By A-R Editions
On the last day of the 87th Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, a professional development roundtable took place that is potentially of great import to the future of critical edition making and publishing. “Can the White Page be Overwritten? Race and Representation in Critical Editions” brought together four panelists, all of whom actively work with editing, performing, or cataloging the work of underrepresented composers: A. Kori Hill, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who is writing a dissertation on the music of Florence Price; Samantha Ege, of the University of Oxford, a scholar and performer who has worked extensively on Florence Price, and whose upcoming recording project Renaissance Women: Works by the Women-Composer-Pianists of the Black Chicago Renaissance is the recipient of this year’s AMS Noah Greenberg award; Melanie Zeck, a reference librarian at the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center, previously of the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago; and Mark Clague, Co-Editor in Chief of the Music of the United States of America series published by A-R Editions. Alexander Dean, managing editor at A-R Editions, served as the chair of the roundtable.
The session was well attended, and the ensuing discussion demonstrated the depth of the concern and commitment in the musicological community. There was much discussion of what has been done in the past and what might be done in the future, with contributions from such luminaries as Louise Toppin and Naomi André (both of the University of Michigan). Near the end of the discussion, Dr. André stated that “we could be at a revolutionary moment,” an optimistic message for a difficult time. Here at A-R we certainly applaud the sentiment and are heartened at the display of interest and engagement shown by the attendees of this roundtable.
