Sound Expertise

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

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

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

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

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

Nick Seaver, assistant professor of anthropology at Tufts University, dives into the world of algorithmic music recommendation systems. He reveals how human biases shape these algorithms, impacting what we listen to on platforms like Spotify and Pandora. Seaver explores the history of collaborative filtering and its cultural significance while discussing the opaque 'black box' nature of these tech-driven systems. He emphasizes understanding the human elements in technology, highlighting the often-overlooked role of musicians in this digital ecosystem.

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

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

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

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