Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society

Saturday, September 23, 2017 • Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV • amsallegheny.wordpress.com

Fall Meeting

8:30 AM Registration and Refreshments

9:00 AM Opening Remarks by Chapter President, Michael Baumgartner

Modern Times

Chair: Mark Durrand (The University of Akron)

  • Gui Lee (Stony Brook University) - Commenting on the Belle Époque and Our Time Through Historical Styles: Joe Hisaishi’s Original Score for Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
  • Phoebe Hughes (West Virginia University) - Morton Feldman’s The King of Denmark (1964): Existentialism through Large-Scale Analysis

Musical Times in Musical Places

Chair: Brian F. Wright (Fairmont State University)

  • Peter Graff (Case Western Reserve University) - Staging Dual Patriotism: Cleveland’s German-Language Theater and the Great War
  • Christopher Wilkinson (West Virginia University) - A “Moment” in the History of Big Band Dance Music in West Virginia during the 1930s: the Pittsburgh Courier and George Morton

12:00 PM Lunch Break

1:45 PM Business Meeting

What Lies Beneath

Chair: Anna Stephan-Robinson (West Liberty University)

  • Codee Spinner (The University of Pittsburgh) - Uncovering the Monstrous in Rameau’s Platée, 1745
  • Ashley Sherman (The University of Pittsburgh) - Creation of Interiority in Franz Schubert’s Einsamkeit, D. 620

“That…is the sound of inevitability”

Chair: Mark Durrand (The University of Akron)

  • Claire Zavolta (Cargenie Mellon University)- Summus Finis: The Prevalence of Fate in the Chosen Texts of Carl Orff
  • Megan Woller (Gannon University) - Adaptation and the Musical Retelling of Arthurian Legend

Abstracts:

Gui Hwan Lee: Commenting on the Belle Époque and Our Time Through Historical Styles: Joe Hisaishi’s Original Score for Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Hayao Miyazaki’s animated adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’s novel, drew a scholarly attention to its initiative anti-war message: does that disrupt the narrative, or comment on the Iraq War of the time? I argue that Joe Hisaishi’s soundtrack in historical styles invites us to re-read the film as a coherent commentary on the crisis of the belle époque through the Great War. Indeed, the film may lead us to overlap the past with our time—another belle époque, thus implying that our optimistic world cannot be secured without pacifist counteractions to military tensions.    

Phoebe Hughes: Morton Feldman’s The King of Denmark (1964): Existentialism through Large-Scale Analysis

Morton Feldman’s The King of Denmark (1964) comes from the middle portion of his career, and is one of but a few graph notation pieces from this point in his life. The King of Denmark or, The King as Feldman referred to it, contains an interesting blend of his iconic graph notation, extended techniques and sounds for multi-percussion setup, and detailed historical and philosophical underpinnings. This analysis hopes to shed light and expand on the ways in which The King shows Feldman’s blending of Abstract Expressionist and Existential philosophy with a complex piece of music about a historical figure.

Peter Graff: Staging Dual Patriotism: Cleveland’s German-Language Theater and the Great War

The First World War was a period of heightened scrutiny and antagonism toward German Americans. Amid proposed bans on German cultural products, the staging of musicals for the German-American stage became an increasingly political act. In this paper, I analyze the wartime programming trends of Cleveland’s Deutsches Theater—the city’s only German-language venue—and examine the musical themes and dramatic narratives of four war-themed works. Drawing on production materials and firsthand accounts, I chart the evolving public image projected by Cleveland’s German community. My findings reveal a conflicted community caught between American patriotism and German cultural pride.

Christopher Wilkinson: A “Moment” in the History of Big Band Dance Music in West Virginia during the 1930s: The Pittsburgh Courier and George Morton

From 1935 to 1939, George Morton, Joe Glazer’s booker for West Virginia, assisted by an organization called Universal Promoters, staged numerous dances in the state’s southern coal fields for black Mountaineers.  The Pittsburgh Courier identified bands that came to West Virginia (led by Hines, Kirk, Lunceford, and Webb, among others); where they played; who handled local arrangements. A family acquaintance on the newspaper’s staff ensured extensive and detailed coverage, including information that has enabled discovery of the occupations and social class of the Universal Promoters themselves and sheds light on the political power black Mountaineers enjoyed during the 1930s.   

Codee Spinner: Uncovering the Monstrous in Rameau’s Platée, 1745

Rameau’s 1745 opera, Platée, focuses on a vain swamp nymph who bears the brunt of a joke orchestrated by the god, Jupiter. Though depicted as hideous and conceited, the titular character is not considered a monster within the context of the opera. Like the characters Médée and Meduse, Platée does not conform to the feminine demeanor that contemporary French audiences expected. Referring to contemporary conventions, such as bienseance—the level of decorum that was expected to be exerted by characters of a certain social position—I demonstrate how Platée functions as a monster akin to the infamous Meudse and Médée.

Ashley Sherman: Creation of Interiority in Franz Schubert’s Einsamkeit, D. 620

Distilled Abstract: Franz Schubert often captures a unique sense of his characters looking inward, causing listeners to do the same. In this paper, Einsamkeit D. 620 serves as a case study on how this composer creates interiority in his works. Schubert’s setting of Johann Mayrhofer’s poem does this through musical techniques such as use of topoi, word painting, and particular tonal movements. Specific sections of the music are examined in respect to the above characteristics, alongside a discussion of how these are used to create a sense of interiority through ideas of the past and present.

Claire H. Zavolta: Summus Finis: The Prevalence of Fate in the Chosen Texts of Carl Orff

Carl Orff’s worldview as evidenced through his chosen texts exhibits a burgeoning fatalistic motivation. The consequence of this belief in fate’s inevitability for Orff personally is stated most clearly in the epigraph for Orff’s De Temporum Fine de Comoedia, a quotation from Greek theologian Origen: “The end of all things will be the annulment of all offenses” (248 A.D.). Carl Orff’s trajectory brings into question the relationship between the artist and the art, namely how to resolve the internal conflicts of an artist’s psyche with their output.

Megan Woller, PhD: Adaptation and the Musical Retelling of Arthurian Legend

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical Camelot (1960 stage; 1967 film) takes T.H. White’s The Once and Future King (1958) as its source material. The musicalization of Arthurian legend comments on and presents the story in a new light. This paper considers the alterations made from White’s novelization to the stage musical and finally the film. The musical’s characterization gives the main characters a specific voice through song. Moreover, the stage and film productions treat the issue of Guenevere and Lancelot’s infidelity in distinct ways, affecting the audience’s understanding of the tale of King Arthur and his court.