The symposium will take place from 9 am to 6 pm on December 10 in the William P. Kelly Skylight Room on the Ninth Floor of the Graduate Center. Participants will be presenting original research on topics that Professor Blum has elucidated over the course of his distinguished career: analysis of musical style, issues of terminology, historical questions, sung poetry, and the music of West and Central Asia. A roundtable will also be convened on Professor Blum’s teaching.  The keynote will be delivered by Virginia Danielson, Director of the Library at NYU Abu Dhabi and author of The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century. Participants include Alessandra Ciucci, Scheherazade Hassan, Christopher Hasty, BenjaminLapidus, Evan Rapport, Alexander Stewart, Nicholas Stoia, Michael Tenzer, Thomas Turino, Richard Wolf, Rob van der Bliek, and Ameneh Youssefzadeh.  

December 10th, 2015

8:30 - 9:00   Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30  Welcome

9:30 - 12:10 Panel: music and poetry Chair: Jane Sugarman (CUNY GraduateCenter)

9:30   Richard Wolf (Harvard University), “Bulbulik: Lament and Emblem at the Crossroads of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan”

10:10 Ameneh Youssefzadeh (CUNY Graduate Center), “The Influence of the Khorasani School of Mysticism on the Repertoire of Khorasani Musicians: The Story of the Dove and the Hawk”

10:50 Christopher Hasty (Harvard University), “Reading Free Verse: Experimenting with Pound’s ‘The Return’”

11:30 Scheherazade Hassan (CREM: Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie, Nanterre/CNRS and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), “The Iraqi Maqam and itsNetwork of Cultural Relationships”

12:10 – 1:15 Lunch

1:15 - 3:15 Panel: Analysis of Style, Terminology, and History
Chair: Peter Manuel (CUNY Graduate Center)

1:15 Thomas Turino (University of Kentucky, Lexington and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), “Old-Time Music: Genre, Authenticity, Preservation and Innovation”

1:55 Michael Tenzer (University of British Columbia), “A Polyphony Problematic (or… What Would Steve Do?)”

2:35 Rob van der Bliek (York University), “Historical Explanation and the Writing of Blues History”

3:15 – 3:30 Break

3:30 - 4:45  Roundtable: Pedagogy

Chair: Evan Rapport (The New School)

3:30 Benjamin Lapidus (John Jay College of Criminal Justice), “Musical Exchanges”

3:45 Nicholas Stoia (Duke University), “Rhythm and American Vernacular Music”

4:00 Alexander Stewart (University of Vermont), “Composition”

4:15 Evan Rapport (The New School),“Interdisciplinarity”

4:30 Alessandra Ciucci (Columbia University), “Writing”

4:45 – 5:00 Break

Keynote Speaker

5:00 – 5:45 Virginia Danielson (NYU, Abu Dhabi), “In Celebration of a Close Reader and Close Listener”

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