An introduction to music appreciation and history that emphasizes the political, cultural, and social influences on music from antiquity to the 20th century. Contents include sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental, and folk and art music from across the Western world, including modern popular song. No previous musical experience necessary. All…[Read more]

These are the introductory chapter and chapter eight of the multi-authored book that I edited on food-music relations in various regions and periods. In the introduction I analyze the phenomenological basis of the unbalanced relations between food and music. Chapter 8 deals with song lyrics about food in Latin American and the Caribbean.

A somewhat whimsical musing on music videos by Fall Out Boy and Beyoncé, all through the lens of Lucretius by way of John Rahn.

Ten years ago, back in 2008, a group of scholars interested in a diverse range of cultural figures at that point in time typically marginalized as subjects for seri ous critical study-werewolves, ghosts and revenants, giants, fairies and elves, vampires, the monsters on medieval mappa mundi, in medieval texts, in man uscript marginalia, and in…[Read more]

We say, you belong to me, or I belong to you. But is it possible to be possessed by others? And can we ever possess ourselves? In this raw and intimate account, Eva-Lynn Jagoe merges memoir with critical theory as she recounts the unraveling of everything she thought she knew about selfhood, relationships, and desire. Through the story of an…[Read more]

Continuation of documentary about concert spirituals categorized by song theme, from sorrow songs to songs of transcendence. Each category is followed by a recording:
– “Oh, Didn’t It Rain” (Ruby Elzy, soprano)
– “Every Time I Feel de Spirit” (Lawrence Brown, composer; Evelyn Dove, soprano)
– “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” (Florence…[Read more]

Documentary about concert spirituals categorized by song theme, from sorrow songs to songs of transcendence. Each category is followed by a recording: –
“I Cannot Stay Here by Myself” (Hall Johnson, composer; A. Grace Lee Mims, soprano)
– “Who’ll Be a Witness for My Lord” (John Rosamond Johnson, composer; Kenneth Spencer, baritone)
– “Steal…[Read more]

This chapter develops two claims that are central to the book’s overall argument. The first is that certain temporal musical objects exist only as ephemera—always remaining outside of symbolic representation. These objects are constituted by lived time, or time as it shows up in human lives. The second claim is that the ephemeral meaning of mus…[Read more]

This is the 2020 update of a comprehensive open-access annotated bibliography listing carillon scores by African American composers and/or based on African American music. While most of the items are published, a few are unpublished but in informal circulation, or are pending publication. Carillonists are invited to use this resource to identify…[Read more]

This open-access international bibliography lists published and unpublished original carillon works by over a hundred women, transgender, and nonbinary composers. The composers’ birth years range from 1858 to the twenty-first century, the musical styles range from lyrical to avant-garde, and the formats range from solo to ensemble to e…[Read more]

This band was formed in Auckland, New Zealand following the success of an earlier drum and fife band associated with the Ponsonby Boy Scouts Association. It undertook several country-wide tours on both islands during the 1920’s and was a very successful and sought-after musical organisation.

This article strives to examine the historical narrative of music recording in its acoustic era (from 1877 to the late 1920s), at a time when competing technologies for capturing and registering sound and music were being incorporated into everyday life. Moreover, it examines the overlap of continuous and discontinuous media and processes of…[Read more]