http://hdl.handle.net/1903/1625 2013-05-26T06:13:18Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12871 Title: John Philip Sousa and ‘The Menace of Mechanical Music’. Authors: Warfield, Patrick Abstract: In 1906 Appleton’s Magazine published John Philip Sousa’s most celebrated—and vitriolic— article, “The Menace of Mechanical Music.” In it Sousa predicts that piano rolls and recordings will end amateur music making in the United States. Modern writers have often condemned Sousa as a hypocrite (the Sousa Band was itself a major recording ensemble) and chastised him for failing to see the cultural and financial benefits of mechanical music. But, in fact, Sousa’s article was part of a larger scheme to gain public support for the 1909 copyright revision. It was also just one step in Sousa’s lifelong battle for composers’ rights, a battle with five distinct phases: (1) the debate over the right of public performance precipitated by the success of Gilbert and Sullivan in the United States, (2) a test of the limits of contractual obligations between performers and managers, (3) the instigation of an international copyright law, (4) the battle over mechanical rights, and (5) the ability of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to collect royalties as related to public performance. Description: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1752196309990678 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12152 Title: The March as Musical Drama and the Spectacle of John Philip Sousa Authors: Warfield, Patrick Abstract: John Philip Sousa’s phenomenal appeal for early twentieth-century American audiences lay in large part in the dramatic nature of his marches, their performance practice, and his own persona as the March King. Sousa was responsible for transforming the earlier da capo parade march into a linear work suitable for concert performance. When combined with the now largely forgotten performance practice of the Sousa Band, these marches became miniature dramas. Sousa’s famous marches, however, were seldom featured on printed handbills. Rather, the March King connected to his audiences by inviting them to take part fictitiously in concert programming by calling for Sousa’s marches as encores. Such encores not only allowed Sousa to remain humbly invisible on programs, but also provided audiences with the illusion of an intimate conversation with a celebrity entertainer, a conversation that reinforced nineteenth-century notions of American manhood. Through his advertising and concert work, Sousa strove to appear not as a distant celebrity, but simply as a more successful version of the Americans in his audience. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/4331 Title: The Nature of Music Authors: Signell, Karl Abstract: Ethnomusicologist Karl Signell proposes a fresh approach to thinking about music. In twelve half-hour programs originally heard on National Public Radio (USA), The Nature of Music series offers new ideas from the experts, from musicians such as violinist Yehudi Menuhin, from scholars such as Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, and from people in the business such as record producer Amy Horowitz. It attempts a grand synthesis of old truths and recent discoveries about music, from psychoacoustics to biomechanics, from poetry to philosophy. By searching for universals, The Nature of Music asks what it means to be human. Description: 1. Music & the Performer - What is the best way for a young musician to learn? How do you get music out of notes on a page? What is greatness? Individuality? 2. Music & the Listener - What are you supposed to listen for in music? How do we use music? Why do we seem to need music on so much of the time? 3. Music & Commerce - What kind of business smarts does a performer need? How does an independent record company survive? Do multinationals control all? 4. Music & Time - How does music create its own time? Why is musical time different from ordinary time? Is rhythm more primal than melody? 5. Music & the Creative Spirit - How did humble musical craftsmen become god-like artists? Do you need royal guilds to create great music? Where does music come from? 6. Music & the Body - Can we hear music with our bodies? How does a performer convey musical ideas with nonverbal signs? How important is the body? 7. Music's Tools - How does a conductor play his instrument, the orchestra? How does your instrument fit you? Why is a piano anti-physiological? 8. Music & Words - When are words themselves music? How are words and music different? Same? Which came first? Can words describe music? 9. Music & the Brain - How do children learn music? What is musical genius? How does our brain make sense out of musical sounds? Why do we have scales? 10. Music & Technology - How do radio, cassettes, music video affect music? For better or for worse? Is what you hear determined by a technician's taste? 11. Music's Meaning - Does all music have an ideological meaning? Why did Mozart sales surge after "Amadeus"? Does music video freeze interpretation? 12. Defining Music - What is music? How do you decide what is music and what isn't? Is there such a thing as great music? Why is music so human? 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/4038 Title: Music in a New World: America's Ethnic Traditions Authors: Signell, Karl Abstract: Music in a new world: America's ethnic traditions, a series of 26 half-hour audio programs, documents musical traditions brought to the United States by first-generation immigrants from around the world. Ethnomusicologist Karl Signell recorded their music and words on location across the country, from New York to Honolulu. Each program concentrates on a single ethnic group. Complete musical performances predominate; brief introductions by the program host and interviews with performers provide context. Further details and short audio samples can be found online: http://www.research.umbc.edu/eol/world/brochure.html 1982-01-01T00:00:00Z