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Ambrosiana at Harvard
New Sources of Milanese Chant
Thomas Forrest Kelly
Harvard University Press, 2010

This collection of ten essays constitutes the proceedings of a two-day conference held at Harvard in October 2007. The conference focused on three medieval manuscripts of Ambrosian chant owned by Houghton Library. The Ambrosian liturgy and its music, practiced in and around medieval Milan, were rare regional survivors of the Catholic Church’s attempt to adopt a universal Roman liturgy and the chant now known as Gregorian. Two of the manuscripts under scrutiny had been recently acquired (one perhaps the oldest surviving source of Ambrosian music), and the third manuscript, long held among the Library’s collections of illuminated manuscripts, had been newly identified as Ambrosian.

The generously illustrated essays gathered here represent the work of established experts and younger scholars. Together they explore the manuscripts as physical objects and place them in their urban and historical contexts, as well as in the musical and ecclesiastical context of Milan, Italy, and medieval Europe.

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Black Space
Negotiating Race, Diversity, and Belonging in the Ivory Tower
Sherry L. Deckman
Rutgers University Press, 2022
Protests against racial injustice and anti-Blackness have swept across elite colleges and universities in recent years, exposing systemic racism and raising questions about what it means for Black students to belong at these institutions. In Black Space, Sherry L. Deckman takes us into the lives of the members of the Kuumba Singers, a Black student organization at Harvard with racially diverse members, and a self-proclaimed safe space for anyone but particularly Black students. Uniquely focusing on Black students in an elite space where they are the majority, Deckman provides a case study in how colleges and universities might reimagine safe spaces. Through rich description and sharing moments in students’ everyday lives, Deckman demonstrates the possibilities and challenges Black students face as they navigate campus culture and the refuge they find in this organization. This work illuminates ways administrators, faculty, student affairs staff, and indeed, students themselves, might productively address issues of difference and anti-Blackness for the purpose of fostering critically inclusive campus environments.
 
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Building Community Choirs in the Twenty-First Century
Re-imagining Identity through Singing in Northern Ireland
Sarah Jane Gibson
Intellect Books, 2023
An examination of how community choirs in Northern Ireland are attempting to transcend sectarian boundaries.

Building Community Choirs explores the under-researched practice of community choral singing in Northern Ireland. Sarah-Jane Gibson conducted ethnographic research with five choirs in various locations over the course of five years and illustrates how choirs reimagine identity through the ways they organize, rehearse, and perform. By actively rethinking conceptions of identities within their groups, Gibson’s study shows how gender, age, religious faith, and ethnic diversity can both influence structures of community in the region and be influenced by them.
 
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Commentaries on the Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach
A Selective Guide
Hans-Joachim Schulze. Translated by James A. Brokaw II
University of Illinois Press, 2024
Internationally recognized Bach authority Hans-Joachim Schulze authored a 225-part series on the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. In this collection, James A. Brokaw II translates a selection of the essays, illuminating a wide range of biographical and cultural features of Bach’s life and creative milieu. Schulze’s lively and engaging discussions provide a wealth of rewarding insights and perspectives focusing on individual cantatas, their texts, and the questions of chronology and context that attend them.

The University of Illinois Press has paired the volume with a special web-based companion overseen by the translator and hosted by the Illinois Open Publishing Network. This online resource includes Brokaw’s translations of all 225 of Schulze’s essays alongside digital tools for searching, sorting, and bundling the commentaries according to date of composition, position within the liturgical church year sequence, and librettist.

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Happy In Service Of Lord
African-American Sacred Vocal Harmony
Kip Lornell
University of Tennessee Press, 1995
"Happy in the Service of the Lord" provides an in-depth look at the development of the African-American gospel quartet. Focusing argely on Memphis - long famous for its blues, jazz, and soul music - Kip Lornell reveals the special contributions that quartet members have made to the cultural and musical identity of the city.
The author traces the evolution of such groups as the I. C. Glee Club Quartet, the Spirit of Memphis, the Sunset Travelers, and the Southern Wonders from the early 1920s to the late 1980s. Drawing on extensive interviews and field research, Lornell describes a unique world of radio personalities, quartet unions, fans, promoters, and singing teachers. What emerges is a fascinating picture of the complex, multilayered relationships within these communities, enhanced by a probing analysis of the gospel quartets' place within the larger contexts of popular culture and African-American history.
"Happy in the Service of the Lord" was first published in 1988. For this second edition, Lornell has added a new chapter on the role of gospel composers and the importance of spirituality in quartet performances. The first chapter, a survey of the history of quartet singing across the United States from Reconstruction to the present, has been completely rewritten to reflect the most recent scholarship. Lornell has also updated and expanded the book's audiography and bibliography.
 
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A History of the Rutgers University Glee Club
David F. Chapman
Rutgers University Press, 2022

Founded in 1872, the Glee Club is Rutgers University’s oldest continuously active student organization, as well as one of the first glee clubs in the United States. For the past 150 years, it has represented the university and presented an image of the Rutgers man on a national and international stage. 
 
This volume offers a comprehensive history of the Rutgers Glee Club, from its origins adopting traditions from the German Männerchor and British singing clubs to its current manifestation as a world-recognized ensemble. Along the way, we meet the colorful and charismatic men who have directed the group over the years, from the popular composer and minstrel performer Loren Bragdon to the classically-trained conductor Patrick Gardner. And of course, we learn what the club has meant to the generations of talented and dedicated young men who have sung in it. 
 
A History of the Rutgers University Glee Club recounts the origins of the group’s most beloved traditions, including the composition of the alma mater’s anthem “On the Banks of the Old Raritan” and the development of the annual Christmas in Carol and Song concerts. Meticulously researched, including a complete discography of the club’s recordings, this book is a must-have for all the Rutgers Glee Club’s many fans and alumni.

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The Making of Handel’s Messiah
Andrew Gant
Bodleian Library Publishing, 2020
The first performance of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah in Dublin in 1742 is now legendary. Gentlemen were asked to leave their swords at home and ladies to come without hoops in their skirts in order to fit more people into the audience. The initial performance was so well-received in Dublin that an encore performance was given a few weeks later. Why then, did this now famous and beloved oratorio receive a somewhat cool reception when it premiered in London less than a year later?

Placing Handel’s best-known work in the context of its times, this vivid account charts the composer’s working relationship with his librettist, the gifted but demanding Charles Jennens, and looks at Handel’s varied and evolving company of singers together with his royal patronage. Through examination of the original composition manuscript and Handel’s own conducting score, held in the Bodleian Library’s collection, The Making of Handel’s Messiah sheds new light on the piece’s construction, performance, and reception. Exploring the complex history of one of the most successful pieces of choral music of all time, this volume examines issues around the performance of sacred texts in a non-sacred context, particularly Handel’s collaboration with the men and boys of the Chapel Royal. This book also explores the later reception and performance history of the piece, including the festival performance attended by Haydn, the massed-choir tradition of the Victorian period, and today’s “come-and-sing” events.
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The Medici Codex of 1518, Volume 1
Historical Introduction and Commentary
Edited by Edward E. Lowinsky
University of Chicago Press, 1968
The Medici Codex of 1518 is a privately owned choirbook of motets presented by Francis I to Lorenzo de'  Medici, Duke of Urbino. One of the most beautiful manuscripts of the time, it offers and anthology of motets by the greatest composers of the Renaissance, masters such as Josquin, Mouton, Brumel, Willaert, Andreas de Silva, and Costanzo Festa.

It is invaluable for transmitting the excellent readings of the repertory of the French Royal Chapel and a number of political motets of great musical and historical interest that reflect events at the French court and are unique to this collection.

Edward E. Lowinsky presents this anthology as part of a series containing critical editions of major sources of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century music in their entirety.
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The Medici Codex of 1518, Volume 2
Transcription
Edited by Edward E. Lowinsky
University of Chicago Press, 1968
The Medici Codex of 1518 is a privately owned choirbook of motets presented by Francis I to Lorenzo de'  Medici, Duke of Urbino. One of the most beautiful manuscripts of the time, it offers and anthology of motets by the greatest composers of the Renaissance, masters such as Josquin, Mouton, Brumel, Willaert, Andreas de Silva, and Costanzo Festa.

It is invaluable for transmitting the excellent readings of the repertory of the French Royal Chapel and a number of political motets of great musical and historical interest that reflect events at the French court and are unique to this collection.

Edward E. Lowinsky presents this anthology as part of a series containing critical editions of major sources of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century music in their entirety.
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The Medici Codex of 1518, Volume 3
Facsimile Edition
Edited by Edward E. Lowinsky
University of Chicago Press, 1968
The Medici Codex of 1518 is a privately owned choirbook of motets presented by Francis I to Lorenzo de'  Medici, Duke of Urbino. One of the most beautiful manuscripts of the time, it offers and anthology of motets by the greatest composers of the Renaissance, masters such as Josquin, Mouton, Brumel, Willaert, Andreas de Silva, and Costanzo Festa.

It is invaluable for transmitting the excellent readings of the repertory of the French Royal Chapel and a number of political motets of great musical and historical interest that reflect events at the French court and are unique to this collection.

Edward E. Lowinsky presents this anthology as part of a series containing critical editions of major sources of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century music in their entirety.
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The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
A Biography
Michael Hicks
University of Illinois Press, 2015
A first-of-its-kind history, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir tells the epic story of how an all-volunteer group founded by persecuted religious outcasts grew into a multimedia powerhouse synonymous with the mainstream and with Mormonism itself.
 
Drawing on decades of work observing and researching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Michael Hicks examines the personalities, decisions, and controversies that shaped "America's choir." Here is the miraculous story behind the Tabernacle's world-famous acoustics, the anti-Mormonism that greeted early tours, the clashes with Church leaders over repertoire and presentation, the radio-driven boom in popularity, the competing visions of rival conductors, and the Choir's aspiration to be accepted within classical music even as Mormons sought acceptance within American culture at large. Everything from Billboard hits to TV appearances to White House performances paved the way for Mormonism's crossover triumph. Yet, as Hicks shows, such success raised fundamental concerns regarding the Choir's mission, functions, and image.
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O Sing unto the Lord
A History of English Church Music
Andrew Gant
University of Chicago Press, 2017
For as long as people have worshipped together, music has played a key role in church life. With O Sing unto the Lord, Andrew Gant offers a fascinating history of English church music, from the Latin chant of late antiquity to the great proliferation of styles seen in contemporary repertoires.

The ornate complexity of pre-Reformation Catholic liturgies revealed the exclusive nature of this form of worship. By contrast, simple English psalms, set to well-known folk songs, summed up the aims of the Reformation with its music for everyone. The Enlightenment brought hymns, the Methodists and Victorians a new delight in the beauty and emotion of worship. Today, church music mirrors our multifaceted worldview, embracing the sounds of pop and jazz along with the more traditional music of choir and organ. And reflecting its truly global reach, the influence of English church music can be found in everything from masses sung in Korean to American Sacred Harp singing.

From medieval chorales to “Amazing Grace,” West Gallery music to Christmas carols, English church music has broken through the boundaries of time, place, and denomination to remain familiar and cherished everywhere. Expansive and sure to appeal to all music lovers, O Sing unto the Lord is the biography of a tradition, a book about people, and a celebration of one of the most important sides to our cultural heritage.
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A Queerly Joyful Noise
Choral Musicking for Social Justice
Julia "Jules" Balén
Rutgers University Press, 2017
2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Honorable Mention, 2019 Herndon Book Prize - (SEM-GST)

A Queerly Joyful Noise examines how choral singing can be both personally transformative and politically impactful. As they blend their different voices to create something beautiful, LGBTIQ singers stand together and make themselves heard. Comparing queer choral performances to the uses of group singing within the civil rights and labor movements, Julia “Jules” Balén maps the relationship between different forms of oppression and strategic musical forms of resistance. She also explores the potential this queer communal space creates for mobilizing progressive social action. 

A proud member of numerous queer choruses, Balén draws from years of firsthand observations, archival research, and extensive interviews to reveal how queer chorus members feel shared vulnerability, collective strength, and even moments of ecstasy when performing. A Queerly Joyful Noise serves as a testament to the power of music, intimately depicting how participation in a queer chorus is more than a pastime, but a meaningful form of protest through celebration.  
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Singing for Our Lives
Stories from the Street Choirs
Campaign Choirs Writing Collective
Intellect Books, 2018

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Singing Out
GALA Choruses and Social Change
Heather MacLachlan
University of Michigan Press, 2020
Can you change the world through song? This appealing idea has long been the professed aim of singers who are part of choruses affiliated with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA). Theses choruses first emerged in the 1970s, and grew out of a very American tradition of (often gender-segregated) choral singing that explicitly presents itself as a community-based activity. By taking a close look at these choruses and their mission, Heather MacLachlan unpacks the fascinating historical and cultural dynamics behind groups that seek to change society for the better by encouraging acceptance of LGBT-identified people and promoting diversity more generally. She characterizes their mission as “integrationist rather than liberationist” and zeroes in on the inherent tension between GALA’s progressive social goals and the fact that the music most often performed by GALA groups is deeply rooted in a fairly narrowly conceived tradition of art music that identifies as white, Euro-centric, and middle class--and that much of the membership identifies as white and middle class as well.

Pundits often wax eloquent about the power of music, asserting that it can, in some positive way, change the world. Such statements often rest on an unexamined claim that music can and does foster social justice. Singing Out: GALA Choruses and Social Change tackles the premise underlying such claims, analyzing groups of amateur singers who are explicitly committed to an agenda of social justice.

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