Stay ConnectedWhat does it mean to be a music researcher? How does a musician use music as a medium to foster community? Featuring interviews with other musicians, scholars and artists, host Lydia Bangura seeks to ask interesting questions about music and execute important and relevant music research. Join Lydia as she reads, writes and chats her way through a music PhD program.
Got questions or feedback? Interested in being a guest on the pod? Send inquiries to: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
Copyright: © Lydia Bangura
Continuing our series of conversations with Black musicians for Black History Month, today Dr. Phil Ewell (Hunter College of City University of New York) joins me on the show to discuss his background as a cellist, his time studying music theory at Yale University, and our shared investment in public music theory. We also examine the whiteness and maleness of music theory through the lens of other scholarship throughout the humanities, in order to explore what anti-racist work in music theory could actually look like. Finally, Phil shares a little about his new book, forthcoming through the University of Michigan press!
Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written transcript of this episode!
Phil's Music Theory Online article
Our podcast episode about Phil's article
My time in Phil's residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
The Baptism of Early Virginia by Rebecca Anne Goetz
Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr
Preorder Phil's book: On Music Theory and Making Music More Welcoming For Everyone
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
This week we are continuing our conversations with Black musicians for Black History Month! In this episode, I chat with Darrian Dorrough (@94Drow) about his experiences in hip hop, the status of rap research in the academy, and his songwriting and production process. We also discuss his experience hosting a live show on Instagram called the Dope or Nope Show, where he and his collaborators review the music of unsigned artists and producers. Check out 94Drow's album MissFit and his singles wherever you stream your music, and follow the @dopeornopeshow on Instagram!
Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written transcript of this episode!
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
Happy Black History Month! In this episode, I chat with Jordan Brown (Harvard University) about her experiences as a singer and arranger, her path to ethnomusicology, and her positionality as a queer Black woman in music academia. We also discuss E. Patrick Johnson's 2001 article titled "Quare Studies, or Almost Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother," which is utilized in Jordan's research about the music of queer Black femmes.
Jordan's single "Spaced Out" on Spotify
Jordan's podcast "Speaker Notes"
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In this episode, I chat with Dr. John Michael Cooper (Southwestern University) about his path to musicology, his experiences in music publishing, and the lives and music of Margaret Bonds and Florence Price. We also listen to and discuss Margaret Bonds' piece Tangamerican, performed by pianist Lara Downes. Special thanks to Lara and to Candace Johnson for their appearances in this episode!
Lara's recording of Tangamerican
Schirmer's editions of Price's music
Hildegard Publishing's Margaret Bonds page
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In this episode, I chat with Majel Connery all about her experiences as a singer, her choice to leave the field of musicology, and our shared experiences as women in music. We also discuss her new podcast from CapRadio, "A Music of Their Own," which explores the ways women in music navigate the industry and the ways the music itself is gendered. Make sure to stream her show wherever you get your podcasts!
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In this solo episode, I chat all about how my fall semester turned out, from taking classes to teaching for the first time to quitting my barista job. I also discuss my experience presenting at the American Studies Association conference and at the big #musiccon (AMS/SEM/SMT 2022) in New Orleans. Finally, I reflect on achieving some of my goals of the past year and set a new yearly theme for 2023.
Singing Like Germans by Kira Thurman
Carefree Black Girls by Zeba Blay
A Taste For Brown Sugar by Mireille Miller-Young
CGP Grey's video on yearly themes
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In this episode, I chat with my friend Natalie Krafft all about her career as a music teacher, her experience doing music streams on Twitch, and our favorite recordings of the Goldberg Variations by Bach.
Follow Natalie on Twitch! @nitnatkat
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In part two of my conversation with Dr. Megan Lavengood (George Mason University) and Dr. Cara Stroud (Michigan State University), we chat all about timbre, the role of "world music" instruments, and Megan's MTO article "The Cultural Significance of Timbre Analysis: A Case Study in 1980s Pop Music, Texture, and Narrative." A special thanks for Cara and her class for their thoughts on Megan's piece and for making an appearance on this episode (in order of appearance: (Zephie Hillard, ShihPing Wang, Jessi Fegan, and Karla Evans).
The SMT Committee on the Status of Women writing groups
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In part one of my conversation with Dr. Megan Lavengood (George Mason University) and Dr. Cara Stroud (Michigan State University), we chat about their experiences in music theory, their approaches to reading and writing, and their thoughts on teaching theory during the pandemic. Stay tuned for part two of our conversation!
The SMT Committee on the Status of Women writing groups
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
In this episode, I chat with Dr. Dan DiPiero (Ithaca College) about his background as a jazz drummer, his experiences studying comparative studies, and his new book Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life (out now and available open access through the University of Michigan Press!).
Get in touch with me at: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
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