Academic Ronin

I’m surrounded by morons. Henri 2, Paw

12 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by academic ronin in Uncategorized

I’m surrounded by morons. Henri 2, Paw de Deux – http://ow.ly/aeYZ8

NABMSA Registration Open

11 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by academic ronin in Uncategorized

Registration for the 5th Biennial North American British Music Studies Association Conference at the University of Illinois, July 26-28, 2012, is now open.

This year’s conference has an Anglo-American theme, and the keynote speaker is Patrick Warfield.

Please go to http://nabmsa.org/conferences/2012-biennial-conference/ and follow the links for further information.

SAM Bulletin editor position, 2013-2016

10 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by academic ronin in Uncategorized

Dear Society for American Music Members,

The Society is interested in hearing from members who might be interested in serving as the SAM Bulletin editor when my term ends at the end of the 2012 calendar year. If you are interested, please contact Tom Riis, Chair of the SAM Publications Committee, at Thomas.Riis@Colorado.edu (not me). A description of the editor’s duties is below.

The Bulletin editor’s term is three years. The SAM Bulletin is published three times a year: Winter (January), Spring (May), and Fall (September). The deadlines for members (or others) to submit are Dec. 15, April 15, and August 15. The Bulletin should be posted to the SAM website within 10-14 days of these dates.

The Bulletin editor is responsible for soliciting and editing short articles by members; news items of interest to the membership (including press releases, news about resources, events, etc.); the President’s letter (which appears in every issue); reports from committee chairs and from the annual meeting, provided by the secretary; information from the Students’ Forum, provided by the student reps; the table of contents for the next upcoming issue of JSAM (available from the JSAM editor); and members’ news. The editor also writes or edits obituaries (when needed); collects and edits calls for papers; collects information on upcoming conferences; and runs listings of new members (available from the Executive Director). The editor also works closely with the Bulletin Review editor; we include 3 or more book/media reviews in each issue. At times, we have also run roundtable-like discussions and op-eds.

The Bulletin editor is also responsible for all copyediting and proofreading of content; the layout and design of the Bulletin for the website (html) and for print (PDF). There is a template for the web edition. The editor also supplies the Executive Director with a PDF that can be printed for non-web using members and patrons. The editor also handles soliciting advertising in the Bulletin from university presses and other appropriate vendors; and places the ads in the online and text Bulletin. The editor handles the editing and placement of photos in the Bulletin.

The editor attends the annual SAM meeting and the publications committee meeting that is held there (7 am on Saturday). At the meeting, the editor represents the Bulletin and answers questions, solicits short articles, etc., from the membership. The editor also makes brief report to the membership at the business meeting, and submits a longer, written report, to the board once a year.

This is a volunteer service (unpaid) position.

SAM Band, part 3

06 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by academic ronin in Uncategorized

Here’s the response I wrote to the various comments that have come across the Sonneck-L listserv:

The issue—at least for me—here was not just the historical connections of “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag” to the “Old South,” but also their current (re?)adoption and use by white supremacist and other hate groups in the American South today. The songs are hardly historical artifacts. Angela Hammond gave a paper on the musics of such groups at the SAM conference just two years ago in Ottowa. A number of what the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “neo-Confederate” groups regularly use both songs as emblematic of their goals, which include “anti-democratic, racist, sexist, elitist, religiously intolerant and homophobic” political stances. It doesn’t matter than Lincoln liked “Dixie;” it’s that today these songs have additional baggage attached to them by its use by pro-Confederacy/pro-Lost Cause organizations and hate groups, and this makes performance without context untenable.

I fully agree with those who have suggested that these works should be taught in educational settings, where appropriate context for both their past use and present use as propaganda is provided. The fact that they were  performed by SAM members, who should know better the history and present implications of the works, is what upset me.

N.B.: A big thank you to everyone who has emailed me privately in support of what I’ve been saying. I appreciate the support.

SAM Band response

05 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by academic ronin in Uncategorized

SAM’s leadership has now responded to the Brass Band’s performance of “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag”in Charlotte two weeks ago. I’m reposting it here for any of you who didn’t receive the email, sent this morning to SAM members.

“To SAM members who attended the recent conference in Charlotte:

“A normal part of our annual conference is a performance by the SAM Brass Band at the reception. This year, that performance stirred some controversy, for which the Board is sorry. Traditionally, the ensemble has included in its repertory selections from the geographical area where the conference is being held. The ensemble also generally includes music from the Civil War, both because of its importance in the context of American history and because this particular repertory was written for (and performed by) ensembles of about the size and skill level of the SAM Band. This year the ensemble performed pieces from the band book of the 26^th NC Regiment C.S.A. One of the works chosen for the concert was a medley of Civil War tunes that included “The Bonnie Blue Flag” and Dan Emmett’s “Dixie.” Although the band’s performance was intended to be heard within the appropriate historical context, some of our members and guests were offended when they heard the latter piece. The SAM Brass Band and the Board apologize to those who were upset. This was clearly a poor programming choice, given the racial injustice and emotional trauma accrued to this composition by historical events and still resonant today.

“Several members of the Board (including me) were approached at the reception by SAM members who were troubled by this performance. We reacted immediately at the reception and banquet, speaking with various individuals (one of them a faculty member of a HBCU that had students at the conference). The next morning the Board discussed this at length in our regular Sunday meeting, and I was asked to speak with the organizers of the SAM Brass Band about the issue. I have done so, and am confident that no offense was intended and that future repertory lists will be selected with more sensitivity.

“The incident, however, illustrates the challenge that many of us face in teaching music in the context of American culture. We all strive to be sensitive to diverse perspectives, but frequently have to deal with styles of music that are uncomfortable to discuss and to hear. But to gloss over these examples of American musical culture would constitute self-censorship, which is intellectually untenable. Confronting such difficult materials within the proper historical context offers scholars, teachers, performers, and students an important educational opportunity that we should acknowledge and embrace, carefully and with sensitivity. Because the SAM band performance cannot provide the appropriate context, the organizers have assured me that they will exercise greater discretion in the choice of material in the future and apologize for the unintended offence this year.

 ”Katherine K. Preston

“President, Society for American Music

“Board of Trustees of the Society for American Music”

I’m pleased that they’ve addressed this, but I do think that the bit about censorship is a pretty sorry attempt to partially retroactively defend the decision to play the music and to defend against future possible poor choices of repertoire. Censorship (self or any other kind) has never been part of this discussion; it has been about appropriate context (in this case, as Preston correctly notes above, none was provided) and, to a certain degree, basic common sense on the part of the Band leader and Band members. To locate these songs in a larger group of “styles of music that are uncomfortable to discuss and to hear” is well and good for the classroom, where I agree they should be fully discussed. But for an organization of members who “strive to be sensitive to diverse perspectives” to have this music represent them at a public function–not an educational setting–is altogether different. To argue otherwise, is, well, just “whistling ‘Dixie’.”