best understand the various “births” of different genres of music and their relationships to place, culture, or individual agency?
What are the nature and meanings of “classic” music?
How have “roots” functioned as a metaphor in American music criticism?
In what ways can we connect the life cycles of music scenes, genres, and
styles to that of individuals, cultures, and places?
How do musicians and listeners mark life passages and stages–birth, youth, aging, death–through music?
How do instances of musical sound (a cracking voice, varying rhythms,
instrumental textures) signify the aging body or changing environments?
How can we account for the decline, waning, or even “deaths” of different
musics?
What is the significance of beginnings and endings in songs?
How can we best talk about alleged phenomena like “gray-out” or
“homogenization” in music?
What is the nature of “unfinished” work in different music genres?
How, exactly, do remixing, rereleasing, or remastering revive songs and
albums?
What can we learn from efforts to preserve music through grant programs,
festivals, “legacy” box sets, and other methods?
We invite proposals that explore these issues in New Orleans or other
localities; we are also open to proposals that address other current topics
of research and debate in the study of popular music, broadly defined.
Proposals for individual papers should consist of a 300-word abstract and a 1-page CV of the author. Panel, roundtable, and other group proposals should consist of a 300-word summary of the panel topic, in addition to abstracts and CVs for each of the participants. For each proposal, please send a cover message, with the components attached as Microsoft Word or Rich Text documents, to <iaspm2010@gmail.com>. The deadline is December 1, 2009.
Questions about proposals may be sent to the Program Chair, Daniel Cavicchi, at <dcavicch@risd.edu> or to any of the 2010 Program Committee members: Ken Habib (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo), Kwame Harrison (Virginia Tech), Diane Pecknold (University of Louisville), Devon Powers (Drexel University), or Eric Weisbard (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa).
The conference in New Orleans will take place April 9-11, coinciding with
the city’s French Quarter Festival. The 2010 Program Committee and the
Arrangements Committee hope to take full advantage of the unique
opportunities present in the city. All accepted presenters must be IASPM-US members; to join the Association, go to: http://www.iaspm-us.net/
September 16, 2009 at 11:06 am · Filed under Languages, Music, Sociology/Anthropology
We were looking for sound files we could legally play for the public at our Constitution Day celebration tomorrow, and a couple of friends on Facebook pointed us to three great sources you might want to check out for yourself!
Berea College Sound Archives
Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
Internet Archive: 78 RPMs & Cylinder Recordings
Feel free to share other sources in the comments. Keep it legal please. 
(Thanks, John & Terry!)
**Update: Here’s another. (Thanks, Brooke!)
Global Music Archive
September 15, 2009 at 5:11 pm · Filed under Languages, Music, Sociology/Anthropology
Please update your bookmarks/readers. The new page for Mesoj is at http://blogs.georgiasouthern.edu/mesoj/
Thanks for reading! (You are reading, right? Echo…)
September 15, 2009 at 1:37 pm · Filed under Music
At Georgetown, Oct. 4-6, and webcast live by web.illish.us. Details here. Facebook event page here. (Thanks, Kevin!)
September 14, 2009 at 10:34 am · Filed under Music
Congratulations to Dr. Michael Braz following his induction as a Statesboro Legend in the Arts, courtesy of the Averitt Center for the Arts! Full story here.
July 7, 2009 at 8:13 am · Filed under Music
The following announcement is being circulated. Note the August 1 deadline.
*Call for Submissions: Pop Culture Tools in the Music Classroom*
Authors are invited to submit potential contributions to an essay
collection on using popular culture in undergraduate- and graduate-level
music courses. The essays should focus on teaching and learning tools
derived from popular culture, and may also include generalized
considerations of popular-culture texts. The collection is intended to
serve as a framework for course design or as a supplementary text in
either pedagogy or music classes. Approaches concerning methods of using
popular culture to address either art or vernacular musics, from the
disciplines of musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory and analysis,
and performance studies are welcome. Topics may include, but are not
limited to:
· electronic media such as mp3s and other digital audio; Ipod culture;
streamed radio
· multimedia sources, including YouTube, music videos, television shows,
movies, soundtracks
· videogames such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and
others
· online environments such as Second Life
· covers, versioning, parodies, mashups
**Essays should be 6,000-10,000 words in length and conform to /Chicago
Manual of Style/ guidelines. Authors will be responsible for acquiring
any necessary permissions for copyrighted materials included in their
works. Text should be submitted as Word files (.doc or .rtf format),
with musical examples in .tif, .pdf, .jpg, .gif, or .bmp format (.tifs
are preferred).
The collection will be published by Scarecrow Press in 2010. Materials
should be submitted electronically to Nicole Biamonte at
<nbiamonte@gmail.com> by *August 1, 2009*. Please include:
1) a cover letter or message, including the author’s name and essay title
2) an abstract of approximately 200 words
3) the proposed contribution, with author’s name and other identifying
information omitted
4) a brief biography (50 to 100 words)
5) a current cv
–
Renee Camus
Scarecrow Press
www.scarecrowpress.com
Centuries Historical Dance
www.centuriesdance.org
June 29, 2009 at 7:35 am · Filed under Languages, Music, Sociology/Anthropology
Back from hiatus, after traveling for 2 weeks through Europe, including visiting my old stomping grounds in Albania, where Dr. Lori Amy has been teaching and researching on a Fulbright and kindly hosted us in her Tirana home. If you’re interested in pics from the 3 countries, and detailed notes on Albania from my wife’s perspective as a first-time visitor (here, here, & here), just visit my Facebook page. (Also keep an eye on the news on Albania’s election results from yesterday, available in any major news sources online.)
Also, the Savannah Music Festival has posted streams online for your listening pleasure, from Schubert to Gershwin with a dose of boogie woogie.
April 30, 2009 at 3:41 pm · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology
Here are a couple of blogs that might be of interest to you– one on music and sustainability, and one on ethnographic fieldwork on techno & house music in Detroit.
April 10, 2009 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology
The question of universal perceptions of music is explored in this fascinating study.
April 10, 2009 at 8:38 am · Filed under Music, Sociology/Anthropology
The following announcement is being circulated:
Berea College Appalachian Sound Archives Fellowships 2010
The purpose of the Berea College Sound Archives Fellowship Program (formerly Music Archives Fellowship) is to encourage scholarly use of Berea’s non-commercial audio collections that document Appalachian history and culture.
These recordings are especially strong in the areas of traditional music, religious expression, spoken lore and radio programs. They include extensive documentation of fiddle and banjo tunes; ballads and songs; Old Regular Baptist singing and preaching; folktales and legends; and related interviews with musicians, preachers, and storytellers, 1950 to the present. Radio material heard in the region for the years 1936 to the mid 1950s, documents a wide range of Kentucky, national, and world political figures and events. Entertainment programs include country music, soap operas, musical variety shows and sporting events.
Fellowship awards are made for a period of one to three months in support of research projects that will contribute to the preservation or promotion of these resources.
The fellowships must be taken up between July 2009 and June 2010. Fellows are expected to be in residence during the term of the fellowship and are encouraged to participate in campus and community activities. Stipend: $3000/month.
Deadline for proposals: June 1, 2009 for July through December 2009. December 1 for January through June 2010.
There is no application form. Applicants are asked to submit a proposal that addresses (1) their interest in the particular subject area, (2) description of the project specifying which Berea collections will be made use of, (3) anticipated research outcomes (e.g., print publications, audio / video documentaries, tune transcriptions, lesson plans, public performances, web based resources), (4) the length of time needed for the project (one month minimum, three months maximum), and (5) preferred dates of residence. Also required are three letters of recommendation from colleagues familiar with the applicant’s work. For graduate degree candidates, the recommendations must include those of the professor directing the applicant’s research. Applicants are responsible for contacting all persons providing recommendations.
For information about Berea’s Sound Archives and other traditional music collections, see www.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/specialsound.asp
Proposals or inquires should be sent to
Harry Rice
Special Collections & Archives
Berea College
Berea, KY 40404
harry_rice@berea.edu
For additional information:
Berea’s Appalachian Music Fellowship Web Page: http://www.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/amfp.asp
Proposals or inquiries: harry_rice@berea.edu
[This announcement was posted April 3, 2009]
Next entries »
