150 · Representative Documents: Finding Aids and Guides
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
American Musicological Society records
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?q=american%20musicological%20society&id=EAD_
upenn_rbml_MsColl221&%23ref8
American Musicological Society records, 1934-1992
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?q=american%20musicological%20society&id=EAD_upenn_rbml_MsColl221&%23ref8[6/23/15, 2:33:45 PM]
both publications. While the Journal printed scholarly articles and reviews, the
Newsletter printed messages from the President, reports of committees, schedules
of annual meetings, budgets, obituaries, and other news. The Newsletter editor
collected material from officers and committees and published two issues each year.
This subseries contains correspondence between officers and the Newsletter editor,
drafts, undated submissions, and a mailing list. Material generated by the Journal
editor and editorial board can be found in Ms. Coll. 222.
The Society also undertook publications projects for the interests of its own
members, such as the Abstracts of Papers and Bulletins, which preceded the Journal,
and also the AMS Anniversary Booklet written by Richard Crawford. In addition, they
released non-scholarly reference pamphlets, usually funded by the Publications
Committee Budget. Included in these were the long-running Doctoral Dissertations
in Musicology, first compiled by Helen Hewitt, and later by Cecil Adkins, The Report
of the International Musicological Society Congress in 1977, and the listing of
placement opportunities. Other general publications material includes lists of
publications, budgets, copyright certificates, publications orders, permissions, and
order books.
Annual Meetings and Events
The central event on the AMS calendar was the Annual Meeting. These meetings
included the presentation of scholarly papers, concerts, banquets, meetings of the
board and council, and the presentation of awards. The AMS held its first Annual
Meeting in Philadelphia in 1935. This meeting was held jointly with the MTNA.
Throughout its history the AMS met with other societies, both to defray costs and to
encourage an interchange of ideas. The AMS frequently met with the College Music
Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Society for Music Theory. On
several occasions the AMS combined their annual meeting with a meeting of the
IMS, for which they played host. This collection contains substantial records for three
IMS congresses: the New York Congress in 1939 the New York Congress in 1961
and the Berkeley Congress in 1977. A videotape of the performance of “Apollo and
the Nine Muses” can be found with the box of memorabilia. While for the first
decade of its existence the Society held most of their conferences on the East Coast,
they soon instituted a policy of rotating the meetings among different regions of the
country.
As the size of the membership grew, these annual events became more and more
difficult to organize. Though the first annual meetings were planned only months
before they happened, in later years the planning began as early as six or seven
years ahead of schedule. The planning for an annual meeting was undertaken by a
group of committees, in conjunction with the officers and Board: the Program
Committee, and the Local Committee, and the Performance Committee, each
appointed by the President. The Program Committee was made up of members from
across the country, including the chair of the Committee for the previous years, and
the chair of the Committee for the following year. This committee was responsible
for reading and selecting abstracts of the papers to be presented. The Performance
Committee was responsible for scheduling concerts during the conference. The Local
Committee bore the brunt of the work this committee comprised regionally based
members, whose responsibility it was to coordinate hotel accommodations, collect
registrations, and take care of practical matters.
Material available for a given annual meeting varies in quantity from a single
program to three boxes of papers regarding every aspect of the meeting. This
material includes correspondence between officers and program committee
members, arrangements with hotels and exhibitors, programs and drafts, insurance
forms, registration forms, and proposed abstracts.
Chapters
As the Society grew from a relatively local organization to a body of more than
3,000 individuals across the U.S. and Canada, it formed into smaller regional
organizations or chapters. These individual chapters held events and conferences of
their own on a more frequent basis, perhaps once or twice a month. Chapters were
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
American Musicological Society records
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?q=american%20musicological%20society&id=EAD_
upenn_rbml_MsColl221&%23ref8
American Musicological Society records, 1934-1992
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?q=american%20musicological%20society&id=EAD_upenn_rbml_MsColl221&%23ref8[6/23/15, 2:33:45 PM]
both publications. While the Journal printed scholarly articles and reviews, the
Newsletter printed messages from the President, reports of committees, schedules
of annual meetings, budgets, obituaries, and other news. The Newsletter editor
collected material from officers and committees and published two issues each year.
This subseries contains correspondence between officers and the Newsletter editor,
drafts, undated submissions, and a mailing list. Material generated by the Journal
editor and editorial board can be found in Ms. Coll. 222.
The Society also undertook publications projects for the interests of its own
members, such as the Abstracts of Papers and Bulletins, which preceded the Journal,
and also the AMS Anniversary Booklet written by Richard Crawford. In addition, they
released non-scholarly reference pamphlets, usually funded by the Publications
Committee Budget. Included in these were the long-running Doctoral Dissertations
in Musicology, first compiled by Helen Hewitt, and later by Cecil Adkins, The Report
of the International Musicological Society Congress in 1977, and the listing of
placement opportunities. Other general publications material includes lists of
publications, budgets, copyright certificates, publications orders, permissions, and
order books.
Annual Meetings and Events
The central event on the AMS calendar was the Annual Meeting. These meetings
included the presentation of scholarly papers, concerts, banquets, meetings of the
board and council, and the presentation of awards. The AMS held its first Annual
Meeting in Philadelphia in 1935. This meeting was held jointly with the MTNA.
Throughout its history the AMS met with other societies, both to defray costs and to
encourage an interchange of ideas. The AMS frequently met with the College Music
Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Society for Music Theory. On
several occasions the AMS combined their annual meeting with a meeting of the
IMS, for which they played host. This collection contains substantial records for three
IMS congresses: the New York Congress in 1939 the New York Congress in 1961
and the Berkeley Congress in 1977. A videotape of the performance of “Apollo and
the Nine Muses” can be found with the box of memorabilia. While for the first
decade of its existence the Society held most of their conferences on the East Coast,
they soon instituted a policy of rotating the meetings among different regions of the
country.
As the size of the membership grew, these annual events became more and more
difficult to organize. Though the first annual meetings were planned only months
before they happened, in later years the planning began as early as six or seven
years ahead of schedule. The planning for an annual meeting was undertaken by a
group of committees, in conjunction with the officers and Board: the Program
Committee, and the Local Committee, and the Performance Committee, each
appointed by the President. The Program Committee was made up of members from
across the country, including the chair of the Committee for the previous years, and
the chair of the Committee for the following year. This committee was responsible
for reading and selecting abstracts of the papers to be presented. The Performance
Committee was responsible for scheduling concerts during the conference. The Local
Committee bore the brunt of the work this committee comprised regionally based
members, whose responsibility it was to coordinate hotel accommodations, collect
registrations, and take care of practical matters.
Material available for a given annual meeting varies in quantity from a single
program to three boxes of papers regarding every aspect of the meeting. This
material includes correspondence between officers and program committee
members, arrangements with hotels and exhibitors, programs and drafts, insurance
forms, registration forms, and proposed abstracts.
Chapters
As the Society grew from a relatively local organization to a body of more than
3,000 individuals across the U.S. and Canada, it formed into smaller regional
organizations or chapters. These individual chapters held events and conferences of
their own on a more frequent basis, perhaps once or twice a month. Chapters were
