Newsletter, 2007

Message from the President

On the occasion of the publication of the third Newsletter, edited by David Mosley for the International Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA), I am pleased to be able to refer to the fact that the Association has recently completed its tenth year of existence. Although the WMA Constitution was legally recognized on 7 August 1998 and the official Constitutional Meeting took place at Ann Arbor, MI, on 14 August 1999, the actual WMA Founding Meeting was held in Graz, Austria, on 1 June 1997, during the first conference to be devoted to a general reflection of Word and Music Studies. It is a sign of prosperity that WMA membership has increased from 26 in Graz (1997) to 54 at Ann Arbor (1999) and today holds at 103. The truly international character of the Association is reflected in the fact that our present 103 members come from 24 different nations, and from all five continents (with 31 members from the USA, followed by the UK and Germany with 11 members each, and Sweden with 7).

The Association has so far organized five conferences, at a biannual rhythm. The theme of the Graz conference (1997) was “Defining the Field”, a topic which has found continued investigation at later conferences (it is now called “Surveying the Field”). At the Ann Arbor conference (August 1999), convened by Siglind Bruhn, “The Song Cycle” was the central subject, while the theme of the Sydney conference (August 2001), held at the invitation of Michael Halliwell, was “Cultural Identity and the Musical Stage”. The fourth WMA conference took place in Berlin (June 2003), organized by Albrecht RiethmÜller, and had as its special topic “Music and the Spoken Word”. In August 2005, Simon Williams and Eric Prieto invited WMA to Santa Barbara, CA, for a conference on “Word/Music Adaptation”. This year’s conference will be held, in a few weeks, at Edinburgh, organized by Peter Dayan and Mary Breatnach, with the main topic of “Self-reference in Literature and Music”. For 2009, we have an invitation to go to Vienna. Since the Berlin conference, a “Word and Music Studies Forum” has been a regular feature of WMA conferences, which gives—particularly younger—scholars an opportunity of presenting their work without the need of conforming to a given conference theme. I am grateful to all our local organizers for their invaluable, efficient work in running the conferences. It is only a small gesture of thanks that—by decision of the WMA General Assembly—they regularly receive honorary WMA memberships.

The other major WMA activity, besides holding the conferences, is the publication of our annual book series, Word and Music Studies (WMS). I am pleased to say that our cooperation with the publisher, Rodopi (Amsterdam/New York, NY), is excellent and that we are mutually satisfied about having been able to keep up our high standard over all the years. This is due both to the efficiency of the publisher’s staff and to the energy, devotion and expertise applied by our volume and series editors. The book series not only contains all the WMA conference proceedings but also focuses on those scholars who have made a major contribution to establishing Word and Music Studies as an independent and recognized scholarly field (Calvin S. Brown, Steven Paul Scher, Ulrich Weisstein). In addition, occasional monographs are published which represent significant trends in the development of the field. (For a complete survey of the book series see the list below.)

It remains to be said that WMA—by common belief, having survived for ten years now—has stood the test of time and can expect to continue stirring forcefully. A bright future can be envisioned if initiative, enthusiasm and cooperation of the Executive Board remain as strong as before and WMA members stay as loyal as they have kindly been before.

Walter Bernhart
Graz, Austria, 1 August 2007

Book Series

WMS 1: Defining the Field (1999)

edited by Walter Bernhart, Steven Paul Scher and Werner Wolf

WMS 2: Musico-Poetics in Perspective: Calvin S. Brown in Memoriam (2000)

edited by Jean-Louis Cupers and Ulrich Weisstein

WMS 3: Essays on the Song Cycle and Defining the Field (2001)

edited by Walter Bernhart and Werner Wolf with David L. Mosley

WMS 4: Essays in Honor of Steven Paul Scher and on Cultural Identity and the Musical Stage (2002)

edited by Suzanne M. Lodato, Suzanne Aspden and Walter Bernhart

WMS 5: Essays on Literature and Music from 1967-2004 (2003)

by Steven Paul Scher; edited by Walter Bernhart and Werner Wolf

WMS 6: Opera and the Novel: The Case of Henry James (2004)

by Michael Halliwell; edited by Walter Bernhart

WMS 7: Essays on Music and the Spoken Word and on Surveying the Field (2005)

edited by Suzanne M. Lodato and David Urrows

WMS 8: Selected Essays on Opera (2006)

by Ulrich Weisstein

WMS 9: Proceedings from WMA5, Santa Barbara, CA (anticipated in 2007)

edited by David Urrows

WMS 10: The Gaze of the Listener: English Representations of Domestic Music-Making (anticipated in 2008)

by Regula Hohl Trillini

WMS 11: Proceedings from WMA6, Edinburgh (anticipated in 2009)

New Members

The Association is pleased to report a 26% increase in membership since 2003.

Forum Papers from Edinburgh Conference

Recent Word and Music Publications by WMA Members

Speakers and Topics for Vienna Conference (2009)