Newsletter, 2005

Message from the President

The Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA) is pleased to publish the second issue of its online Newsletter. Since the publication of the first issue, two volumes of the association’s book series, Word and Music Studies, have come out: vol. 5, Essays on Literature and Music (1967-2004) by Steven Paul Scher, and vol. 6, Opera and the Novel. The Case of Henry James by Michael Halliwell. Vol. 7 will be published within a few months from now and will contain the proceedings of the most recent conference held by the association, its 2003 Berlin conference with the special topic of “Music and the Spoken Word”. The next conference will come up soon and will be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in August 2005 with the special topic of “Adaptation”. More information about this conference can be found elsewhere in this Newsletter and on the WMA website.

One of the newly introduced features at the Berlin conference was a “Forum” section, which is meant to give word and music scholars an opportunity of presenting their work (in progress) to their colleagues without the need of conforming to given conference topics. The most interesting Forum papers are selected to be published in the Newsletters, and in this issue you will find three from very different fields of interest and by scholars from countries as diverse as Scotland, Russia and the USA. Especially younger scholars are encouraged to take up the opportunities of Forum presentations at WMA conferences. (The next conference after Santa Barbara will be held at Edinburgh in 2007.)

This Newsletter continues the earlier practice of listing important publications by WMA members in the field of word and music studies. Members are encouraged to take up the opportunity of making their work known through this channel. A new section of the Newsletter informs readers about Calls for Papers to scholarly conferences in the field, and again members are welcome to use this link to draw attention to such significant events.

The saddest event in the association’s recent history was the untimely death of Steven Paul Scher on Christmas Day of 2004. He was a founding member of the association and from the beginning one of its vice-presidents, well-loved by all and now sadly missed for his humour and his expertise. It is deeply satisfying that the association was able to publish Professor Scher’s collected word and music essays early enough to be seen and cheerfully welcomed by their author a few months before his death. Elsewhere in this Newsletter you can find words of remembrance for Steve Scher. There are also words of farewell to Victoria Hardwick, who was a loveable member of the association and who died far too young last year.

As the president of the association I am pleased to say that work on the WMA executive board is performed in a pleasant cooperative spirit, and I would like to take up the opportunity of thanking all those involved in WMA work and in letting this Newsletter see the light of day. And my greetings go out to the wider WMA membership, spread out over 23 countries, with my wish for stimulation and encouragement by WMA activities.

Walter Bernhart
Graz, Austria, 23 June 2005

In Memoriam

Steven Paul Scher

Victoria Hardwick

New Members

The Association is pleased to report an increase in membership of about 20% over the last two years. It now holds at 86.

Forum Papers from Berlin Conference

At the WMA Berlin Conference, held in June 2003, a Word and Music Studies Forum was newly introduced as part of a WMA conference. Its aim was to give more participants an opportunity to speak to the scholars gathered, by introducing a number of shorter papers which did not necessarily have to conform to the topics chosen for the conference and which also offered an opportunity of airing ideas of a more subjective character without the pressure of most rigorous scholarly standards. Three of the most interesting of the Forum papers read at the Berlin conference are here made available to the greater word-and-music community. Forum papers are planned to become a regular feature of WMA Newsletters and I hope that this new feature of WMA publications will be appreciated by our members.

Walter Bernhart

Recent Word and Music Publications by WMA Members

Speakers and Topics for Santa Barbara Conference (2005)

Calls for Papers of Interest to WMA Members

Bodies – Arts – Crossroads. The Body and Intermediality (27–30 October 2005)

Mozart: A Challenge for Literature and Thought (5-7 April 2006)

Musical Culture and Memory (11-14 April 2006)