2009 Echo Conference: Music and Humor
June 5 and 6, University of California, Los Angeles

All events will take place in the Kerckhoff Hall Grand Salon unless otherwise noted.
A campus map is available at www.ucla.edu/map

Registration Information:
Echo takes pride in offering our annual conference free of charge to the general public. As such, there is no pre-registration. Please come and join us!
 

Friday, June 5

Registration
1:00-2:00pm

Monsters, Macaws, and the Magnificent Seven: Mid-Century Musical Kitsch
2:00-3:30pm
Chair: Kelsey Cowger, UCLA

“A Survey of the American Novelty Song, 1958-1964”
Jeffrey Jones, University of Kentucky

“Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room: Post-War Technology, Escape and Soundscape”
Monica Ambalal, University of California, Davis

“Elmer Bernstein’s Self Parody: Music in The Magnificent Seven and ¡Three Amigos!”
Eric Heine, Oklahoma City University
 

Nonsense and Sensibility: The Subtexts of Humorous Composition
3:45-5:15pm
Chair: Graham Raulerson, UCLA

“Good grief!: The Comical Compositions of Cathy Berberian”
Kate Meehan, Washington University in St. Louis

“Mozart's Serenade in F Major K. 522: Its True Content Described for the First Time”
Francesco Dalla Vecchia, University of Iowa

“Jacques Offenbach and the Material Origins of Modern Vocal Nonsense”
Peter Mondelli, University of Pennsylvania
 

Conference Dinner (free for participants)
5:15-7:00pm

Mirth and Mockery in Madrid: A Crash-Course in Audience Performance Practice
7:30pm
Elisabeth Le Guin, UCLA
Location: 314 Royce Hall
 

Saturday, June 6

Registration and Coffee
9:00-9:30am

Staged Silliness: Music, Comedy, and the Theatre
9:30-11:00am
Chair: Ross Fenimore, UCLA

“Musicals about Musicals: Comedy and the Self-Reflexive Broadway Musical”
Mary Jo Lodge, Lafayette College

“The Musical, the American Musical, and ‘Musical Comedy’: Reflections on the Comic Inclinations of a Genre”
Raymond Knapp, UCLA

“How a thrown shooe became a tragedy and other funny stories: A Study of the Three Burlesque Cantatas (1741) by Henry Carey (1689-1743)”
Jennifer Cable, University of Richmond
 

Lunch (on your own)
11:00–12:00pm

Film and Television: Cartoons, Camp, and Celebrity Guests
12:30-2:00pm
Chair: Eric Wang, UCLA

“Intertextual Music and Discursive Parody in ‘The Simpsons’”
Durrell Bowman, Independent Scholar

“‘The Beast!’: Camp, Humor, and the Beethoven Legend”
Devin Burke, Case Western Reserve University

“Beastliness and Charm in Rossini’s Overtures”
Paul Chaikin, Brown University
 

Keynote Address: “From the Sublime...”
Andrew Dell’Antonio, University of Texas, Austin
2:30-4:00pm