1. In the beginning … Myth and meaning in world music

‘In the beginning … Myth and meaning in world music’ looks at world music’s real and imagined beginnings. These origins are documented in European missionaries’ observations of indigenous peoples and represented by the first musicians in religious and philosophical writings. Ideas about music in different cultures may be irreconcilable, and some have no word for music at all. Ethnomusicologists like Charles Seeger explored the problem of using words to describe music, although words may not properly convey it. Today’s world music stars bring the past into the present through performance, reliving the moment of encounter and discovery in collaborations spanning the globe.

Latin/Pan-American Music

This chapter explains the pan-American absorption of Latin Americanism during World War II and the inception of the “world music” discourse that led to the creation of UNESCO. It focuses on the work of Charles Seeger as director of the Pan American Union’s Music Division from the years leading to the United States entry into the war to the immediate postwar years. The chapter analyzes a host of actors and initiatives, by the Pan American Union and other music-related associations, that influenced the consolidation of Latin American music and inter-Americanism as fields of musicological and educational practice. It illuminates the place of Latin American music in the convergence of nationalist traditions, hemispheric rhetoric, and global horizons among musicological and diplomatic actors as World War II came to an end.

New Musical Resources

New Musical Resources is a book written by Henry Cowell in 1919, unpublished until 1930. In it, Cowell proposes a theory of musical relativity in which pitch, rhythm, and the progress of music history are grounded through reference to the structure of the overtone series: the "living essence from which musicality springs." Ethnomusicologist Charles Seeger encouraged a young Cowell to rationalize the compositional tools he had been developing, which ultimately led to the creation of this book. In the book’s first section, Cowell presents the development of Western harmony as progressive upward movement through the overtone series. He suggests the continuation of this same logic into chords based on the ratios beyond the minor seconds that he was using to create "cluster chords." His rhythm chapter proposes the whole-note as the basic unit of time, encouraging division beyond the standard multiples of two into the next numbers in the harmonic series—creating third-notes, fifth notes, etc. This method enables the composition of rhythmic patterns that rely on the same ratios as are present between various melodic and harmonic intervals. Many American composers—notably Conlon Nancarrow—have utilized Cowell’s concepts, which predate the development of similar ideas in integral serialism by several decades.

Relativización de la importancia de la partitura en la educación musical: unas consecuencias pedagógicas

RESUMENEl texto plantea una mirada crítica al papel actual de la partitura convencional occidental dentro de la educación musical formal y, propone, a partir de una reflexión sobre el carácter ontológico de la partitura como herramienta de uso descriptivo y prescriptivo (siguiendo la propuesta del musicólogo Charles Seeger), tres consecuencias pedagógicas que se desprenden de relativizar la importancia de la partitura en los tiempos actuales: ampliar la noción de notación musical, privilegiar una educación musical sonoro-corporal, y hacer un uso mayor de las nuevas tecnologías de grabación y reproducción en el aula. La conclusión es que una relativización de la partitura debe llevarnos a una educación musical necesariamente menos racionalizada y más sonoro-corporal, menos leída y más vivida.PALABRAS CLAVEMúsica, educación musical, partituras, pedagogía.RELATED TO SCORE SIGNIFICANCE IN MUSICAL EDUCATION: SOME PEDAGOGICAL CONSEQUENCESABSTRACTThis written piece of work proposes a critic look at the actual role the occidental conventional score has in the formal education level. Moreover, following Charles Seeger’s musicologist proposal, this text also intends to show a reflection on the ontological character of scores as a tool of descriptive and prescriptive use, resulting three pedagogical consequences appearing from making the score importance relative at present. In other words, widening the musical notation notion, giving privilege to a resonant-corporal musical education, and insisting on a better use of technologies in recording and reproduction techniques in the classroom. As a final point, it is important to highlight that making the score importance relative can lead us to a resonantcorporal education instead of to a rationalized one which consequently may not be widely read but lived. KEY WORDSMusic, musical education, scores, pedagogy. RELATIVIZACIÓN AJAI MINISTIDU IACHACHINGAPA TUNAPI TUKUIKUNATA KAWANCHINGAPAMAILLALLACHISKA Ninakumi imasami kawankuna mana allilla kai kilkaita,tukuikuna iachachispa allilla kaachispa parlaspa kusaikuna suti intilógia sug rurai ministdu sug runa suti Charles Seeger, rimariska pai iachachi kallarigapa tukui munaskakunata tunai rurangapa Maskaspa iachachingapa kunauramanda kunata, kachu mas kilkaska kausaskata parlachukuna Chasa allilla kawaringami.RIMANGAPA MINISTISKAKUNATunai tunangapa ichachii, ruraikuna pintai allilla kawaspa iachaikui.RELATIVITÉ DE L’IMPORTANCE DE LA PARTITION DANS L’ÉDUCATION MUSICALE. LES CONSÉQUENCES PÉDAGOGIQUESRÉSUMÉLe texte propose un regard critique au rôle actuel de la partition conventionnelle d’occident dans l’éducation musicale formelle. Formule á partir de la réflexion sur le caractère ontologique de la partition comme un outil d’usage descriptif et prescriptif (en suivant la proposition du musicologue Charles SEEGER) Trois conséquences pédagogiques qui se détachent de relativiser l’importance de la partition actuellement : 1) Élargir la connaissance de notation musicale, 2) Privilégier une éducation musicale sonore-corporelle et 3) Faire une utilisation plus vaste des technologies d’enregistrement dans la salle de classe. En conclusion, une relativisation de la partition doit nous verser à une éducation musicale moins rationalisée et plus sonore-corporelle, moins lue et plus vécue.MOTS CLÉSMusique, éducation en musique, partition, pédagogie.

Johanna Beyer

Composer Johanna Beyer's fascinating body of music and enigmatic life story constitute an important chapter in American music history. As a hard-working German émigré piano teacher and accompanist living in and around New York City during the New Deal era, she composed plentiful music for piano, percussion ensemble, chamber groups, choir, band, and orchestra. A one-time student of Ruth Crawford, Charles Seeger, and Henry Cowell, Beyer was an ultramodernist, and an active member of a community that included now-better-known composers and musicians. Only one of her works was published and only one recorded during her lifetime. But contemporary musicians who play Beyer's compositions are intrigued by her originality. This book chronicles Beyer's life from her early participation in New York's contemporary music scene through her performances at the Federal Music Project's Composers' Forum-Laboratory concerts to her unfortunate early death in 1944. This book is a portrait of a passionate and creative woman underestimated by her music community even as she tirelessly applied her gifts with compositional rigor. The first book-length study of the composer's life and music, it reclaims a uniquely innovative artist and body of work for a new generation.

In the Tradition of Dissent

As an institution of higher learning, the New School for Social Research was widely regarded as unorthodox. From its inception in 1919, its guiding principle was freedom: freedom of opinion, of teaching, of research, of publication. Initially focusing on the social sciences, by 1927 it introduced music as a significant part of that program. The School's social science perspective, its educational unorthodoxies, and its liberal philosophical ideals set a distinctive tone, nurturing an unfettered and accepting haven for a progressive community of musical personalities. Most prominent among them stood Henry Cowell, but Paul Rosenfeld, Aaron Copland, Charles Seeger, and others also contributed to the vitality of the School. From 1927 until 1933, Cowell presided over a program of lectures, concerts, symposia, and workshops dedicated to the cause of contemporary American music. In view of the School's adult population, music was treated primarily as an intellectual and cultural pursuit that stimulated new spheres of musical inquiry. At the same time, the influence of the social sciences encouraged the study of music through the political and social lens of culture. The diversity and singularity of these approaches created a new context for music and a significant contribution to the history of US musical culture.

The Origins of “Dissonant Counterpoint”: Henry Cowell's Unpublished Notebook

Housed in the Henry Cowell Papers at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is Cowell's unpublished notebook that comprises written instructions for using “dissonant counterpoint” along with forty-three exercises. Beyond providing information about the technique during its early development (1914–17), the archival source documents Cowell's active involvement in devising a compositional practice that has heretofore been exclusively attributed to Charles Seeger. The notebook also provides evidence of Cowell's work habits and values that challenge current scholarly depictions of the composer as an undisciplined bohemian. He was a systematic and tenacious innovator who revered tradition as well as experimental techniques. He also placed a strong emphasis on the practical application of new ideas in addition to their theoretical development. These traits account for Cowell's continued advocacy on behalf of dissonant counterpoint that extended well beyond the time he compiled his notebook. From the 1910s to the 1960s he disseminated the technique through his writing, composing, and teaching, and thus provided a life for dissonant counterpoint in American musical culture through the end of the twentieth century. Appendix B contains a full transcription of the notebook.