by Joshua Walden In 1918 the renowned St. Petersburg-trained violinist Toscha Seidel published a work for violin and piano titled “Eïli, Eïli.” The phrase “Traditional Yiddish Melody” appeared under the title, and the plaintive tune featured the augmented seconds and alternating duple and triple rhythms long associated with eastern European… Read More
by John Philip Sousa Anent the “Blurred Lines” controversy, an excerpt from Sousa’s (possibly prescient) rant “The Menace of Mechanical Music,” Appleton’s Magazine 8 (1906), 278–84. And now a word on a detail of personal interest which has a right to be heard because it voices a claim for… Read More
by Robert Fink Nothing puts musicology in the headlines like a big, juicy verdict in a musical copyright case. And they don’t come much juicier than the 7.4 million dollar judgment handed down last week by a federal jury which, enabled by extensive musicological expert testimony, decided that Robin Thicke… Read More