On March 23rd and 24th, UNM Music Professors Kristina Jacobsen (Ethnomusicology; former President, Society for Ethnomusicology, Southwest Chapter) and David Bashwiner (Music Theory; outgoing President, Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory) traveled with Musicology and Music Theory graduate students Regan Homeyer, Renata Yazzie and Matthew Stanley to present their original research at the regional Rocky Mountain Scholars’ Conference in Tucson, Arizona, hosted by the University of Arizona’s Department of Music. The very successful student papers given were:
Matthew Stanley (Music Theory), “Toward Metric Stability: The Interplay of Hemiola, Syncopation, and Meter in Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78”
Regan Homeyer (Musicology), “Sounding the Nile: Hamza El Din as ‘Ethnographic Ear’”
Renata Yazzie (Musicology/Piano Performance), “Indigenizing Art Music: An Analysis of Connor Chee’s Navajo Vocables for Piano
The Gay West: From Drug Store Cowboys to Rodeo Queens
The masculine ideal represented by the American cowboy is variously interpreted by spectators, dancers, musicians, and contestants at gay rodeos and country western dances across the U.S. Examining embodied gender practices within these communities, this talk articulates the sonic, social, and geographical spaces of the gay American West.
The Cruelty of Jazz: Toward a Hemispheric Politics of Sound
Rooted in concepts of affect and Empire, this paper argues that jazz operated in various 20th century Latin American settings as a vital touchstone bearing the risks and benefits of urban modernization, hemispheric geopolitics, and transnational cultural production, “cruelly” echoing the United States’ cultural, political, and economic dominance in the hemisphere and beyond.
Music from the Americas presents Versus 8
Percussion music in the Americas is one of the most exotic, visually attractive, and antique forms of expression since pre-hispanic times. Preserving, promoting and creating music for the percussion family of instruments is at the core of Versus 8’s mission through international collaboration with composers, performers, students, and cultural centers that contribute with their resources to the cycle of music, namely: creation, performance, and listening..