Michael Buchler from SMT-V

 This morning Megan Long, the editor of SMT-V, announced an option for viewing Michael's video essay on "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." 

In celebration of opening day of baseball season, we are happy to announce the latest archival re-release from the SMT-V(ault), Michael Buchler's fun and festive video-article "I Don't Care if I Never Get Back: Optimism and Ascent in 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game'" (SMT-V 7.4). Enjoy learning to hear this classic baseball song in a brand new way!

My earlier post about it was made on June 8, 2021: link. The publication of my essay on two songs by Charles K. Harris took place on January 23, 2022:  link.

Note: "Essays published on the Texas ScholarWorks platform, 2012-2022" updates earlier indices for all topic areas I have explored over the past decade. Here is the link.  

Updated list of titles

"Essays published on the Texas ScholarWorks platform, 2012-2022" updates earlier indices for all topic areas I have explored over the past decade. Here is the link.  Entries for each essay include title, abstract, and link.

Here is the abstract:

This is a list of essays I have published on this platform in the past decade. Topics include documentation of ascending and upper-register cadence gestures in European and European-influenced musics, studies of the major dominant ninth chord, and formal functions (after Caplin) in music by Mozart and his contemporaries.

 An author search on the platform's home page will give two "David Neumeyer"s--they're both me:link 1 to 62 entries; link 2 to 23 entries.

Here are three other blogs I have written and maintained over the years: On the Dominant Ninth Chord; Hearing Schubert D779n13; Dance and Dance Music, 1650-1850. 

New Publications in the New Historical Survey series

 I have published the following on the Texas ScholarWorks platform:

Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 3a: 1650-1700

Part 3a of a multi-part essay gathers compositions with ascending lines and upper-register cadence gestures in European music from 1650 to 1700. Composers in Part 3a1 are Cazzati, Falconieri, Legrenzi, Marini, Merula, and Uccellini; in Part 3a2, Thomas Cross, John Gamble, John Jenkins, Henry Lawes, and Christopher Simpson; in Part 3a3, Aux-Cousteaux, Berthod, Cazzati, Legrenzi, Lully, and Macé; and in Part 3a4, Boyvin, Louis Couperin, Kusser, LeBègue, Mayr, Nivers, and Vitali.

Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 3b: 1700-1780

This is Part 3b of a multi-part essay gathering compositions with ascending lines and cadence gestures in European and European-influenced music. Composers include, among others, Archimbaud, J. S. Bach, Boismortier, Fux, Kirnberger, Le Roux, Mouret, Mozart, Schulz, Tartini, and Telemann. A publisher included is Gerhard Fredrik Witvogel. 

Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 5b1: Hymnals by Augustus and Frederick Fillmore, 1847-1893 

Part 5b1 is a supplement to Part 5b of the New Historical Survey. Where Part 5b offered examples from Shaker and Mormon hymnals published between 1893 and 1909, Part 5b1 covers six earlier hymnals compiled and partly written by the Fillmores and published in Cincinnati between 1847 and 1893. The earliest of them, The Christian Psalmist, was co-authored by Silas W. Leonard and Augustus D. Fillmore; it combined standard notation with two other formats and was one of the commercially most successful American hymnals of the 19th century. 

Update 18 December 2024: I have published the last two entries in the New Historical Survey series. Link to Part 4 summary. Link to Part 5 summary. 

Charles K. Harris, "After the Ball" and "The Last Farewell"

I have published the essay Text and Music in Two Songs by Charles K. Harris on the Texas ScholarWorks platform. Here is the link: Harris.

Here is the abstract:

 In 2021, SMT-V, an online journal of the Society for Music Theory, published a video essay by Michael Buchler, Professor of Music in the College of Music, Florida State University. It’s titled "I Don’t Care if I Never Get Back: Optimism and Ascent in 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'.” In this essay I examine similar songs from the era: Charles K. Harris, “After the Ball” (1892) and “The Last Farewell” (1903).

See also the post on this blog: "Michael Buchler on 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame'." Link.

Index to Ascending Cadence Gestures

This post was updated on March 20, 2024 to point to a subsequent updated index published in December 2022: post.

See also this post for additional titles published in 2023-2024: post.

 

New publications: Kern and Gershwin songs; polkas after 1860

I have published four new essays on the Texas ScholarWorks platform.

These two are bundled under one heading:  Alternate cadences in recordings of "All the Things You Are" and "Embraceable You"

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.

Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 4b2: 1780-1860, Polkas (2)

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.

Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 5d2: 1860-1900, Polkas

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”).

Michael Buchler on "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

SMT-V is the peer-reviewed video journal of the Society for Music Theory. In the newly released issue 7.4, Michael Buchler reveals the aspirational side to Tin Pan Alley in "I Don’t Care if I Never Get Back: Optimism and Ascent in 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'.” Link to SMT-V.

Here is the abstract:

The chorus of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” (Von Tilzer and Norworth, 1908) is familiar to anyone who has attended baseball games in North America. However, relatively few people are aware that there is an introductory verse that poetically and contrapuntally motivates and anticipates the well-known chorus. This video article demonstrates some relationships between the verse and chorus and also challenges an earlier analysis that views this song through the lens of common-practice melodic norms.

In the film, Michael mentions statements I have made about rising and upper-register cadences as being common in 19th century operetta and its descendants in 20th century musicals. Here are some essays where I discuss that topic:

Offenbach, Rising Melodic Gestures in La belle Hélène (1864). See the Introduction, section "Historical note on ascending cadence gestures" (p. 5). Link.

Offenbach, Rising Melodic Gestures in Orphée aux Enfers (1858; rev. 1874). Link.

Offenbach, Two One-act Operettas: Les deux aveugles (1855) and Pomme d’Api (1873). Link.

Johann Strauss, jr., Die Fledermaus: Ascending Cadence Gestures on Stage. Link.

On Ascending Cadence Gestures in Adolphe Adam's Le Châlet (1834). Link.

A Gallery of Simple Examples of Extended Rising Melodic Shapes, Volume 2. Section on Victor Herbert.  Link.

Addendum to the Historical Survey, with an Index. Section on Tin Pan Alley and Broadway. Link.