McGill Music Graduate Students Symposium 2000

The Music Graduate Students (MGS) of McGill University held its annual symposium on the weekend of March 3rd to 5th, 2000. Events included a performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. Keynote Address: Prof. Will Straw from McGill Dept. of Communications "Music and Material Culture."

Papers included Andrew Deruchie,(McGill): "Dream Worlds and Desire: Ravel's Shéhérezade and fin de siècle Orientalism," Chris McDonald (York) "Sex, Gender, and Myth in the Music of Tori Amos," Andrea Lowgren, (U of Oregon),"Lesbian or Hermaphrodite? Feminism and Masculinity in the Music of Dame Ethel Smyth," Beatriz Ilari (McGill): "Brazil's Capoeira and Music Education: Ideas, Suggestions and Possibilities," Lynette M. Gottlieb (SUNY Buffalo)"Musical Alienations: Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat and Brechtian Theatre," Rebekah D. Pryor (U Wisconsin-Madison Dept of German) "Fascism and the Arts Crisis in Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus," Victoria Adamenko (Rutgers) report on "Historiography of Music and Mythography: A Survey of 20th Century Approaches," Ian Knopke (McGill) "Composition and Computer Music: An Analysis of Zack Settel's Hok Pwah," Eric C. Honour, (Northwestern) "Crystals and Crescendos: Structure in the Andante of Ruth Crawford Seeger's String Quartet (1931) and Gyorgy Ligeti's Lontano," Paul Beaudoin, (Brandeis) "Sounding Geometry: Uncovering the First Movement of Gyorgy Ligeti's Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester," Lisa Lorenzino (U of Alberta) "Educational Reform and the Process of Change in Canadian University Music Education Programs," Heather Sparling (York) "Marketing Muck or Making Masterpieces? Promoting Mouth Music in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia." Lecture-recital, James R. Carlson (Duke) "Pastoral as Expressive Genre: Spiritual Quest in Beethoven's Cello Sonata Op. 102, No. 1" performance by Amanda Keesmaat and Paul Helmer.

Andrew Deruchie was awarded the Dean's Essay Prize ($500) for his paper on the music of Ravel, and Michael Free ($250) for an interdisciplinary paper on the problem of musical quotation.

Thanks to Rachel Anderson (coordinator), Mathew McFarlane, Joana Ali, Peter Franck, Michael Free, Ian Knopke, Annette Campbell, Victor Houle, Andrew Brouse and Justin Mariner, to the presenters, and the McGill Profs. who gave up a major portion of their weekend to support us, and a special thank you to Prof. Helmer for agreeing to perform on such short notice (and for free).

Contact: MGS, McGill Faculty of Music 555 Sherbrooke St. West
Montréal, Québec H3A 1E3 email: mgs@music.mcgill.ca