Publications, Papers, Presentations

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BOOKS

BASSOONIST BIBLIOGRAPHIC PROJECT

  • Co-editor & research assistant on this project initially started by William Waterhouse and Lyndesay G. Langwill, and later completed (and edited) by Jim Kopp.
  • Research, translation, and transcription of handwritten notes by Waterhouse and Langwill on European bassoonists active between 1750 and 1950.
  • Published by the International Double Reed Society (2016)

THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOX

  • Editor, designer, lead researcher on this compilation of the work of Kirk Knox, whose 50-year career covering news, sports, and celebrity happenings in Cheyenne, Wyoming came to a close in 2001. Oversaw marketing campaign; sold 75% of the initial run pre-release.

DISSERTATION

BUILDING BLOCKS OF A NATIONAL STYLE: AN EXAMINATION OF TOPICS AND GESTURES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN MUSIC AS EXEMPLIFIED IN SCOTT JOPLIN’S TREEMONISHA (August 2017)

A series of articles is being prepared for publication in 2018-2019 in support of this seminal work. Subject areas include:

  • Topics in American Music
  • What makes American music “American”
  • What makes American music exotic to European listeners
  • Musical topics identified in Joplin solo piano rags
  • Musical topics identified in Joplin’s opera Treemonisha
  • New evidence from leading ragtime scholars provides a fuller understanding of Joplin and his music

Case studies involving the music of prominent composers not included in the dissertation are forthcoming. See “Dissertation” for an abstract or further information.

PROGRAM NOTES

Professional annotator since 1980. Notes have appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New Orleans Symphony, and other orchestras across the U.S. Academic clients include UNC Symphony and UNC Opera.

 PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

THE ROSSINI BASSOON CONCERTO — CONCERTO DA ESPERIMENTO

  • Authentication issues and practical concerns regarding an historically informed performance of a newly discovered work. An examination of the published score and historic documents useful in proving authorship. Includes original cadenzas, comments from discovery team. Research continued after presentation of this paper along a number of lines. (May 2006)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show featuring an overview of the concerto’s discovery, leading figures associated with the work, promising areas for further research, and a number of handouts related not only to the work, but to the process of how a newly discovered work might be authenticated.
  • Presentation also includes an additional 10 years of research, including new evidence and arguments related to the work. Comments from members of the discovery team as well as prominent bassoonists are also included.
  • An update to this paper is forthcoming.

“FUME FUMEUX” BY SOLAGE: JUST WHAT WAS HE SMOKING?

  • In search of meaning: An examination of Ars Subtilior music and drug use in Medieval France as illustrated in the life and the music of Solage. (April 2010)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show featuring illuminated manuscripts, Ars Subtilior manuscripts, and details on leading figures in the arts in the royal French and papal courts (including Avignon) in the final decades of the Medieval Era.

CARNIVAL MUSIC IN 14TH CENTURY FLORENCE: SACRED AND SECULAR SONGS IN THE DECADES IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THE THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

  • An examination of secular and sacred songs for Carnival Season under Lorenzo d’Medici and Friar Girolama Savonarola. (May 2011)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show, recordings, scores, melodies with original and contrefactum lyrics, and historic and modern-era art depicting Florentine Carnival celebrations. A YouTube video of Josquin’s motet, Miserere mei Deus, is also included in the presentation as the noted Franco-Flemish composer wrote that work in response to the friar’s execution in 1498. The lyrics are based on the friar’s favorite prayer and text written on the eve of the friar’s death. Martin Luther launched the Reformation 15 years later.

JAN DISMAS ZELENKA AND HIS TRIO SONATA V

  • An examination of music at the Dresden Elector’s Court provides leads into why and for whom he wrote this work. Includes information gleaned from royal payroll records, period biographies of Dresden players, and other historic documents. Contributions and influences from the Court of Louis XIV also provided. (Jan. 2011)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show, period and modern instrument recordings, and handouts detailing pitch levels, the availability and development of double reed instruments (number of keys, introduction into Dresden society, etc.), player profiles, and salaries in modern dollars. Possible reasons for Zelenka’s disappearance and the location of his manuscripts are also included in the talk.
  • An update to this paper is forthcoming as are translations into French and Spanish (tentative release, June 2018). 

THE HARPSICHORD MUSIC OF JACQUES CHAMPION DE CHAMBONIERES

  • Contributions of the Court of Louis XIV to music: Evolution of the Baroque keyboard suite. (April 2013)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show, recordings, and handouts showing the evolution and assembly of French keyboard suites at this time.

MICHEL CORRETTE AND LE PHENIX: TOWARD A MORE HISTORICALLY INFORMED PERFORMANCE PRACTICE OF THIS MASTERPIECE OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE

  • A side-by-side comparison of published and HIP-manuscripts demonstrate for modern performers how to give music of the French Baroque its unique “swing.” (in process, tentative release, Fall 2018)
  • Score and parts showing HIP rhythms, figured bass realizations, and interpretative figures will be published in conjunction with this article, which will be offered later this year to “The Double Reed,” the official journal of the International Double Reed Society. Companion articles in French and Spanish are expected be released at the same time.

THE PRESERVATION OF LOST MANUSCRIPTS THROUGH PARODIES

  • An examination of J.S. Bach, his life, employment contracts, and music, in particular the connections between his Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor and other works, some now lost. Performance practice issues include insights from noted harpsichordists and violinists. (Oct. 2009) 
  • Presentation includes recordings of the concerto and related works and demonstrations of string writing in this work for solo harpsichord.

MUSIC OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: MUSIC AS A TOOL OF PROPAGANDA 

  • An examination of the role music played in shaping not only public policy in France between 1789 and 1810, but also musical topics and compositional directions in music during the 19th century. Collaborations between composers and poets are explored as are contrasts in how music was used by the Crown and Revolutionaries. Includes the identification of musical topics further developed in the 19th century through specific fin de siècle songs and other musical works. (May 2010)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show, recordings of Revolutionary songs that later became topical references, and scores showing where musical references to this period can be found.

LOUIS MOREAU GOTTSCHALK AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALISM THROUGHOUT THE NEW WORLD

  • An in-depth examination of Gottschalk and the role he and his music played in the development of national styles in the U.S., Cuba, Mexico, and South and Central America. Includes details on the use of folk songs, dance rhythms, and other musical elements the composer incorporated into his own music. Information about Gottschalk’s associations with specific musicians and the influence those musicians and their students had on 19th and 20th century music is prominently featured. Musical topics found in Gottschalk’s works and his contributions on the later development of jazz are identified and discussed throughout, as are his relationships with American composers and critics of the mid-19th century. (Dec. 2012)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show, recordings, and handouts regarding the music of Gottschalk and his contemporaries.
  • An update of this paper with greater elaboration on Gottschalk’s associates is a priority for 2019-2020.

FUNERALS WITH MUSIC: AN EXAMINATION OF DEATH RITUALS AND FUNERAL PARADES IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

  • The transition from funeral parades held during Louisiana’s colonial period to the present-day jazz funeral shows more than the passing of time. A survey of prominent melodies, performance practices, and threats to the continuation of this centuries-old local tradition in the late 19th century and continuing to the present. (April 2011)
  • Presentation includes a 30-minute Powerpoint show featuring YouTube videos of historic and contemporary jazz funerals.

THE MUSIC OF IGNATZ PLEYEL: WHO WAS THE MAN BEHIND “PLEYEL’S HYMN”?

  • An informal presentation on the life, work, and music of Ignatz Pleyel, composer. Geared to non-musicians as well as to members of Masonic Orders, this after-dinner talk introduces the composer and his family, provides details on the family’s role in 18th and 19th century music and traces how “Pleyel’s Hymn” came to be sung at the close of Masonic meetings in both Europe and the U.S. (Nov. 2009)
  • Presentation includes 30-minute Powerpoint show and recordings of the composer’s music, including, of course, “Pleyel’s Hymn.”