AMS Philadelphia 2009 Abstracts - American Musicological Society

182 sunday morning AMS Philadelphia 2009
this use of spiritual topics was a means by which some African American men constructed
for themselves an alternative masculinity, differentiated from the more overt sexualization of
others on the R&B charts.
Ultimately, I find that the use of religious topics in this early doo-wop is a precursor to a
more well-known later fad—the adoption of de-sexualized lyrical subjects and increasingly
younger singers as a means by which to counter public fears of African American masculinity.
This topic is important not only in and of itself; it also address one of the major points of inquiry
in post-war African American music—the shifting duality of the secular and the sacred.
It also provides insight into the relationship of music and politics in the early Cold War, and
the complex cultural work behind the famous push for desegregation triggered by Brown v
Board of education in 1954.
RECALLING THE VOICE OF JULIUS EASTMAN
Ryan Dohoney
Columbia University
In the past decade the musical practices of the downtown New York City art scene have garnered
increased scholarly attention. From Bernard Gendron to Kyle Gann, music historians
and composer-critics have begun assessing the legacy of Downtown in the period of roughly
1974 to 1987. Downtown is notable for its geographic compactness as well as the sheer diversity
of musical practices that flourished there. New wave rock, post-minimalist classical music,
disco, and loft jazz are just the first names on a long and varied list of styles that flourished
there. Accounting for this heterotopia is no small feat for music historians and requires attention
to the contingencies of the urban landscape and the ease with which numerous musicians
moved from style to style, venue to venue, while often leaving little evidence of their work in
either score or recorded form. However, the proximity of Downtown’s heyday to our present
moment allows for some recuperation of the past through ethnography and the still-living
memory of musicians active in this milieu. Doing the history of downtown is meticulous,
genealogical, and ineluctably social.
This paper presents an account of one path of Downtown’s socio-musical network and
recovers part of the history of a central, yet nearly forgotten figure: the composer-performer
Julius Eastman (1940–1990). Most well known for his recording of eight Songs for a Mad King
by Peter Maxwell Davies, Eastman began his career with the Creative Associates at SUNY
Buffalo as a protege of Lukas Foss. At Buffalo he performed with many of the most important
composers of the late twentieth century including Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, and
Frederic Rzewski. Eastman left the Creative Associates in 1976 and settled in New York’s East
Village in the thick of Downtown’s cultural ferment.
From 1976 until his death in 1990 Julius’ model of musicianship expanded to include
free jazz, improvisation, new wave rock, disco, as well as his own composed music that is
marked by intense repetition and political aggressiveness. An account of this diversity and
the possibilities for a musical identity that it suggests is the focus of the latter portion of my
paper. Working from interviews with Eastman’s friends and collaborators, including Meredith
Monk, Mary Jane Leach, and Peter Kotik, I show the importance of Eastman’s performances,
particularly his vocal performances, to the collaborative music-making of Downtown.
I follow Eastman’s voice to the varied sites of music-making in the geography of Downtown:
experimental music at the Kitchen, improvisation at the Experimental Intermedia