Early American Music and the Construction of Race: An Interdisciplinary Workshop

Co-organized by Glenda Goodman (University of Pennsylvania) and Rhae Lynn Barnes (Princeton University)

Sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies; the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music; the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts; the University of Pennsylvania Office of the Vice Provost; and School of Arts and Sciences.

Oct. 11-12, 2019 at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania

Racial ideology is baked into the cultural and music history of early America. Native peoples and colonists heard each other’s music as indicators of difference, friendliness, or danger. The regulation of song and dance was integral to the subjugation of enslaved people. And, in the United States, a vested interest in forming a nation of white citizens was underpinned by pious and genteel repertoire. This workshop seeks to provide a space for the cultivation of new areas of inquiry into the intersection of race, music, and American cultural history. While the interrelated relationship between race, modernity, and American music is of enduring interest to scholars–especially those focused on the twentieth century to today–this workshop is dedicated to tracing these long-term themes in the earlier period from colonial encounter to the Civil War.

This workshop will feature papers from scholars at all career stages using a wide variety of sources, including archival and/or ethnographic work, material artifacts like historical instruments, sheet music, theatrical ephemera, photography, journals, and all forms of print media. Participants will be asked to pre-circulate their 20-page paper and respond to another presenter’s work in this intensive two-day workshop. Bonnie Gordon (University of Virginia) is scheduled to kick off the event for participants with a paper on Friday. Support for travel and lodging will be provided for accepted participants.

Questions may be directed to organizers Glenda Goodman and Rhae Lynn Barnes: EarlyAmericanMusicAndRace@Gmail.com

Schedule of Events

All papers will be pre-circulated to those who register for the workshop. Saturday’s discussions will entail a 5-10 minute response followed by a discussion of the paper.

Friday, October 11, 2019 

McNeil Center for Early American Studies

3-5pm Seminar with Bonnie Gordon, “Echoes of 1619: Jamestown, Jefferson, and Social Justice” (Stephanie Grauman Wolf Room)

Opening reception 

Saturday, October 12, 2019 

Van Pelt Library, Class of 78 Pavilion (6th floor)

10 am Welcome and introduction (Glenda Goodman and Rhae Lynn Barnes)

10:15 Kristin Moriah, “The Black Swan and the Golden Harvest: Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield and Blackface Minstrelsy”

Response from Candace Bailey

10:45 Erin Fulton, “The Year of Jubilee Is Come: Metatextual Resonance in Antislavery Hymn Parodies”

Response from Maria Ryan

Break

11:30 David Garcia, “When the Borders Crossed Us: A Latinx Musicology for Trumpism”

Response from Guthrie Ramsey

12:00 Maria Ryan, “‘The influence of Melody upon man in the wild state of nature’: music, violence, and race in a Jamaica parish, 1827-28”

Response from Kristin Moriah

12:30-2 Lunch 

2:00 Candace Bailey, “Interrogating Cultural Practices among Musically Literate Women of Color in Antebellum Slave States”

Response from David Garcia

2:30 Caitlin Marshall, “A Voice Like Thunder: Edwin Forrest’s Sonic Redface” 

Response from Sarah Eyerly and Rachel Wheeler

3-3:30 Coffee break 

3:30 Rachel Wheeler and Sarah Eyerly, “Networks of Song: Tracing the Intersections of Race, Music, and Cultural Production in Mohican Moravian Hymnody”

Response from Erin Fulton

4:00 Guthrie Ramsey, Performing Historical African American Music

Response from Caitlin Marshall

4:30 Final discussion and closing remarks

5-7 Closing reception Moelis Reading Terrace 

Registration 

To register for this workshop, please fill out this survey indicating your attendance information. An e-mail will follow with instructions on how to access the pre-circulated papers. Thank you!

Travel & Accommodation

Philadelphia is easily accessible by plane, train, or automobile. Amtrak service is frequent on the Northeast Corridor line between Washington and Boston. Most major airlines serve Philadelphia International Airport. SEPTA commuter trains, various limousine services, and taxis provide quick transportation from the airport to Center City or University City.