Clyde Brockett

Professor of Music, emeritus
Christopher Newport University

My cue to this congratulatory offering comes from a fellow 1934-er, Leeman Perkins. It was not only the year of our birth that links us but also our respective connections to Columbia University: his as professor, mine as a M.A. and Ph.D. student (much earlier of course). Musicology, importantly, would introduce me to the AMS, which convened at Columbia, Yale and Princeton in September 1961 for its twenty-second annual meeting, together with the IMS. Like a typical graduate student then, I was awed in the presence of those whose names were appearing and would appear ubiquitously on pages of my studies, alongside my professors Lang and Mitchell, then visibly active in our Society. Vivid in memory for its contribution to my primary research interest was the ill-fated thirty-fifth AMS annual meeting just after Christmas 1969. I was to be introduced by Kenneth Levy -- whom I had long looked forward to meeting -- scheduled to chair the session “Liturgical Chant, East and West.” But Ken was stuck in the U.S. East with all flights to the ice-encrusted runways of St. Louis airport cancelled. Still, I was rewarded to meet the late Miloš Velimirović, also on that session. Those were the days when many ‘famous’ could be seen and recognized. While perhaps not as easily done today, we all appreciate more greatly the healthy increase in the size and programs of our professional organization. Congratulations and happy birthday, AMS! Cheers on growing and flourishing, with the one-worded motto of my hometown (Norfolk, VA): Crescas.

Leofranc Holford-Strevens

Consultant Scholar-Editor
Oxford University Press

Having come into musicology in my 40s, and been with the AMS only since 1991, not to mention living in England and coming over only for the Annual Meetings, I can hardly compete in reminiscences with those who have grown up with the Society and attended all their local chapter meetings; but I can say that from the start in that freezing Chicago November I have felt welcome and at home. Ever since then the Annual Meeting has been something to look forward to and enjoy, a stimulating occasion on which I hear good papers, meet old friends, and make new ones.

Virginia Newes

Cambridge, Massachusetts

When I arrived back in Boston in 1977 after 18 years raising a family in Europe, I had a newly-minted Licence en musicologie but almost no work history. Against everyone’s better judgment, I enrolled in the doctoral program at Brandeis, and a couple of years later found myself giving my first AMS paper at the national meeting in Denver. What encouraged me most in this late-life career launch was the collegiality I found at AMS, the sense of excitement at being part of an immensely varied and continually renewed scholarly enterprise. Best wishes for your next 75 years!

Margaret Switten

Professor of French emeritus
Mount Holyoke College

I am not a card-carrying musicologist, although music is an important part of my scholarly activity as a medievalist. The musician in the family was my husband. He was the member of the Society. When he died, I thought dropping the membership would be logical. But when I did, I discovered that without the Society and its Journal, my own scholarly life was impoverished. So I reeinstated the membership. I particularly appreciate the Journal because of what seems to me to be the uniformly high quality of the articles and the thoroughness of the reviews. The Newsletter reflects the intensity of the Society's support for scholarship and for the scholars who provide it, in addition to keeping me up-to-date on the activities of colleagues. I find the Society consistently imaginative in maintaining and renewing the vigor of its field and appreciate its willingness to engage in (sometimes rowdy) dialogue with other disciplines. So I'm happy to say "Happy Birthday."

Andrew H. Weaver

Assistant Professor of Music
The Catholic University of America

I’ll never forget my first AMS meeting: New York City, 1995. As an undergraduate who had recently decided to pursue graduate study in musicology, I had no idea what to expect. I was staying with friends elsewhere in the city, but because the program said that registration began at 9 am Thursday, I was in the hotel lobby by 8:45 sharp! The weekend was an overwhelming blur, and yet I still clearly remember many of the conversations I had and the papers I heard. I knew that this was the place for me.

Since then, AMS has become an important annual ritual, a fantastic opportunity to catch up with old friends, to meet new people, and of course to hear stimulating papers. I feel privileged to be part of such a wonderful community, and now that I’m in a position in which I’m mentoring my own students, I have enjoyed introducing them to the joys of our Society. I know I will continue to rely on the AMS for the rest of my career, and I only hope that I can give back to the Society all that it has offered me.

Happy 75th Birthday, AMS! You’re looking better than ever!

Birthday Wishes Archive