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Music

Jazz & African and African American Musical History

December 28, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastThis episode of Ben Franklin’s World is the final of a 5-episode series about music in Early America.

Jon Beebe, a Jazz pianist, professional musician, and an interpretive ranger at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, leads listeners on an exploration of how and why African rhythms and beats came to play important roles in the musical history and musical evolution of the Untied States. [Read more…] about Jazz & African and African American Musical History

Filed Under: Arts, History Tagged With: Black History, Jazz, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Podcasts

Music and Politics in the Early United States

December 21, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastWhat was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans — Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans — integrate and use music in their daily lives? This episode of Ben Franklin’s World is the fourth of a 5-episode series about music in Early America.

The exploration continues with music and politics in the early United States. Billy Coleman, an Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the University of Missouri and author of the book Harnessing Harmony: Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788-1865 (UNC Press, 2020), joins Liz Covart to investigate the role music played in early American politics. [Read more…] about Music and Politics in the Early United States

Filed Under: History Tagged With: art, Art History, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Podcasts, Political History

Amateur Musicians in the Early United States

December 14, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcast

The exploration continues with Amateur Musicians in the Early United States. Glenda Goodman, an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the book Cultivated by Hand: Amateur Musicians in the Early American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2020) joins Liz Covart to investigate the role of music in the lives of wealthy white Americans during the earliest days of the early American republic. [Read more…] about Amateur Musicians in the Early United States

Filed Under: Arts, History Tagged With: Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Podcasts

Music in British North America

December 7, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastWhat was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans — Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans — integrate and use music in their daily lives? This episode of Ben Franklin’s World is the second of a 5-episode series about music in Early America.

The exploration continues with Anglo-American music in British North America. Liz’s guest is David Hildebrand is a musicologist and an expert on early American music. [Read more…] about Music in British North America

Filed Under: History Tagged With: art, Art History, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Podcasts

Music and Song in Native North America

November 30, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastWhat was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans — Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans — integrate and use music in their daily lives? This episode of Ben Franklin’s World is the first of a 5-episode series about music in Early America.

The exploration begins with music in Native America. Chad Hamill, an ethnomusicologist who studies Native American and Indigenous music, guides Liz through Native North America’s musical landscapes before European colonization. [Read more…] about Music and Song in Native North America

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Art History, Black History, Indigenous History, Music, Musical History, Native American History, Podcasts

Bayreuth & New York; Wagner & Bernstein

October 10, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Richard Wagner’s villa in BayreuthIn 1943 Henry Alexander Murray, a psychologist at Harvard University, was commissioned by William Joseph Donovan (“Wild Bill Donovan”) – founding father of the CIA – to prepare an investigative report on behalf of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Designated as the “Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler,” it became a ground-breaking study in the fields of offender profiling and political psychology. The inquiry into the malignant and narcissistic personality of the Führer was an effort to understand the “charismatic” nature of his leadership and an attempt to “predict” patterns of his behavior and actions. [Read more…] about Bayreuth & New York; Wagner & Bernstein

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: German-American History, Jewish History, LGBTQ, Military History, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Psychology, Theatre, World War Two

The Doomed 1979 Hurleyville Music Festival

September 11, 2022 by John Conway Leave a Comment

Leon Greenberg in the 1970sThe weekend of August 24th to 26th in 1979 was supposed to be a significant one in Sullivan County, NY history. Plans had been made for some of the top musical acts in the business to appear at the site of the defunct and burned out Columbia Hotel in Hurleyville for a three-day festival that was envisioned as the precursor to an upscale performance venue that would have reversed the area’s sagging economic fortunes. [Read more…] about The Doomed 1979 Hurleyville Music Festival

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Catskills, Fallsburg, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Sullivan County, Woodstock

Harlem on Fire: Langston Hughes & Wallace Henry Thurman

July 26, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

Ad for Hotel OlgaBefore the arrival of European settlers, the flatland area that would become Harlem (originally: Nieuw Haarlem after the Dutch city of that name) was inhabited by the indigenous Munsee speakers, the Lenape. The first settlers from the Low Countries arrived in the late 1630s.

Harlem was an agricultural center under British rule (attempts to change the name of the community to “Lancaster” failed and the authorities reluctantly adopted the Anglicised name of Harlem). During the American Revolutionary War in September 1776 it was the site of the Battle of Harlem Heights. Later, rich elites built country houses there in order to escape from the city’s dirt and epidemics (Alexander Hamilton built his Harlem estate in 1802). [Read more…] about Harlem on Fire: Langston Hughes & Wallace Henry Thurman

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Cultural History, French History, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, LGBTQ, Literature, Music, Musical History, New York City, Performing Arts, Poetry

30th Annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival

July 15, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

30th Annual Finger Lakes Grassroot FestivalThe 30th Annual Finger Lakes Grassroot Festival, featuring over 80 performers on 5 stages over the course of 4 days, has been set for July 21st through 24th, at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds in Trumansburg, in Tompkins County, NY. [Read more…] about 30th Annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival

Filed Under: Arts, Events, Western NY Tagged With: Music

The Albany Museum: Curiosities, Circus & Performing Arts

July 4, 2022 by Peter Hess 3 Comments

1848 painting of State Street in Albany by John Wilson, the Albany Museum is on the right in the building with the colonnade (courtesy Albany Institute of History and Art)Albany’s first museum was started in 1798 in a building on the corner of Green and Beaver streets. In the summer of 1808, two royal tigers were housed at the Thespian Hotel, a circus pitched its tent, and Ralph Letton started the Albany Museum.

The Albany Museum was located in the Old City Hall (Stadt Huys) on the northeastern corner of South Market Street and Hudson Avenue (today’s Broadway and Hudson Avenue). The Old City Hall was built in 1741 and was the site of the 1754 Albany Congress meeting where Benjamin Franklin first proposed the Albany Plan, a plan of union of the colonies that later was a basis for the U.S. Constitution. On its steps, the Declaration of Independence was first read to Albany on July 19, 1776 by the order of the Provincial Congress. With the construction of the new building on Eagle Street in 1808, the Old City Hall was converted into the Albany Museum. [Read more…] about The Albany Museum: Curiosities, Circus & Performing Arts

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Art History, Circus, Cultural History, Museums, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, PT Barnum, Rensselaer County, Theatre, Troy

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