Archive: Mar 2014
Remembering Joe Kerman
Sarah Fuller I came to graduate study at Berkeley in 1961 as someone unschooled in the labyrinths and habitudes of musicology and with great gaps in cognizance of repertory, and Joseph Kerman became a formative guide to me. I recall especially my two first-year seminars with him. One dealt… Read More
Down with Eleven: On the overamplification of American life
by Jay Nordlinger Re-posted, with kind permission, from National Review / Digital, April 7, 2014. It’s not our biggest problem, or even in the top ten, or top 100. But it’s still a problem, I think: the overamplification of American life. I have long held this view, but have been… Read More
Valentin Silvestrov and What the Times Dictate
by Peter J. Schmelz Valentin Silvestrov Among the almost daily shocks and surprises from the Ukraine has been the active engagement of the Ukrainian pianist/composer Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937, Kiev). This represents a distinct turnaround from the historical figure I… Read More
In memoriam Joseph Kerman
Joseph Kerman April 3, 1924 – March 17, 2014… Read More
Indexing Psalms and Music
by Meridith Murray Those of us who are church musicians are always looking for new insights into sacred texts. Music scholarship can help us find and carry these discoveries to our choirs, congregations, and pastors. Such is the case with a book published just before the end of 2013, Psalms… Read More
Pop Triumphalism, concl.
NOTE: the thread– Robert Fink: How I Got OverJohn Halle: Pop Triumphalism Redux, a response to Robert Fink Prof. Fink concludes: Rather than prolong the back-and-forth over “pop triumphalism,” I’d simply note the difference of opinion between John Halle and myself probably has more to do… Read More
Reflections on Contemporary Ellingtonia
by John Howland Duke Ellington’s 1999 centennial, as I observe in the current issue of Musical Quarterly (Fall/Winter 2013), fostered a wave of new research. Most recently, Terry Teachout published his Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, which he describes as “not so much a work of scholarship… Read More
Pop Triumphalism Redux, Neoliberal Aesthetics, and the Austerity Agenda: A Response to Robert Fink
by John Halle NOTE: a longer version of this response appears at Professor Halle’s website, HERE. A central point of my piece “The Last Symphony” is that in its late, neoliberal form which we are now confronting, capitalism transcends its function as an economic system regulating the distribution… Read More