by János Kárpáti
Published in Magyar zene XLIII/2 (May 2005), 229-231
Speaking of music: Music conferences, 1835-1966
General editors: James R. Cowdery, Zdravko Blažekovic, Barry S. Brook
(New York: RILM, 2004)
When Barry S. Brook, the preeminent American musicologist – professor at the City University of New York and a leading personality in the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) – started the ongoing bibliography of RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale), he already foresaw that it would have to be supplemented by retrospective volumes that would cover topics left unexplored by previously published music bibliographies. He himself published the first volume of the retrospective series in 1972, a catalogue of thematic catalogues (Thematic catalogues in music, rev. 1997); in 1979, Jean Gribenski edited a catalogue of music dissertations in French (Thèses de doctorat en langue française relatives à la musique); and finally, Meredith Alice McCutcheon’s bibliography Guitar and vihuela was also published as a retrospective volume in 1985.
Professor Brook, however, was also keen on the idea of publishing a fourth retrospective volume, and he communicated that project with music librarians around the world in a letter written in 1978:
“In the next few days, we will begin editing and indexing the next volume of RILM’s retrospective series, Congress reports in music: An annotated bibliography. The work will have three phases: (1) a classified list of conference papers, with tables of contents; (2) abstracts of individual papers; and (3) indexes by author, topic, place, organizer, and year. Approximately 1500 abstracts are ready, and the indexing is underway.”
Brook was forced to witness delays in the realization of his magnificent project, and when he died in 1997, the material he had collected and organized in various boxes, was left unpublished at the City University of New York. Following his death, the staff of the International Center of RILM – in addition to continuing the timely publication of the ongoing bibliography – felt it their primary duty to edit, expand, and publish as volume 4 of the retrospective series the congress papers material left by Professor Brook. Thus, the volume was published two and a half decades later than originally planned, and its contents had grown fourfold. Brook might not have dreamed that the work would far exceed the domain of bibliography, and allow a glimpse into the history of musical thought of more than a century.
Due to the popularity of travel and the activities of international societies, congresses and other meetings – especially since World War II – play a major role in musicology everywhere. It comes as a surprise, however, that such meetings were held in the 19th century as well, and it is logical to assume that these were occasions for the communication of substantial developments in scholarship. Information on these conferences is rather uneven, however. In some cases the papers given were published in their entirety, and they have become part and parcel of musicological literature, just as studies published in periodicals. Frequently, however, congress reports contained merely summaries of papers, and often the printed press published but the table of contents of meetings (i.e., names of the peresenters and the titles of their lectures). It is understandable that even such partial information ought not to be overlooked, since it provides an impression of the topic of a conference, and can be an aid to further research into the literature as well.
The volume Speaking of Music: Music conferences, 1835-1966 is not without precedent. At its original conception, Barry Brook considered Marie Briquet’s work, published in Paris in 1961, as its starting point; she had culled music-related material from international conferences held between 1835 and 1939. Similarly, data going back to the 19th century was provided by Winifred Gregory’s bibliography, first published in 1938, then in 1980, covering the period from 1840 to 1937, but not focusing on music. Eventually another similar work was also published, John Tyrrell and Rosemary Wise’s A guide to international congress reports in musicology, 1900-1975 (New York, 1979).
The structure of the published volume hardly differs from the outline conceived by Professor Brook. It is most important that we find the chronological list of congesses–conferences right at the beginning of the book, and not only by location and organizer, but along with detailed tables of contents. This chapter provides us with a nuanced notion of the themes, frequency, and the particularly favored destinations of meetings. Around the middle of the 1800s, we are lucky if we find one conference annually whose program featured some musical or music-historical topic. The “Congrès historique européen”, held in Paris in 1835, is presented as the first milestone, where Auguste Bottée gave a lecture titled Histoire de l’art musical depuis l’ère chrétienne à nos jours. Surely, in comparison to this rather general congress on history, those 19th-century conferences where competent church figures discussed the sources and practice of Gregorian chant, played a more important role. The first conference that devoted attention to a wider spectrum of musicology was held in Paris in 1900.
The consideration of the chronology and the geographic locations of congesses and conferences also allows us a view of the general development of the discipline of musicology. The first locations, around the turn of the 20th century, indicate the dominance of French musicology, while from the 1920s there is a marked shift toward Germany. Later, following the understandable hiatus caused by World War II, the gradually developing international bodies (IMS, IFMC, IAML) organize more frequent conferences, and their locations cover several continents. Within the time frame of the volume – 1835 to 1966 – the year 1963 holds the record with 600 papers. At the same time, the shift of the center of musicology to North America can also be observed. These are phenomena that could not be gleaned from an ordinary or current bibliography, and they demonstrate the special value of this volume.
Since the volume is an organic part of RILM, it presents the contents of conferences thematically in the same order as the ongoing bibliography. This, too, allows us the observation of particular tendencies indicating the development of the discipline. Two RILM classes, no. 19 (Universal perspectives) and nos. 30-39 (Ethnomusicology) are represented by twice as many entries as one finds in RILM’s recent annual volumes. In other words, the cultivators of these young branches of musicology – apparently bringing new tools as compared with those of traditional music history, aesthetics, and theory – initially gave preference to the verbal dissemination of their thoughts and ideas within the musicologist community.
The publication of Speaking of Music: Music conferences, 1835-1966 is a significant accomplishment in musicology not only because it fills a void, and it provides researchers with rich material, but also because it draws a detailed picture of the genesis and development of the discipline, and its role in universal culture. We can say confidently that the spirit of Barry Brook – although he did not live to see its publication – actively lives and works in the pages of this book. And especially since, in addition to dry facts, the volume’s few photographs provide a glimpse of the historical past of musicological conferences. It is a real pleasure for the present generation to see together – in a photograph of the 1939 New York conference – such, by now legendary, personalities of our discipline as Spivacke, Kinkeldey, Gombosi, Jeppesen, Reese, Dent, Sachs, Einstein (136). The group shot taken at the Bloomington conference of the International Folk Music Council in 1950 preserves a similarly historic moment, showing among others Adnan Saygun, Charles Seeger, Albert Lord, George Herzog, and Maud Karpeles (584). And finally – with some subjectivity – it is a very pleasant feeling for the present reviewer to see a photograph (xxii) of the particular IAML conference in Mainz, 1977, where he had the good fortune to meet two leading figures in person for the first time, both visible in the picture’s foreground: Harald Heckmann and Barry Brook.
Translation by André Balog