The Summer, 1995 issue of the Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin, had as its lead story the work of the Latin America and Carribean Interest Group within the Society's Special Session presented at the Sonneck Society National Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. The Moderator of the session was John Koegel, and the Chair was Henrietta Yurchenco. The participants, Carol A. Hess, Ralph Converse, Enrique Arias, John Koegel, made presentations on Carlos Chávez, Copland and American Music, Jazz and the Samba, Teaching Brazilian Popular Music, Colonial Polyphony from the Americas, and the National Indian Institute of Mexcio. This nine-page feature contains summaries of the presentations and valuable bibliographies relating to the topics of the presentation. Back issues of this Bulletin can be obtained by contacting George Keck, 410 Ouachita Street, Ouachita Baptis University, Arkadelphia, AR 71998-3659.

With this issue of the Newsletter Paul Laird assumes the duties of Recording Review Editor. I wish to thank him for undertaking this role and for his contribution of reviews for this issue.

The editor also wishes to offer special thanks to the contributors to this edition. Their prompt and generous assistance is very much appreciated.

Enrique AriasI is looking for qualified writers to write articles on a limited number of important Latin American composers for a project he is editing for Greenwood Press. Please contact him directly: 
e-mail: earias@WPPOST.DEPAUL.EDU
 

Conference Reports:

THIRD ANNUAL STUDY SESSION OF THE IHMS IN HONOR OF ROBERT STEVENSON

Submitted by Paul R. Laird, University of Kansas

The third annual meeting of the International Hispanic Music Study Group took place on Friday, November 3, 1995 at the National Meeting of the American Musicological Society in New York City. More than thirty members of the

Study Group and visitors gathered to honor the work of Robert Stevenson of the University of California, Los Angeles. All scholars working in the areas of Spanish and Latin-American music have profited from the wide-ranging work of this brilliant scholar, making it fitting that the study group honor him in this way.

The session opened with announcements from William Summers (Dartmouth College), coordinator of the study group, including that our next meeting will take place at the 1996 AMS meeting in Baltimore. It will be in honor of Professor Robert Snow of the University of Texas-Austin and chaired by David Crawford (University of Michigan) and G. Grayson Wagstaff (Virginia Commonwealth University). Summers then introduced Paul Laird (University of Kansas), who served as chair of this session. With the majority of the session's presentations reproduced in this newsletter, the description below will be brief.

Our "Fiesta" for Professor Stevenson included contributions by three of his former dissertation students (Les Brothers, Walter Clark, and Malena Kuss), another graduate student from UCLA (Sharon Girard), and a recent graduate of

Claremont Graduate Schools who became close friends with Professor Stevenson during his time in southern California (John Koegel).

Professor Stevenson was introduced by Les Brothers (University of North Texas), who traced Stevenson's multifaceted scholarly career and offered the insight of one who worked closely with him. Professor Stevenson then spoke on "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Musical Rapports" in honor of the tercentenary of the famous Mexican poet's death. (Published in the most recent volume of Inter-American Review.) Sor Juana's most famous musical connection is probably her composition of villancico texts set by Mexican composers, but Stevenson also demonstrated her fine understanding of music theory. Stevenson chose not to speak at length, but effectively reminded those present of his major role in documenting Sor Juana's musical importance.

Professor Stevenson's address was followed by G. Grayson Wagstaff's announcement of a dedication to Robert Stevenson by Robert Snow. Snow has dedicated his, A New-World Collection of Polyphony for Holy Week and the Salve Service: Guatemala City, Cathedral Archive Music MS 4, volume 9 of the Monuments of Renaissance Music (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

The remainder of the session included reviews of Professor Stevenson's contributions in different scholarly areas. In his "Genesis of a Legacy: Spanish Musicology in the Age of Robert Stevenson," Walter Clark (University of Kansas) recounted Stevenson's work in Spanish music, from his 1953 Journal of the American Musicological Society article on Morales to his two landmark monographs on Spanish Renaissance music, and the many important articles Stevenson has published in Inter-American Music Review. Sharon Girard, a student at UCLA when Stevenson collaborated with Roger Wagner in recordings of Latin-American colonial polyphony, briefly described these important projects and played an example.

John Koegel (Nebraska Wesleyan University) then read his "Robert Stevenson's Contribution to the Study of Music in Mexico and in the United States." Koegel opened with Stevenson's early "Music in El Paso" and described his early career, moving onto Stevenson's books on Mexican music, Aztec and Incan music, the important Renaissance and Baroque Musical Sources in the Americas, and finally his work in the Inter-American Music Review. Malena Kuss (University of North Texas) accompanied her presentation entitled "Robert Stevenson: A Tribute" with the handout "Robert M. Stevenson: A Selective Bibliography." The latter is a twelve- page list of his writings relating to music in South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. In her talk she called upon us to gain complete understanding of Stevenson's bibliographic legacy, for the correct ascription of articles Stevenson has published anonymously in Inter-American Music Review, and for the reprinting of those works currently unavailable. She concluded with some thoughts on Stevenson's contribution in the area of South American opera.

Hispanicists have and will continue to build upon the scholarly legacy of Robert Stevenson. Considering the astounding range and depth of his contributions, however, almost anything that we do in the field rests upon his legacy in some way.
 
 

[The following conference took place at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Februrary, 1996.]

A Celebration of Latin American Music.

A Dartmouth College Symposium

[Sponsored by the Department of Music, The Latin American/Caribbean Studies Program, The Hewlett Fund, The John Sloan Dickey Center and The International Hispanic Music Study Group.]
 

Chanticleer, Choral Master Class
Dartmouth College Chamber Singers, Charles Houmard, Conductor

Welcome, Opening Address and Keynote Lecture

• William Summers, Dartmouth College, Coordinator, International Hispanic Music Study Group.
• President James O. Freedman, Dartmouth College.
• Marysa Navarro, Dartmouth College, Chair, Latin American/Caribbean Studies Program.
• Carmen Téllez, Director, Latin American Music Center, University of Indiana, Bloomington. "Twentieth-Century Latin American Music: Important Contributions and Recent Developments."

Chanticleer in Concert
Friday, February 9, 1996

Symposium Session I, Chair: Emilio Ros-Fábregas.

• Alfred Lemmon, "Music in Royal Celebrations of the Spanish Americas."
• Craig Russell, "Hidden Structures and Sonorous Symmetries: The Architecture of Mexican Polyphony in the Eighteenth Century."
• Enrique Arias, "Of Convents, Cathedrals, and Mysteries: Sources of Mexican Colonial Music at the Newberry Library in Chicago."

Saturday, February 10, 1996

Guitar Lecture/Demonstration
José Manuel Lezcano, "Guitar Music from Aztec and Inca Territory: a lecture/recital of colonial and twentieth-century nationalist works for guitar from Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and California."

Symposium Session II, Chair: Emilio Ros-Fábregas.

• William Summers, "'Just When You Thought You Had Seen It All:' An Introduction to A Remarkable New Source of Spanish Music in California."
• Katherine Hagedorn, "Santos, Orichas, and the Revolution: Transforming Sacred into Secular in Afro-Cuban Religious Performance in Contemporary Cuba."
• John Koegel, "Canciones del país: Mexican Music in Nineteenth-Century California."
• Ricardo Miranda, "Journeys of Musical Pleasure: Antonio Sarrier's OBERTURA (Morelia, Eighteenth Century)."

Concluding Round Table
Chair: Emilio Kourí, Dartmouth College
Symposium Participants

[A source book on Latin American music is being compiled from the proceedings of the Sympoiusm.]