News & Updates

The Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society will hold its spring meeting on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at West Virginia University. The program committee invites proposals for individual papers, lecture-recitals, seminar panels, or other presentation formats on any subject of musicological interest. Following the conference, participants will have the opportunity to attend a concert featuring the Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble VOCES8 at 7:30pm in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre. Please submit an abstract of up to 300 words along with the proposed title and presentation format to graffp [at] denison.edu by Saturday, February 1st. We encourage proposal submissions for a number of scholarly presentation formats. In accordance with AMS policies, please follow these guidelines: 1. Individual papers should be no longer than 20 minutes with 10 minutes of discussion. 2. “Lightning” sessions consist of individual 8-10 minute talks with additional discussion or media. Entire session will fill a one-hour slot. 3. Video presentation abstracts should include information on the goals and format of the presentation. Additional guidelines will be distributed with acceptance. 4. Seminar panels will distribute written papers ahead of the conference and include extended discussion of the topic. See AMS Seminar FAQ for additional information on proposing a topic and why to choose this format: https://www.amsmusicology.org/page/MinneapolisSeminarFAQ 5. Additional formats (workshops, roundtables, lecture-recitals) should fill an hour and 20-minute slot. Please identify session format, musicological significance, and participant roles in the abstract. *Students are also eligible for the annual Deane L. Root Student Paper Award, sponsored by the Center for American Music in the University of Pittsburgh Library System. The Award consists of a $250 monetary prize and will be named at the end of the conference. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for this prize in the body of your email. The Chapter also offers limited support for travel and lodging to student presenters. Details can be found on the AMS Allegheny website. All submissions will be evaluated by a blind peer-review process, and those from a committee member’s immediate colleagues or students will not be forwarded by the chair to that member. For information on the chapter and upcoming events, see: https://amsallegheny.wordpress.com/

Over the past two decades, Brian Harnetty has located historical recordings that document spoken words and musical performance in archives across Appalachia and the Midwest, including the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives (Berea, Kentucky), the Little Cities of Black Diamonds Archive (Shawnee, Ohio), and the Thomas Merton Collection (Louisville, Kentucky). In this talk, Harnetty will discuss strategies by which people in the present relate to recorded sounds that document the past. Through listening with people who live today in the communities where the recordings were made, Harnetty has helped these communities understand and respond to their histories. In this talk he explores themes from several recording, performance, and installation projects that embed old audio in new contexts, playing illustrative examples from historic and present-day audio and video recordings. These projects document histories of extraction in Appalachia, social and environmental justice concerns, and contemplative practices. This talk will be held in conjunction with Brian Harnetty’s residency as part of the Music Humanities Community Conversations Series at Appalachian State University. The Music Humanities Community Conversation Series provides a forum for students, faculty, and staff at Appalachian State University and community members to engage current topics in music humanities through invited talks and workshops given by scholars, artists, and cultural leaders from Appalachian State and the surrounding region. Attendees may park in the Schaefer Lot, Broyhill Lot, or Peacock Lot for free from 5:00pm to the end of the event. The Broyhill Music Center is at 813 Rivers St, Boone, NC, 28608. Click the button below to watch the livestream. Livestream  

Whether we’re watching Stop Making Sense for the 100th time, catching The Eras Tour in a packed movie theater, or tuning into Coachella live on YouTube, today we take for granted that we can see live concerts recorded for screens big and small. But in the 1960s, there was no set answer to the question of how to capture a concert on film, or what to even do with such a product once it’s been made. In 1964, the concert film The T.A.M.I. Show gave young America a stunning answer, showcasing on large movie screens an eclectic medley of performers including the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, the Supremes, and an electrifying set by James Brown. The T.A.M.I. Show opened a path for more concert documentaries to be made and find their audiences, but it was also a unique moment in American popular music history. Join Landon Palmer as he uncovers the curious story of The T.A.M.I. Show, one that involves William Shakespeare, strange television technologies, and a very short-lived charity organization. In this talk, he’ll explain how this movie came to exist and why there’s never been anything quite like it since. This event will be held as part of the AMS Many Musics of America Project and the AMS/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Lecture Series.