American Musicological Society

The American Musicological Society is a musicological organization founded in 1934 to advance scholarly research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship. It grew out of a small contingent of the Music Teachers National Association and, more directly, the New York Musicological Society (1930–1934). Its founders were George S. Dickinson, Carl Engel, Gustave Reese, Helen Heffron Roberts, Joseph Schillinger, Charles Seeger, Harold Spivacke, Oliver Strunk, and Joseph Yasser. Its first president was Otto Kinkeldey, the first American to receive an appointment as professor of musicology (Cornell University, 1930).

Overview[]

The society consists of individual members divided among fifteen regional chapters across the United States, Canada, and elsewhere, as well as subscribing institutions. It was admitted to the American Council of Learned Societies in 1951, and participates in the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales and the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale.

The society's annual meetings consist of presentations, symposia, and concerts, as well as more-or-less informal meetings of numerous related musical societies. Many of the society's awards, prizes and fellowships are announced at these meetings.

Publications[]

Most of the society's resources are dedicated to musicological publications: the triannual Journal of the American Musicological Society (1948-present) published by the University of California Press. The journal was preceded by the annual Bulletin (1936–1947) and the annual Papers (1936–1941). Online versions of these publications are available at JSTOR and the University of California Press.

Other studies and documents published by the society include the complete works of William Billings, edited by Karl Kroeger et al. (4 vols, 1977–1990), the series Music of the United States of America (1993–present),^[1] Johannes Ockeghem's collected works edited by Dragan Plamenac and Richard Wexler (3 vols., 1966, 1992), John Dunstaple's complete works edited by Manfred Bukofzer, published jointly with Musica Britannica (1970), Joseph Kerman's The Elizabethan Madrigal (1962),^[2] E. R. Reilly's Quantz and his Versuch (1971), E. H. Sparks's The Music of Noel Bauldeweyn (1972), Essays in Musicology: a Tribute to edited by Lewis Lockwood and Edward Roesner (1990),^[3] and, in conjunction with the International Musicological Society, Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology edited by C. D. Adkins and A. Dickinson in succession to Helen Hewitt (1952, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1971, 1977, 1984 [first cumulative edition], 1990, 1996 [second series, second cumulative edition]).^[4] (Brunswick, 2011)

List of presidents[]

See also[]

• Music history of the United States

References[]

Further reading[]

• Oliver Strunk: State and Resources of Musicology in the United States, ACLS Bulletin 19 (1932)
• Arthur Mendel, Curt Sachs, and Carroll C. Pratt: Some Aspects of Musicology (New York, 1957)
• B. S. Brook, ed.: American Musicological Society, Greater New York Chapter: a Programmatic History 1935-1965 (New York, c1965)
• W. J. Mitchell: "A Hitherto Unknown--or a Recently Discovered...," Musicology and the Computer, ed. B. S. Brook (New York, 1970), 1-8
• Richard Crawford: The American Musicological Society 1934-1984. An Anniversary Essay (Philadelphia, 1984)
• Celebrating the American Musicological Society at Seventy-Five

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to American Musicological Society.

• Official website
• American Musicological Society oral history collection, 1996-present, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
• American Musicological Society supplementary records, 1950-2003 (bulk 1980-2003), Ms. Coll. 645, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
• Journal of the American Musicological Society records, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania