Musicology in Bowling Green

The South Central Chapter of the American Musicological Society is descending upon the town of Bowling Green, KY this weekend for the annual chapter meeting. The town of Bowling Green, nestled in the cave country, is celebrated as the home of the saucy Corvette automobile and the temple of higher education situated at Western Kentucky University, and but a stone's throw from the remarkable Wigwam Village in Cave City, KY.

The world's largest Country Ham Display in Bowling Green, KY.

A sane person might well ponder why would one travel from various points in Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky to gather at a musicology conference. "To hobnob with one's fellow wizards on topics of mutual interest would be my response." To learn about the interesting relationship between Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven" and Ravel's hypnotic "Bolero". To see how country music was transformed into a music for and by white people in Angela Hammond's paper "Wash All Day and You'll be No Whiter than God Made You." Or to investigate the ideas of exoticism in Nasser Al-Taee's paper on "Whirling Fanatics: Orientalism, Politics, and Religious Rivalry in Western Operatic Representations of the Orient." There is a whole world of ideas about music and life out there--and this chapter meeting allows us to immerse ourselves in them for a brief moment of idylic reflection.