Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Backbeat
Musicologist Steve Bauer discusses the history of the backbeat: Click HERE (original link removed because of autoplay).
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Stanford researcher maps melodies used in Holocaust to control prisoners
Stanford Report, July 18, 2012
Stanford researcher maps melodies used in Holocaust to control prisoners
German Studies doctoral student Melissa Kagen examines where music was played in Nazi concentration camps, uncovering how music can function as a means for controlling and torturing prisoners in present-day detention facilities.
By Benjamin Hein
The Humanities at Stanford
It's hard to imagine Bing Crosby's classic ragtime song "Sweet Sue, Just You" wafting through a Nazi German concentration camp.
But at Auschwitz-Birkenau – the most infamous Holocaust prison – a mix of American jazz and ragtime classics, as well as somber hymns and marching songs, could often be heard within the camp walls.
This strange medley of melodies has long intrigued Melissa Kagen, a doctoral candidate in German Studies at Stanford. So last winter, Kagen began a research project to examine the camp's musical culture in the context of geographical space.
She wanted to know if where the music played in the camps – whether in the kitchen, near a gate or in cells – had different effects on the inhabitants.
Using survivor testimonies and camp administration records, she is developing digital maps of the "musical geography" of the prison.
By focusing on the spatial aspects of music, Kagen's research offers historical insight into how music can be used as a means for controlling and torturing prisoners in present-day detention facilities.
Because it was among the first prison camps to systematically employ music in such a way, Auschwitz provides a valuable case study that sets a precedent for facilities such as Guantánamo Bay where music has been used as a form of "no-touch" torture.
Measuring music's impact
Scholars have long known that music was a regular part of life in Nazi concentration camps. But the inherently transient nature of sound has made it difficult to measure its impact on the camp and its inhabitants.
"Music in the Holocaust is a relatively well-explored research topic," said Kagen, a student of modern German musicology and literature. "But because it does not leave a lasting historical footprint, it has not been considered spatially before."
Kagen uses an unconventional interpretation method to translate the source material into a visual form. Rather than dwelling on the significance of a specific song, she focuses on references about the locations where music was heard.
"Reading the first-hand accounts of prisoners, I noticed that one particular space – Block 24, near the camp entrance – kept coming up in relation to music," she said.
Music, as Kagen discovered, provided a proportionally small number of prison guards with the means to maintain control over large portions of the camp without any actual physical presence.
Read the full post HERE.
It's hard to imagine Bing Crosby's classic ragtime song "Sweet Sue, Just You" wafting through a Nazi German concentration camp.
But at Auschwitz-Birkenau – the most infamous Holocaust prison – a mix of American jazz and ragtime classics, as well as somber hymns and marching songs, could often be heard within the camp walls.
This strange medley of melodies has long intrigued Melissa Kagen, a doctoral candidate in German Studies at Stanford. So last winter, Kagen began a research project to examine the camp's musical culture in the context of geographical space.
She wanted to know if where the music played in the camps – whether in the kitchen, near a gate or in cells – had different effects on the inhabitants.
Using survivor testimonies and camp administration records, she is developing digital maps of the "musical geography" of the prison.
By focusing on the spatial aspects of music, Kagen's research offers historical insight into how music can be used as a means for controlling and torturing prisoners in present-day detention facilities.
Because it was among the first prison camps to systematically employ music in such a way, Auschwitz provides a valuable case study that sets a precedent for facilities such as Guantánamo Bay where music has been used as a form of "no-touch" torture.
Measuring music's impact
Scholars have long known that music was a regular part of life in Nazi concentration camps. But the inherently transient nature of sound has made it difficult to measure its impact on the camp and its inhabitants.
"Music in the Holocaust is a relatively well-explored research topic," said Kagen, a student of modern German musicology and literature. "But because it does not leave a lasting historical footprint, it has not been considered spatially before."
Kagen uses an unconventional interpretation method to translate the source material into a visual form. Rather than dwelling on the significance of a specific song, she focuses on references about the locations where music was heard.
"Reading the first-hand accounts of prisoners, I noticed that one particular space – Block 24, near the camp entrance – kept coming up in relation to music," she said.
Music, as Kagen discovered, provided a proportionally small number of prison guards with the means to maintain control over large portions of the camp without any actual physical presence.
Read the full post HERE.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Oldest Surviving Representative Sculpture?
This is a photo of the oldest known sculpture of a woman, created from mammoth ivory found at Dolní Věstonice, Moravia, Czech Republic. c.26,000 years old. Height 4.8 cm. Courtesy of the Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Earl "Fatha" Hines in 1979
This is one of those things where I say bless the internet. Pianists Joshua White reminded me of Fatha Hines today on Facebook, and it reminded me that I had seen him twice in the 70s when I was a teenager. I probably saw him in 1977 and 1978 or 1979, so I am really happy to have found this footage. I remember seeing him at the Mandeville Theater at UCSD and I was in the front row, right in front of the piano. And he was close enough to front stage that I could see his face while he played, even if he was hunched down over the keys. His toupee looked more artificial than ever, but his suit was still sharp enough to slice paper. Sometimes he played upright, facing the musicians, but there were times, especially on ballads, when he would bend over the keys, sometimes eyes closed, sometimes eyes scanning the keys, and I have to say that I felt honored to watch him in his private world, seeing him enchanted by his muse and filled by his own music, living in a musical world he helped create. It was really moving to watch him play then.