20 Schulich School of Music Scholars Take Center-Stage in Milwaukee!
We often applaud the world-class performers at the Schulich School of Music, but this week it is our humanities-based research that takes center stage. From Nov. 6 – Nov. 9, 2014, 20 professors and graduate students lead the way when the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory host their joint annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The number of presentations alone is impressive given that this is the largest and most important conference of humanities-based research in music; it is also the largest number of presentations given by any school.
But what is truly remarkable is the range of scholarship. Profs. Cumming (Musicology) and Schubert (Music Theory) team up for “Another Lesson from Lassus” in a presentation that draws on digital humanities technologies for the study of early music. Jacob Sagrans (musicology, doctoral student) tells the story of Allegri’s 17th century Miserere mei, Deus through the history of a 1964 LP recording. Dan Donnelly (musicology, doctoral student) and Jane Hatter (musicology, doctoral student), in turn, give papers providing new insights into the public and private dimensions of renaissance laments.
Prof. Brackett (musicology) chairs a session on country music that includes presentations from Rockabilly and Honky-Tonk music and Robert Altmann’s film Nashville, to New York’s La Monte Young and Kyhãl singer in the Hindustani vocal tradition, Pandit Pran Nath. Mimi Haddon (musicology, doctoral student) explores Melodica in Post-Punk, while Eric Smialek (musicology, doctoral student) challenges assumptions about the role of adolescence within metal music.
Prof. Hasegawa (music theory) and Nina Penner (musicology, doctoral student) reveal their philosophical interests with new perspectives on the nature of music as artwork. Prof. Hasegawa focuses on Liza Lim’s 2009 solo work for cello (Invisibility), a work inspired by an Australian aboriginal “aesthetics of presence.” Prof. Neidhöfer (music theory) takes up postmodern creative processes with “Luciano Berio’s ‘Poetic of Analysis,’” while Prof. Wild (music theory) re-considers Max Reger’s variations on a Theme by Mozart, op. 132.”
Prof. Huebner (musicology) and Zoey Cochran (musicology, doctoral student) focus on Opera, while Prof. Whitesell considers the style modes of the Film musical. Three others direct attention to performance and performers: Catherine Motuz (musicology, doctoral student) examines the practices of the renaissance virtuoso; Catherine Schwartz (musicology, doctoral student) examines Fin-de siècle experiences of singing; and Jessica Holmes (musicology, doctoral student) sheds new insights on disability studies. Last but by no means least, Prof. Fujunaga (music technology) and Alexander Morgan (music theory, graduate student) present recent technological applications in information sciences for musicology and music theory.
The breadth and depth reflect both the out-of-the box thinking and the dynamic interplay between our professors and graduate students for which the Schulich School of Music is renowned, Congratulations one and all.