Sound Expertise

Sound Expertise LIVE with Jonathan Bailey Holland Nov 19, 2024

We did it! Sound Expertise recorded its first-ever live episode at the American Musicological Society conference in Chicago. It was a super-fun event with a raucous crowd. Please enjoy this thoughtful conversation with Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean of Northwestern's Bienen School of Music, about his path as a composer and what it means to oversee a music school at a transformative moment.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Engaging Black Opera with Naomi André Nov 12, 2024

Naomi André is one of the most important scholars of opera today, best known for her landmark 2018 book Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement. But the study of opera and race is not where Professor Andre’s career began: her path through musicology has been incredibly fraught, because of who she is, and what she wanted to do as a scholar. This week's conversation is difficult but necessary, for registering how exclusionary the field of musicology once was, and what work still has to be done.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

ALSO, we're going to be at the American Musicological Society conference in Chicago this week!!
Friday, Nov 15, 11:45am: Sound Expertise LIVE! The American Composer and the Future of the Conservatory with Jonathan Bailey Holland.
What does it mean to compose in America today, while overseeing a major cultural institution in flux? For this special live taping of the podcast Sound Expertise, host Will Robin interviews composer Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, to answer these crucial questions. (Accessible only to those registered for the conference)

Friday, Nov 15, 8pm: A hang for friends and fans of the pod, at 2Twenty2 Tavern right by the conference hotel. Come by anytime between 8 and 9:30 or so and say hi, and also goodbye!

Taylor Swift Studies with Christa Bentley, Kate Galloway, and Paula Harper Nov 05, 2024

Everybody's studying Taylor Swift these days, from Swifties decoding her vault to YouTubers decoding her harmonies to right-wing conspiracists decoding her plot against America. But what does it mean to study Taylor Swift as a musicologist? Christa Bentley, Kate Galloway, and Paula Harper know: they're co-editing Taylor Swift: The Star, the Songs, the Fans, a book of essays out next year. This week: a conversation about what it means to study the cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift, and what Taylor can tell us about musicology today.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

ALSO, we're going to be at the American Musicological Society conference in Chicago soon!
Friday, Nov 15, 11:45am: Sound Expertise LIVE! The American Composer and the Future of the Conservatory with Jonathan Bailey Holland.
What does it mean to compose in America today, while overseeing a major cultural institution in flux? For this special live taping of the podcast Sound Expertise, host Will Robin interviews composer Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, to answer these crucial questions. (Accessible only to those registered for the conference)

Friday, Nov 15, 8pm: A hang for friends and fans of the pod, at 2Twenty2 Tavern right by the conference hotel. Come by anytime between 8 and 9:30 or so and say hi, and also goodbye!

Listening to the 2024 Election with Dana Gorzelany-Mostak Oct 29, 2024

Election Day is approaching, and both presidential candidates have been foregrounding music, from Kamala Harris walking out Beyoncé's "Freedom" to Donald Trump...dancing for 30 minutes to "Memory" from Cats. It's been a weird, and terrifying, campaign season. But music can help us make sense of it, according to musicologist Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, who runs the project "Trax on the Trail." In this conversation, we discuss the sound and spectacle of this turbulent moment: how do Harris's playlists and Trump's dance parties define the candidates to voters, and what do they say about the state of American democracy?
Dana Gorzelany-Mostak is an Associate Professor of Music at Georgia College & State University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

ALSO, we're going to be at the American Musicological Society conference in Chicago soon!
Friday, Nov 15, 11:45am: Sound Expertise LIVE! The American Composer and the Future of the Conservatory with Jonathan Bailey Holland.
What does it mean to compose in America today, while overseeing a major cultural institution in flux? For this special live taping of the podcast Sound Expertise, host Will Robin interviews composer Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, to answer these crucial questions. (Accessible only to those registered for the conference)

Friday, Nov 15, 8pm: A hang for friends and fans of the pod, at 2Twenty2 Tavern right by the conference hotel. Come by anytime between 8 and 9:30 or so and say hi, and also goodbye!

Florence Price's Chicago with Samantha Ege Oct 22, 2024

Florence Price was exceptional, but she was not singular. In the fascinating new book "South Side Impresarios," musicologist Samantha Ege situates Price amidst multiple generations of Black women who transformed Chicago into a Black classical metropolis. In this conversation, we discuss the city and community that built Price, including the pivotal figures Nora Holt and Maude Roberts George, as well Dr. Ege's own work as a scholar, pianist, and advocate for this powerful lineage.
Samantha Ege is an award-winning researcher and musicologist, internationally recognized concert pianist, and popular public speaker.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

The Future of Opera with Yuval Sharon Oct 15, 2024

Welcome to Season 4 of Sound Expertise! Opera is a four-hundred-year-old genre, and it often looks and sounds that way: despite opera's revolutionary merging of artistic disciplines, its administrators and musicians are often stuck in the past. But in his visionary productions, the director Yuval Sharon has imagined many potential futures for the art form; this conversation, about his new book, reveals where he thinks opera needs to go next, and why. Plus, a discussion of his highly-anticipated Ring cycle for the Metropolitan Opera!
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Season 4 Trailer!! Oct 08, 2024

WE'RE SO BACK. Our fourth and final season begins October 15. Seeya then!
soundexpertise.org

Music Theory's Racism Problem with Philip Ewell Aug 29, 2023

Philip Ewell has, in recent years, become the most controversial music scholar on the planet. After his incisive work on music theory's white racial frame was unfairly attacked by fellow academics, he was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight, as right-wing news outlets targeted him as part of a broader backlash. A discussion about what it means to be caught up in the Culture Wars, racism in music scholarship, and how Dr. Ewell has grappled with it all.
Philip Ewell is professor of music theory at Hunter College of the City University of New York.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

The Science of Silence with Chaz Firestone Aug 22, 2023

Do we hear silence? John Cage certainly thought so, and so does Chaz Firestone, a scientist whose laboratory's recent study revealed that yes, we do hear silence. In this conversation, we discuss his new findings, what they mean for the fields of perception studies and philosophy, and how science and the humanities can work together to provide new answers to longstanding questions.
Chaz Firestone is Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Hopkins Perception & Mind Laboratory at John Hopkins
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Curating Black Musical History with Dwandalyn Reece Aug 15, 2023

In curating music and the performing arts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Dwandalyn Reece has one of the most important jobs one can have as a music scholar: providing a framework for the public to understand African-American culture, at a moment in which Black history is under a nationwide assault. In this conversation, Dr. Reece discusses her work at the Smithsonian, the process of acquiring important artifacts of Black musical life, and the museum's significance today.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Hip-Hop and Friendship on Death Row with Alim Braxton and Mark Katz Aug 08, 2023

Mark Katz is John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at UNC Chapel Hill; Alim Braxton is a rapper on death row, who has been incarcerated in Central Prison in North Carolina since 1993. In 2019, they struck up a correspondence, and then a friendship, and are now writing a book. This is their story.

Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Reviving Julius Eastman with Mary Jane Leach Aug 01, 2023

The revival of Julius Eastman's work has transformed the world of avant-garde music, and in many ways can be attributed to a single individual. Since the late 1990s, the composer and performer Mary Jane Leach has collected manuscripts and recordings of Eastman's music, and helped bring about the current wave of "Eastmania." But the politics of Eastmania have become increasingly complicated, and Leach has found herself enmeshed in controversy around who can make claim to his legacy. A conversation about all that, and more.

Mary Jane Leach is a composer, performer, scholar, and co-editor of "Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music."
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Doing Public Musicology with Douglas Shadle Jul 25, 2023

In 2018, Douglas Shadle tweeted about systemic discrimination in American orchestral programming. His thread went viral, and he soon found himself doing what became known, around then, as public musicology. In this conversation, he talks about presenting his work outside the academy through advocating for marginalized composers, and what the Florence Price revival has meant for his scholarship (and, more troublingly, how Schirmer's acquisition of her music may actually prevent it from being heard).
Douglas Shadle is associate professor of musicology at Vanderbilt University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Bach Scandals, Jug Bands, and Vexations with Joshua Rifkin Jul 18, 2023

In his long career as a scholar and conductor, Joshua Rifkin has done a lot: arranged for Judy Collins, performed in the first-ever marathon of "Vexations," helped lead the ragtime revival and, perhaps most importantly, totally upended the conventional wisdom about Bach's choral music. This is a conversation about all of that, and more: rich, insightful, and scandalous stories about one of the most fascinating lives a music scholar can lead. (Including: getting tipsy with John Cage, playing in a jug band, and fighting an entire generation of Bach scholars.)
Joshua Rifkin is an acclaimed conductor and scholar.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

What Bossa Nova Means with Kaleb Goldschmitt Jul 11, 2023

Bossa nova is everywhere –– from a dance craze in the '60s to elevator music today -- but it's also from somewhere. Kaleb Goldschmitt studies how bossa nova moved from a specific musical tradition grounded in Brazilian culture to an international phenomenon, and what that means for how we understand jazz history. A conversation about all that and more, including how queer and trans musicians and scholars are navigating post-Bolsonaro Brazil.
Kaleb Goldschmitt is Associate Professor of Music at Wellesley College
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Appropriation and Indigenous Music with Dylan Robinson Jul 04, 2023

When classical composers incorporate indigenous music into their work, it's more than just cultural appropriation, because indigenous songs are more than just songs: they serve as medicine, law, and history. So what would it mean to redress such misuses, and to bring an indigenous worldview into Western art music? A conversation with Dylan Robinson about appropriation, repatriation, and his path towards becoming a scholar. (And, yes, we talk about Roomful of Teeth.)
Dylan Robinson is Associate Professor, School of Music at the University of British Columbia
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Philosophy and Vibes with Robin James Jun 27, 2023

"Music and philosophy" is often about Nietzsche and Wagner, or Kant and Mozart. But, in Robin James's work, it can also be about pop, and feminist theory, and Peloton playlists. A conversation about Dr. James's approach towards philosophy, with a focus on her new project on the musical and cultural implications of our contemporary focus on "vibes."
Robin James is Editor for Philosophy & Media Studies, Palgrave Macmillan
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Retelling Beethoven's Story with Laura Tunbridge Jun 20, 2023

There are approximately one bajillion biographies of Beethoven: do we need really another one? In fact, we do, because Laura Tunbridge has written an engrossing, provocative, and genuinely fresh book about Beethoven's life and times. A conversation about what it means to write about one of the most well-trodden composers in music history, and the rich new perspectives that Dr. Tunbridge brings to our understanding of Beethoven.
Laura Tunbridge is Professor of Music and Henfrey Fellow and Tutor at St Catherine's College, University of Oxford.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
A new call to action: tell us why you listen to the show! Tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation or email our inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

Music in Slavery's Archives with Maria Ryan Jun 13, 2023

What does it mean to search for music-making in the archives of slavery? Maria Ryan studies African-descended musicians and listeners in the colonial Caribbean, and her research is fraught with ethical and logistical challenges. A conversation about fully imagining the lives of enslaved musicians, when the evidence of those lives is documented almost entirely by their oppressors.
Maria Ryan is assistant professor of musicology at Florida State University's College of Music.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
A new call to action: tell us why you listen to the show! Tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation or email our inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

Music, War, and Ukraine with Maria Sonevytsky and Oksana Nesterenko Jun 06, 2023

What does it mean to be a scholar when the culture you study is under attack? Maria Sonevytsky and Oksana Nesterenko work on Ukrainian music, and their lives have changed profoundly in the last year. A conversation about the Ukrainian avant-garde and pop worlds, how wartime changes research agendas, and much more.
Maria Sonevytsky is Associate Professor of Anthropology & Music at Bard College; Oksana Nesterenko teaches at Union College.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
A new call to action: tell us why you listen to the show! Tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation or email our inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

Soviet Sounds (But Not Shostakovich) with Gabrielle Cornish May 30, 2023

The story of music in the Soviet Union isn't just about Shostakovich and Stalin -- sometimes, it's not about composers at all. Gabrielle Cornish writes about a different kind of socialist sound: noise abatement policy, pop music, and even an aborted plan to put a synthesizer in every Soviet home. A conversation about socialist noise, studying abroad in Siberia, what the war in Ukraine has meant for research, and more.
Gabrielle Cornish is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, and soon to be Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Wisconsin.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation or email our new inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

The Paradoxes of Black Classical Music with Kira Thurman May 23, 2023

The African-American pianist Hazel Harrison played with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1904, and was promptly forgotten. But Kira Thurman remembers. Her incredible book Singing Like Germans tells the rich, textured stories of Black classical musicians who performed in Germany, which provided a safe haven from American segregation, even though they still faced racism. A conversation about the paradoxes of race and colorblindness in classical music, and much, much more.
Kira Thurman is associate professor of history, German studies, and musicology at University of Michigan.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Approaching Joni Mitchell with Ann Powers May 16, 2023

Writing a biography isn't easy, especially when it's of a living person, and especially when that living person is an epochal, oft-mythologized musician like Joni Mitchell. But Ann Powers, one of my absolute favorite music critics, has been doing the work. For our Season 3 debut, a deep conversation with Ann about her in-progress Joni Mitchell book, the complexities and anxieties behind thinking through Joni's life alongside her own, and what it means to write about women making music.
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Season 3 Trailer!!! May 09, 2023

Finally, Sound Expertise returns! Season 3 begins on May 16, and it's our biggest and most ambitious to date: a full summer of interviews with music scholars about their research, and why it matters.
Check out past episodes at soundexpertise.org and get ready for our season premiere next week: an interview with the amazing Ann Powers about her in-progress Joni Mitchell book!
#hotmusicologysummer

Talking Minimalism with Kerry O'Brien and Will Robin Apr 18, 2023

We're almost back -- Season 3 will debut in just a few weeks! Before then, one final bonus episode: our great producer D. Edward Davis interviews Will and co-author Kerry O'Brien about their new book "On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement," which University of California Press will release on April 25. We talk about our histories with musical minimalism, putting the book together, expanding the narrow canon of minimalism beyond white dudes, and more!
More over at soundexpertise.org -- including info about our book launch events in NYC on April 23 and DC on April 26!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

The Impossibility of Opera with Matthew Aucoin Jan 11, 2022

Another bonus episode! A conversation with composer Matthew Aucoin, whose opera Euridice had a run at the Met last month, and who just wrote a new book about the history and culture of opera, The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera.
More over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

R. Murray Schafer's Legacy with Phantom Power Dec 07, 2021

Check out this episode of the great podcast Phantom Power, on the life and work of composer R. Murray Schafer. You can check out more info on the episode here, and its second part here.

We'll have another bonus episode up before the end of the year, and Season 3 will happen at some point in 2022!
More over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Our Pandemic Year Jul 13, 2021

Eighteen music scholars describe their experiences of the pandemic.

"On the Banks of the Wabash" was arranged and performed by D. Edward Davis.
More over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

The Musicologist as Contrarian with Richard Taruskin Jun 22, 2021

For our Season 2 finale, a wide-ranging conversation with the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin. We talk about his trajectory, from playing early music and studying Russian opera to writing the Oxford History of Western Music and penning polemics in the New York Times; his deep-set belief that musicologists should be skeptics and contrarians; what he hopes for the future of music scholarship; and why he believes it's necessary to make people angry.
Richard Taruskin is professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Cold War Money and New Music with Eduardo Herrera and Michael Uy Jun 15, 2021

How did Cold War money shape the musical avant-garde? What were the roles of experts, elites, and the Rockefeller Foundation in shaping the cultural politics of new music––in the era of serial tyranny and Milton Babbitt's "Who Cares If You Listen?" An interview with musicologists Michael Uy and Eduardo Herrera about their research on funding new music in the Sputnik moment, in both the U.S. and Latin America.
Michael Uy is Allston Burr Resident Dean and Assistant Dean of Harvard College, Dunster House, and Lecturer on Music at Harvard. Eduardo Herrera is Associate Professor at Rutgers University and soon to join Indiana University as Associate Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Ethnography and Queer Intimacies on the Dance Floor with Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta Jun 08, 2021

How does one come to study a topic that is on the margins of an academic discipline? What does it mean to do ethnographic fieldwork amidst the intimacies of the dance floor––and what are the challenges of doing so in queer spaces? A wide-ranging conversation with ethnomusicologist Luis-Manuel Garcia, on his scholarly journey from early music to rave culture to gay fetish parties in Berlin.

Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta is Lecturer in Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Cracking Algorithmic Recommendation with Nick Seaver Jun 01, 2021

Algorithms run our lives these days, from Netflix binges to predictive policing. And that includes algorithmic recommenders––like Spotify's Discover Weekly and Pandora––that shape how we consume music. How does algorithmic music recommendation work and, perhaps more importantly, who makes it work? After all, algorithms are made and tweaked by people, who work at tech companies and have their own ideas and values. An interview with anthropologist Nick Seaver, who has conducted years of ethnographic fieldwork to understand who creates algorithmic recommenders, and why they do what they do.
Nick Seaver is assistant professor of anthropology at Tufts University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Britten's Operas and British Identity with Imani Mosley May 25, 2021

When a modern opera debuts, normally the stakes aren't very high. But when it's composed by Benjamin Britten and premieres in England after World War II, that's a different story. Britten's high-profile operas––whose performances were attended by Queen Elizabeth II––were seen as a reflection of British postwar identity. An interview with musicologist Imani Danielle Mosley on how a series of strange operas by queer, modernist composer became a referendum on what it meant to be British––and why that matters.
Imani Mosley is assistant professor of musicology at the University of Florida's School of Music.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Finding Music in Renaissance Manuscripts with Laurie Stras May 18, 2021

Since pretty much the beginnings of our field, musicologists have gone digging for lost music, bringing old pieces back into the world after centuries of neglect. But it's not just about finding some new scores: it's also about building an understanding of the culture that created and preserved them. When we find music in Renaissance manuscripts, what meaning can, and should, we make from it? An interview with musicologist Laurie Stras about what she has uncovered in the archives––including a major work by the Renaissance composer Antoine Brumel––what it means for music to be anonymous, what to do when you realize your research might actually be wrong, and a lot more.

Laurie Stras is Research Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield and Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Southampton.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Handel and the Slave Trade with David Hunter May 11, 2021

In 2013, the music librarian David Hunter found the name George Frideric Handel in a printed list of investors in one of Britain's official slave trading companies. Since then, Dr. Hunter has researched Handel and his patrons' investments in the slave trade, as well as the broader relationship between slavery and the history of classical music. What does it mean that profits from the brutality and horror of the Middle Passage benefitted the career of the composer who wrote the "Messiah"? And what should we do with our knowledge of this today?
David Hunter is Librarian Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Rebecca Black's "Friday" and Viral Music with Paula Harper May 04, 2021

Way back in 2011, Rebecca Black's music video "Friday" went viral because it was widely considered to be one of the worst songs of all time. But what does that actually mean––for music to "go viral," and for music to be so widely criticized as "bad"? A conversation about gender, genre, and musical virality in the 2010s with musicologist Paula Clare Harper.
Paula Clare Harper is a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis; this fall, she will join the faculty of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln as an assistant professor.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Freedom Singing at the March on Washington with Tammy L. Kernodle Apr 27, 2021

Though often overlooked in mainstream histories, the voices of Black women were central to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963. And those voices included some of the greatest musicians of the time: Odetta, Mahalia Jackson, Camilla Williams. These women, and the political significance of the spirituals they sang, are the subject of this week's episode: a conversation with the musicologist Tammy L. Kernodle about the wide-ranging role of music, and the fractious political coalitions it represented, at the 1963 March on Washington.
Tammy L. Kernodle is Professor of Musicology at Miami University in Ohio.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Expert Listening and d/Deaf Culture with Jessica A. Holmes Apr 20, 2021

When we think about music and deafness, it's often through the lens of Beethoven: the mythological figure who overcomes his hearing loss to compose great music. But members of the d/Deaf community often talk less about hearing loss than about deaf gain. And we can gain a lot from understanding the wide range of methods through which d/Deaf people engage with, create, and listen to music. A conversation with musicologist Jessica A. Holmes, who researches the relationship between music and disability, including the listening expertise found in d/Deaf culture.
Jessica A. Holmes is a lecturer in the Department of Musicology at the UCLA Herb Albert School of Music.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Teaching Music History with Sara Haefeli and Andrew Dell'Antonio Apr 13, 2021

Maybe you teach music history, and maybe you don't, but pedagogy is a part of your life: we have all been teachers, and we have all been students. This conversation, with musicologists Andrew Dell'Antonio and Sara Haefeli, is about how they have innovated in their classrooms, but it is also about teaching itself as a practice, as an art, and as a form of research. What does it mean to abandon traditional lecturing and traditional grading, and empower students to see themselves as creators of music history?
Sara Haefeli is associate professor of music theory, history, and composition at Ithaca College. Andrew Dell'Antonio is professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Diversifying Music Theory with Ellie Hisama Apr 06, 2021

Music theory has long been a space in which white male scholars analyze music by white male composers. But many music theorists are actively trying to change that, and our guest today, Professor Ellie Hisama, is foremost among them. In this conversation, we discuss her pioneering work on women modernist composers; diversifying the music theory classroom; her recent scholarship on gender discrimination in music theory, including sexist and homophobic comments made by Milton Babbitt; and a lot more.
Ellie Hisama is Professor of Music, Music Theory and Historical Musicology at Columbia University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

The Gospel Imagination with Braxton D. Shelley Mar 30, 2021

What happens, musically and spiritually, when a congregation sings gospel ? How can we analyze music that moves not just the mind, but also the body and the soul? A conversation with Braxton D. Shelley, whose scholarship fuses theology and musicology to understand how musical techniques like vamps and "tuning up" lead to transcendent religious experiences.
Braxton D. Shelley is Stanley A. Marks and William H. Marks Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute and Assistant Professor of Music in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Making Sense of Music with Susan McClary Mar 23, 2021

We're back! The first episode of Season 2 features Susan McClary: one of the most influential, and controversial, musicologists of our time. We talk about her lifelong pursuit of analyzing music in its cultural context, from madrigals to Madonna; the early rejections that set her on a path towards becoming a groundbreaking feminist scholar; the intense criticism to which her scholarship has been subjected; the infamous Beethoven 9 controversy; and much more.
Susan McClary is the Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Music at Case Western Reserve University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Season 2 Trailer! Mar 16, 2021

We're back next week! Season 2 of Sound Expertise begins on Tuesday, March 23.
Host Will Robin will interview fellow music scholars about their research, and why it matters, in a new season of weekly episodes that'll take us into the summer. Check out our past episodes at soundexpertise.org and get ready for our season premiere next week: an interview with the amazing Susan McClary!

Bang on a Can and New Music with Will Robin Feb 16, 2021

And we're back! Well, kind of. Season 2 of Sound Expertise launches on March 23, but for now here's a bonus preseason episode. Our intrepid producer, D. Edward Davis, interviews host Will Robin (University of Maryland) about his book "Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace," out with Oxford University Press next week. We talk about the role of the festival Bang on a Can in shaping the broader world of new music, the institutions and politics of contemporary classical in the '80s and '90s, research methods, and more! And stick around until the end of the episode to hear a teaser for Season 2!
As always, show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Jazz Manouche and Cultural Citizenship with Siv B. Lie Sep 29, 2020

What does it mean to create music that is valued as a national emblem, but also be part of a community that is marginalized within that nation? What is jazz manouche, and how does this musical tradition reflect the complicated status of its Romani creators in France? A conversation with Siv B. Lie, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Capitalism and the Value of Music with Timothy Taylor Sep 22, 2020

How can ethnomusicology help us understand the value of music in a capitalist society? When we view music as a commodity, what might it reveal about how people make meaning (and money) from art across different cultures? A conversation with Timothy Taylor, professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA's Herb Albert School of Music.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Steve Reich and the Politics of Race with Sumanth Gopinath Sep 14, 2020

In light of the recent resurfacing of racist remarks that Steve Reich made in the 1970s, what are the racial politics of the composer's canonic minimalist music? What is the history of Reich's engagement with civil rights in works like Come Out, and does the influence of African music on his compositions represent a form of cultural appropriation? A conversation with Sumanth S Gopinath, associate professor of music theory at the University of Minnesota.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Elocution and Taking Women Seriously with Marian Wilson Kimber Sep 08, 2020

What if feminist music history isn't just about elevating composers like Amy Beach and Clara Wieck Schumann, but also about understanding how everyday women made music? What is elocution, and how did a now-obscure genre of musical readings represent a cornerstone of American women performing in the nineteenth century? A conversation with Marian Wilson Kimber, professor of music at the University of Iowa.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Identity Politics and Experimental Music with George E. Lewis Sep 01, 2020

What happens when classical music takes seriously the work of Black avant-garde composers? What would a creolized musical world look like? And what is the relationship between scholarship and composing? A conversation with George E. Lewis, Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org
Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Bringing Renaissance Song to Life with Jesse Rodin Aug 25, 2020

What does it mean to bring music of the distant past back to life? What happens when scholars focus not just on reconstructing the notes and words of Renaissance song but also on trying to recapture the lived experience of singing it? A conversation with Jesse Rodin, Associate Professor of music at Stanford.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org

Have a question or comment about the show? Tweet at us at @seatedovation

Operetta and Fin-de-siècle Vienna with Micaela Baranello Aug 18, 2020

What can operetta tell us about everyday life in fin-de-siècle Vienna? Why has our understanding of Vienna been limited to high-art composers like Mahler and Schoenberg, and how might studying operetta change our perspective on the Austro-Hungarian Empire amidst the tumult of the early twentieth century? A conversation with Micaela K. Baranello, Assistant Professor of musicology at the University of Arkansas.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org

Richard Wagner's Controversial Legacy with Alex Ross Aug 11, 2020

How should we understand the legacy of Richard Wagner, the most controversial composer in history? Why did Wagner's music and ideas once assume such a colossal influence on culture, and what does it mean that the multiplicity of that influence has been largely forgotten in light of his anti-Semitism? A conversation with Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker and author of the forthcoming book Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music.
Show notes and more at soundexpertise.org

Timbre and '80s Pop with Megan Lavengood Aug 04, 2020

What makes some songs, from Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" to Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It," sound so distinctively "1980s"? What is timbre, why does it matter, and how do music theorists study it? And did Michael Jackson write the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3?! A conversation with Megan Lavengood, Assistant Professor and Director of Music Theory at George Mason University, about timbre and the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org

Music Schools and White Supremacy with Loren Kajikawa Jul 28, 2020

When music departments focus exclusively on classical music, are they also being racially exclusionary? How can the academy move beyond its history of racism and embrace other musical genres? A conversation with Loren Kajikawa, Associate Professor of Music at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts & Design.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org

Harmony and Co-Existence in Prague with Erika Supria Honisch Jul 21, 2020

What if harmony isn't just about sounding good, but also about living together in a fractious time? How did sacred music in early modern Prague shape how people of different faiths existed alongside each other? A conversation with Erika Supria Honisch, Assistant Professor of History/Theory at Stony Brook University.
Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org

Welcome to Sound Expertise Jul 09, 2020

Trailer for a new podcast of weekly conversations with musicologists, ethnomusicologists, music theorists, and music critics, hosted by Will Robin and produced by D. Edward Davis. Episode 1 goes live on Tuesday, July 21.

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