Friday, July 16, 2021

New publications: Kern and Gershwin songs; polkas after 1860

I have published four new essays on the Texas ScholarWorks platform.
Abstract:
Some cadences in European and European-influenced tonal music show a contradiction in direction between registral stasis and linear movement, an example being alternative endings written into a song by Jerome Kern. The topic is explored through analysis of 51 recorded performances. In addition, a registrally complex cadence in Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” is surveyed through 44 recordings.
Abstract:
This essay supplements the Historical Survey Part 4b, which covered ascending cadence gestures in polkas between 1840 and 1861. Most items come from the Library of Congress collection Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1820 to 1860.
Abstract:
This essay continues from the Historical Survey Parts 4b & 4b2, which covered polkas between 1840 and 1861, to document ascending cadence gestures in more than fifty polkas after that, to c. 1890. Composers represented, among many others, are Gonzaga, Kéler, Johann Strauss, jr., Sullivan, and Ziehrer. An appendix discusses the Clarinet Polka and Modřanská Polka (“Beer Barrel Polka”).