The international attention Ukraine has received in the 270 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its sovereign neighbor is unprecedented. The world has never before shown such support for and interest in Ukrainian culture, including the world of the performing arts. Countless benefit concerts have been organized by high-profile orchestras,… Read More
Protesters chanting “Ricky Renuncia” outside the Governor’s Mansion during summer protests of 2019 in Puerto Rico. Photo courtesy of Ricardo Alcaraz. On July 24, 2019, Puerto Rico, “the oldest colony in the world,” achieved the unimaginable in ousting Governor Ricky Rosselló from office. In an unprecedented manner, the social movement… Read More
What of music in the time of war? It is not a new question, but a question whose answers unfold along complex and specific paths. In the eighteen days since the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, music and musicians have been part of many of this… Read More
[Ed. Note: This essay is the first in a series of inauguration-related posts leading up to the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017. Each author of these essays will participate in a “live-blog” event during the course of inauguration day itself here on Musicology Now.]… Read More
by Benjamin Givan Some years ago, Sony Classical re-released both of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould’s recordings of J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) on a three-CD set. Along with remastered discs of Gould’s classic 1955 performance and his valedictory rendition of 1981, the reissue’s producers added some out-takes… Read More
by Mark Clague NOTE: The most recent lecture in the series co-sponsored by the American Musicological Society and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum took place on 25 March 2015. Mark Clague’s title was “’This Is America’: Jimi Hendrix’s Reimaginings of the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ as Social… Read More
It is, finally, the 200th birthday of the Star-Spangled Banner. Big doings in Baltimore, of course. There were no respondents to our challenge to ascertain the connection, if any, between Francis Scott Key and musicologist Susan Key. Offer ended. Still, we… Read More
by Mark Clague As we approach the September 14, 2014, bicentennial of the United States national anthem, online resources about the anthem’s history are multiplying. Such replication in the case of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is encouraging, but it also raises a concern when the sheer volume of information obscures reliable… Read More