Well I managed to go almost a month without a new newsletter, which was decidedly not the point of starting a newsletter. If only there was something going in the entire world that provided a solid justification for not wanting to write online for a month. HmmmmmmmMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
This will be a short one.
I love this new trend of releasing art while also providing some kind of COVID-specific framing.
“Hey, unprecedented times: I See You. You Are Acknowledged.”
I can’t really blame anyone though; it’s not easy to figure out how to bring art into the world right now. It’s an insane time to do anything besides, apparently, bake sourdough. (No, we haven’t, yet, but we did pick up some free yeast off of someone’s porch via a Facebook group today. Weird times.)
Classes have been proceeding….fine. I’m very lucky I can teach my appreciation lecture course entirely asynchronously, and that my public musicology seminar works pretty well via Zoom, although it’s clear that everyone is exhausted all of the time. Today will be my first teaching day in sweatpants, I managed to make it several weeks wearing jeans.
The public musicology students are developing some very cool projects — podcasts, video lectures, other stuff — that I may share with y’all when they’re done.
The book is entering its final stages. Nearly all of the “extra-stuff-you-don’t-realize-you-need-to-do-until-you-do” is done: acknowledgements, abstracts for every chapter, long questionnaires from the marketing team, *almost* all permissions forms signed. My amazing editor, Suzanne Ryan, has read and given extremely helpful feedback on about half the manuscript; once she wraps up I’ll begin making my final edits. Hopefully I’ll submit it to Oxford in May! We’ll see.
We have now presented nineteen papers on Zoom as part of Colloquium: Music Scholarship at a Distance! 19! It’s been pretty great in terms of attendance (we get anywhere from 30–100 people) and in terms of the quality and diversity of the research presented. If you haven’t tuned in yet, you should — we’re taking a break today but have papers on Anthony Davis, Milwaukee wind bands, and Gojira coming up this week. It’s been really awesome, and working with Paula is the best.
Personal news, in case you missed it on Facebook or Twitter — Georgia’s going to be a big sister in June! We’re extraordinarily excited and, yes, also a bit terrified given what’s going on in the world. But all will be well.
Here’s some more top-tier Georgia content:
Anyway, I feel incredibly lucky to be safe and healthy in a house with a loving partner and an awesome dog and a family that is also safe and healthy, with a stable job. I don’t really have anything useful to offer you about art-in-pandemic-times. Some people think streaming concerts is great! Some people don’t! What would Beethoven think? I don’t know!