NECSEM Newsletter

World Music Festival at MIT:

Friday, April 3, Killian Hall, 7:00 pm ensembles include, Yamada-ryu Sankyoku ensemble (Cathy Reade and others); Tomie Hahn (shakuhachi) and Masayo Ishigure (shamisen); and Eurasian Ensemble

Saturday, April 4, Wong Auditorium, 7:00 pm Kiniwe (West African ensemble from Tufts University, directed by David Locke) MITCAN (East African ensemble from MIT, directed by James Makubuya)

Saturday, April 4, Kresge Auditorium, 7:00 pm, $4.00 South Asian Cultural Show: Variety show sponsored by MIT South Asian Student Association

Sunday, April 5, (MIT 6-120), 4:00 pm Trichur Ramachandran (South Indian classical vocalist)

All these events are FREE (unless indicated) and open to the public.

NECSEM Meeting:

MIT (Killian Hall), Saturday, April 4, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

9:00 Registration (Coffee and doughnuts provided by MIT)

9:30-12:00 Paper session
9:30 Robin Carruthers (Tufts): Lullaby in Venezuela: Caracas and Barlovento
10:00 Andy McGraw (Tufts): The Gamelan Semara Dana: Innovation and Tradition
10:30 Preethi Fernando (Tufts): Chants and Rituals of the Paddy Harvest in Sri Lanka
11:00 Lisa Burke (Framingham State): The British Colonial Govt. vs the London Missionary Society: Conflict and Controversy Regarding the Regulation of "Native Dance" in the Gilbert Islands, ca. 1900-1940
11:30 George Ruckert (MIT)

12:00-2:00 LUNCH BREAK

2:00-3:00 Gamelan Performance in Endicott World Music Room (MIT) FREE
3:00-3:30 Special Paper Presentation: Charles Keil (SUNY Buffalo): "Groovology and the Magic of Other Peoples' Musics"
3:30 NECSEM Business Meeting

Please note: All of the NECSEM events will be held in KILLIAN HALL, with the exception of the gamelan performance. We will return to Killian after the performance to resume the meeting.

KOETTING PRIZE Guidlines: According to the chapter guidelines, students wishing to have a paper considered for the James T. Koetting Prize (awarded for the outstanding graduate student paper at the chapter meeting) are reminded that they must submit four copies of their paper to Richard Jones-Bamman at the meeting.

PEOPLE and PLACES in NECSEM

AMERICAN GAMELAN INSTITUTE
Jody Diamond has published an article, with epilogue by Sutanto, "Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival 1997, _Leonardo Music Journal_, Vol 7, pp. 92-95. There is also a web posting of just the text (the LMJ version has photos): http://www.sover.net/~frogpeak/AGI/YGF.html

BROWN UNIVERSITY
Marc Perlman, assistant professor of music at Brown University, visited Indonesia last August with the New York Consulate Gamelan Ensemble. He performed with the Ensemble at the 1997 Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival. He also spoke to the Indonesian College of the Performing Arts (Solo, Central Java), at the invitation of the Department of Traditional Music, on the topic "Traditional Music and Intellectual Property Rights."

Last June, Jeff Titon presented a group of Old Regular Baptists from southeastern Kentucky at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Washington, DC. Smithsonian / Folkways issued a CD of Old Regular Baptist singing, taken from Jeff's 1992 and 1993 field recordings, in time for their festival appearance. The CD features lined-out hymnody and statements from the singers about the meaning of the singing. The notes accompanying the CD include Jeff's essay on the music as well essays by Elwood Cornett, moderator (head) of the Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists, and by John Wallhausser, professor of religion and philosophy at Berea College. Jeff is enjoying a sabbatical year in Maine where he reports that 1997 was a good year for apples and that 55 gallons of homemade cider wine is aging in an oak barrel down cellar. He is at work on two book projects, writing an anthology of transcriptions of old-time fiddle tunes from Kentucky, and editing an atlas of selected musical communities in the United States.

Nancy Newman, a doctoral candidate in the Music Department at Brown University, presented a paper at the Sonneck Society meetings in Kansas City, 19-22 February 1998. Her paper, "Symphonies, Polkas, and Potpourris: The Varied Repertory of the Germania Musical Society, 1848-1854," was part of a panel, "The Levine Thesis: Highbrow/Lowbrow After Ten Years."

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
After a lengthy period of building renovation, we are pleased to announce that the relocated Center for Ethnomusicology (est. 1967) is back in business. The Center contains sound and video recording archives and supports other activities related to Columbia's ethnomusicology offerings, editorial work on the Yearbook for Traditional Music and the CD series UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music. Be sure to check out the Center's web page at http://www.music.columbia.edu/~cecenter/ which includes detailed information on the department, course offerings, faculty and (coming soon) graduate students.

Last semester we were delighted to welcome Aaron Fox into the new junior position in Ethnomusicology. Professor Fox received his PhD from the University of Texas in 1995 where his dissertation sponsor was Steven Feld, and he subsequently held an Assistant Professorship of Anthropology and an Adjunct Assistant Professorship of Music at the University of Washington. Among his areas of interest are social and linguistic anthropology, working class cultures and country music.

In other faculty news, Professor Tim Taylor recently saw the publication of his book, _Global Pop: World Music, World Markets_, and Professor Daniel Ferguson is currently at work on a book about Cantonese opera. Professor Dieter Christensen, in addition to directing the Center and publishing a number of articles in 1997, continues his work as editor of the Yearbook for Traditional Music and as Secretary General of the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM) which is now preparing for its 35th World Conference to be held in Hiroshima, August 1999 (see http://roar.music.columbia.edu/~ictm).

The SEM meeting in Pittsburgh was a great success for Columbia, including papers read by faculty (Dieter Christensen, Daniel Ferguson, Aaron Fox, Tim Taylor and adjunct lecturer Kai Fikentscher) and graduate students (Maurea Landies, Jason Oakes, Daniel Thompson, Dale Wilson, and Cynthia Wong).

Closer to home, this past spring saw two dissertation defenses: Joao de Carvalho with "Choral Musics in Maputo: Urban Adaptation, Nation Building and the Performance of Identity," and Travis Jackson with "Performance and Musical Meaning: Analyzing 'Jazz' on the New York Scene." Joao was appointed Assistant Professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, while Travis accepted the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan. Khalfan al-Barwani, Paul Yoon, Tim Mangin, Heather Willoughby and Dale Wilson all received their M.A. degrees. Khalfan al-Barwani has returned to Oman to resume his position as Director of the Oman Centre for Traditional Music.

Just having entered the darker end of the dissertation tunnel, Cynthia Wong is currently in Beijing to continue her research into the relationships between Chinese rock performance and social transformation, and Jason Oakes remains in New York City to study musical reenactments through practices such as karaoke, impersonation and tribute. Beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Maurea Landies returned from dissertation fieldwork in the Domincan Republic where she investigated the role of gaga performance in the negotiation of ethnicity and identity, while Daniel Thompson spent time in Ireland to supplement his research into the role of musical enactments in the construction and maintenance of Irish identity in New York City. Luiz Magalhaes is preparing to defend his dissertation on Tore ritual songs after a year of fieldwork in Brazil, as is Chris Washburne whose work on salsa has drawn upon his weekly performances at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City.

Events at Columbia
Our fall colloquium series included stimulating presentations by Thomas G. Porcello (Univ. of Pennsylvania), Thomas J. Soloman (New York University) and Louise Meintjes (Duke University). The Ethnomusicology Colloquium Series this spring is organized around the theme of "Music and the Nation-State." Participants will include Robin Moore (Temple University), Virginia Danielson (Harvard University) and Christine Yano (University of Hawai'i). Link to the Center for Ethnomusicology's web page for dates, locations and other details.

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN
This past fall, Daniel Cavicchi, of the Dept. of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences, was invited to the Centre for Youth Media Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he delivered a lecture titled "Leap of Faith: Fandom, Religion, and Meaning." His book about music fandom, _Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning Among Springsteen Fans_, comes out in September from Oxford University Press. He is currently conducting research for his next book, a history of music listening in the United States.

TUFTS UNIVERSITY
Prof. David Locke's Kiniwe ensemble has been performing nearly every week this year. Next year he'll be offering a new course on ethnographic applications of multi-media technology. Prof. Tomie Hahn will be teaching shakuhachi and nihon buyo as a part of a new course on Japanese music and performance. Prof. Guthrie Ramsey is writing a book titled _Race Music: Post-WWII Black Musical Style from Beebop to Hip Hop_ on the relationship between musical style and African American ethnicity, offering an experimental ethnographic stance that incorporates oral history interviews with his family. Prof. Mark DeVoto has just completed an essay on Melville Smith (1898-1962), a pioneering American organist and expert on English folk music and dance (coming this fall in a book of occasional essays on American music, by Garland Press). Graduate student Andy McGraw is currently running a small Balinese gamelan baleganjur ensemble at Tufts.

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
Composer, saxophonist, and activist Fred Ho recently spoke on campus. On April 2, he presented excerpts from his opera in a lecture for the Music Department colloquium, Transforming the American New Music Terrain: Cross-Culturalism and Revolutionary Concepts in American Music. Later in the day he spoke at the Mansfield Freeman Asian Studies Center, on Revolutionary Concepts in Afro-Asian New American Music: A Talk on Culture, Music, and Politics.

Doctoral student Okon Hwang appeared in concert as guest pianist with the Manhattan String Quartet, in a Crowell Concert Series performance on April 3.

Last September, Wesleyan celebrated a larger than usual Navaratri Festival of Indian Music and Dance. The festival was the 21st annual Navaratri conducted by Professor T. Viswanathan, and featured performances by Kathak dancer Birju Maharaj, tablist Zakir Hussain, Bharata Natyam dancer Lakshmi, Karnatak vocalist Unnikrishnan, and been player Asad Ali Khan. Viswanathan gave a flute and vocal concert with Wesleyans Artist-in-Residence Ramnad Raghavan on mridangam. The ten-day festival also featured two films by Satyajit Ray, a lecture by David Shulman of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, an exhibition of photographs and drawings from the Vijayanagar Project, India, and a concluding Saraswati and Vijayadasami Puja at the Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society, Middletown. Also during the festival, a memorial tree was planted near the World Music Hall in honor of the late T. Ranganathan, who was Wesleyans first Artist-in-Residence in 1962 and taught here until 1987.

Wesleyan Ph.D. candidate and trombonist Mike Heffley performed at the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT recently with pianist Burton Greene and trombonist Roswell Rudd; in Wesleyan's Crowell Concert Series' "New Music Weekend" with New York pianist Borah Bergman; and will perform as pianist-vocalist-lyricist with bassist Joe Fonda at the Buttonwood Tree on Saturday, April 4. Heffley's book The Music of Anthony Braxton_ (Greenwood, 1996) was favorably reviewed in Music and Letters (London) and Jazz Hot (Paris). His paper "Free Jazz: Left by American Parents on European Doorsteps" was presented at last year's International College Music Society Conference in Vienna. His paper "From Germany" West Meets Rest by Thinking and Acting Global and Local" was accepted for presentation at next July's International Society of Music Educators Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe. His interview with the "father of European free jazz" Peter Brtzmann was published in the IMI Music in Movement festival program in Wuppertal Germany. He will co-write Brtzmann's next CD's liner notes with British journalist Steve Lake.

Susan Tveekrem gave an M.A. recital on February 28, featuring performances of Karnatak vocal, Hindustani clarinet, and Klezmer music. The concert also included the premiere of a clarinet duo composed for Tveekrem and Joseph Getter by Wesleyan graduate Eliot Bates, M.A. 97.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE
As a co-director of the Williams College student ensemble, Kusika and the Zambezi Marimba Band, Ernest Brown recently hosted a residency by Alport Mhlanga, a Zimbabwean composer and marimba virtuoso. The residency culminated in a Zimbabwean marimba concert on January 17, 1998. Kusika and Zambezi are also hosting a residency by Abubakari Lunna, Dagbamba master drummer from Ghana, which will culminate in performances on March 13 and 14, 1998. Brown is also interviewed in a series of world music appreciation films produced by Pacific Street Films. Titles include harmony, music and memory, and music and the environment. Brown also published _Lozi_, a book about the Lozi people of western Zambia, with Rosen Publishing Co. The book is part of a series of books on African peoples designed for secondary school students.

EVENTS and PERFORMANCES

Smith College
The Smith College Gamelan Ensemble will be giving a short wayang kulit performance on Saturday April 25, 1998, at 4 pm.

Wesleyan University
The Wesleyan Gamelan Ensemble, under the direction of Sumarsam and I.M. Harjito, will have a concert on May 8, 1998, at 8 pm in the World Music Hall. The program features a dance-drama of scenes from the Ramayana, with guest and student dancers. Tickets are available from the Box Office, tel. 860-685-3355.

Students of North and South Indian classical music will present a concert on May 6, 1998, in Crowell Concert Hall. The program begins at 9 am, and will feature vocal, flute, and drumming performances. Free concert.

Music and Dance of India: A Celebration, with Lauren Paul, dance; Vasanth Venkatachalam, vocal; Tom Ross, vocal; and David Nelson, mridangam. April 10, 1998, 8 pm, World Music Hall. Tickets available from the Box Office, tel. 860-685-3355.

Graduate student Gregory Acker will present a shadow puppet concert on Wednesday, April 29, at 8 pm in the World Music Hall, featuring a gamelan and puppets that he has designed and built. Performers in Daedelus and Draupadi: Fate and Invention include Wesleyan students and local elementary school children.

Elsewhere

Turkish Music by The EurAsia Ensemble, music from the Turkish classical tradition, with Beth Cohen, yayli (bowed) tanbur; Robert Labaree, Deng; Frederick Stubbs, ney; and Robert Weiner, percussion.
Boston Area Performances, spring 1998:
Friday, April 3, 7:00 pm MIT World Music Weekend, April 3-4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Killian Hall, Building 14 next to Hayden Library on Memorial Drive, Cambridge also: Japanese music by Yamada-ryu Sankyoku admission free
and
Friday, May 1, 8:00 pm
The Rug Music Series, January-May, 1998
Gregorian Oriental Rugs, 2284 Washington St.
(Rt.16 near Rt. 128) Newton Lower Falls
admission: $10
for information: phone (617) 926-6012, fax (617) 232-5625 email: rlabaree@mindspring.com

There will be a concert in New York city featuring three of the Middle East's top musicians, Souheil Kaspar (on Darrabukah), George Lamman (violin and vocals), and Faruk (nay and vocals). They will be performing classical Arabic pieces as well as more modern dance pieces. The date is June 6, 1998, and the location is still under investigation but it will definitly be in Manhattan. For now it is set to take place at the Morocco dance studios on West 15th St. in Manhattan. Contact Henry Osserman, tel. 914-949-5159.

MEETINGS
There is a webpage for the upcoming meeting of the New England Chapter of the Music Library Association: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~paddock/nemla/nemla.html

PUBLICATIONS
The final volume of _Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant_ (3 vols. + CD), by Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Harvard University) and Peter Jeffery (Princeton University) with the assistance of Ingrid Monson, has now been published by A-R Editions of Madison WI. This publication inaugurated their series "Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music." It is the first serious study of this musical tradition, and it is of particular methodological interest as a collaboration between an ethnomusicologist, working from tapes of a modern informant, and a historical musicologist, working from written manuscripts dating back as far as the twelfth century. Besides the "binocular" approach, SEM members might be interested in this tradition as an example of centonate/formulaic chant (the notation indicates the formulas rather than single pitches), which also includes some named melody types / tune families, and as an example of text-melody relations (the notational formulaic signs are mostly snippets from the texts). The third volume includes historical charts documenting the historical stability of the written side of the tradition, and also a chapter about the amazing contortions that the European depiction of "Ethiopian music" went through as centuries of misinterpretation, partial information, and even outright deliberate fabrication were dutifully copied and recopied, re-explained and expanded upon, by generations of highly literate Europeans who had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

Judith Tick published the biography, _Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music_ (Oxford University Press, 1977). It was named an "exceptional biography" by Mark Swed, music critic for the Los Angeles Times in his year-end top-ten roundup of classical music items.

NECSEM OFFICERS
President: Richard Jones-Bamman
Vice President: Okon Hwang
Secretary: Lisa Burke
Treasurer: Anthony Rauche
Editor: Joseph Getter

The NECSEM Newsletter is an occasional publication of the Northeastern Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology.