MP5: Historical Keyboarding
About
Drawing on the holdings of Corridor institutions, this Working Group explores the cultural, political, ecological, and aesthetic potential of keyboard instruments ranging from the clavichord and organ to the carillon and the Moog synthesizer.
Open to New People
Active since: 2019
- Syracuse University
- Cornell University
- University of Rochester
Collaborative Goals
Comprising scholars of music and sound along the Corridor, our team aims to reconceive our objects of study by scrutinizing their material components (such as ivory, ebony, timber, leather, hair, shellac, electricity, plastic, and code) alongside the musical techniques and practices that animate them. In the process, we investigate concepts of valuation, waste, sustainability, technology, and nature while thinking about what it means to create, distribute, and consume music and sound responsibly.
Group Organizers
Anne Laver
Assistant Professor of Applied Music and Performance; University Organist, Syracuse University
Annette Richards
Given Foundation Professor in the Humanities and University Organist, Cornell University
Holly Watkins
Chair and Associate Professor, Musicology, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
Group Members
- Morton Wan, Graduate Student, Cornell University
- David Yearsley, Herbert Gussman Professor of Music, Cornell University
- Thomas Tianliang Feng, Graduate Student, Cornell University
- Federico Ercoli, Graduate Student, University of Rochester
Activities
Keyboard Energies brainstorming meeting
May 8, 2024, 2 p.m.
Reframing Histories of the Organ in the United States #3
Dec. 13, 2023, 3:30 p.m.
Reframing Histories of the Organ in the United States #2
Nov. 1, 2023, 3:45 p.m.