Cross-Cultural Dialogues

Essays in Honour of Michael Beckerman

Edited by Anja Bunzel, Aleš Brezina, and Lorraine Byrne Bodley

Translated by Adam Prentis and Ivana Tumová

Distributed for Karolinum Press, Charles University

Cross-Cultural Dialogues

Essays in Honour of Michael Beckerman

Edited by Anja Bunzel, Aleš Brezina, and Lorraine Byrne Bodley

Translated by Adam Prentis and Ivana Tumová

A celebration and continuation of the work of scholar Michael Beckerman and his engagement with Czech, Central European, and American music, literature, film, philosophy, and fine arts from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

Cross-Cultural Dialogues is a collection of essays from thirty-nine scholars and artistic practitioners whose research and values are deeply rooted in the scholarly work of distinguished American musicologist Michael Beckerman. Beckerman is dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. This Festschrift pays tribute to his undisputed authority on Czech and Central European music and musical culture. His influence extends well beyond North America to numerous other countries and cultures. The book is divided into seven sections that follow his research interests, which include music and religion in Central European historiography, music in the Czech lands, music in the concentration camps, Central European music and musicians in the United States, intersections between music and poetry, and musical meaning and form.The seventh section of the book offers space for cross-disciplinary reflections on (musical) friendship(s).

Cross-Cultural Dialogues features a generationally and geographically diverse team of authors anchored in Anglo-American and Czech research cultures. It is precisely this ethos of unity in variation and of cross-cultural dialogues that reflects Michael Beckerman’s work and life. Culture, in this context, embraces geographical, religious, social, linguistic, and generational considerations. Although the majority of the chapters are in English, some contributions are in Czech, underlining the book’s focus on Czech and Central European cultural practices. Despite its large geographical, chronological, and thematic scope, the individual chapters of the book are connected by way of overarching concepts, shared methodologies, and the scholarly principle of mutual respect and inspiration for the subject matter and each other’s work. Recurring concepts discussed in the book include subtle questions of national, religious, gender, class, and/or social identity; the overcoming of collective and/or individual crises through the arts; the reflection of resilience, crises, and/or tragedy in the arts; and the intersection of different artistic fields. It is through this lens of interdisciplinary views of and on music that innovative discussions emerge, ranging from notions of collaboration and inspiration between literature, music, and the fine arts, to theoretical examinations of individual musical works within their own perception and reception contexts, to focused discussions of musical meaning and (auto)biographical reflections of festival organizers, film makers, and curators regarding their own engagement with music and the general public.

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Culture Studies

History: European History

Music: General Music

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Reviews
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Awards
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Reviews

“To write about a fine scholar and a good friend is a double privilege. The excellence of Michael Beckerman’s work is evident not only in authored volumes on Janácek and Dvorák, numerous edited volumes—most recently, with Aleš Brezina, Martinu and His World (2025)—but also in signal articles, not least his pioneering study from 1986 ‘In Search of Czechness in Music.’ Along with these achievements are his abilities as a networker ‘par excellence’, always deployed generously in establishing connections between scholars and scholarly communities. Above all, perhaps, is his stature as a sure friend to so many in our fields of endeavor. He stands alone as a figure of wisdom, sympathy, creative engagement and when the time and place are right, fun.”

Jan Smaczny, Sir Hamilton Harty Emeritus Professor of Music, Queen’s University Belfast

"Cross-Cultural Dialogues: Essays in Honor of Michael Beckerman is an inspiring book for an inspiring scholar. Just as Beckerman has nurtured community through his scholarship, collaborative projects, and mentorship, so this book forges community among those who have benefited from his work and wisdom – whether as colleagues, former students, or friends from his own student days. The volume is remarkable for its topical and disciplinary breadth: it brings together scholars from across the spectrum of music studies, history, literature, film, and philosophy, and grapples with issues in music and the arts from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries. [...] Overall, the volume is a major contribution not only to the areas of Beckerman’s scholarship – among them Czech and Eastern European music, music in concentration camps, musical form and meaning – but also to music studies more generally.
Cross-Cultural Dialogues stands out for both its collaborative vision and scholarly breadth – not only within musicology, but across the humanities more generally, with forays into history, poetry, and philosophy. There is a palpable sense of the contributors coming together to celebrate Michael Beckerman – as scholar, mentor, colleague, and friend – while simultaneously continuing the conversation that his work has set in motion. The title of this essay collection captures the collegial nature of the enterprise while encouraging an open exploration of music and cultural practices around the world. This approach leads to new readings of Beckerman’s scholarship, a deepened appreciation of his impact on the field of music studies, widening application of his ideas, and the continued rediscovery of figures and histories that have yet to receive sustained attention. The book makes a major contribution to scholarship – offering a model for future Festschriften and highlighting the power of scholarship infused with professional generosity."

Joe Davies, visiting professor, NYU Abu Dhabi and Chair of the Schubert Institute United Kingdom

"The volume represents an extraordinary scholarly achievement and a deeply thoughtful tribute to Professor Michael Beckerman. The editors are to be congratulated for the immense work involved in commissioning, curating, and bringing together such a rich and diverse collection of essays. The intellectual content across the chapters is of high quality, and the volume’s thematic coherence, breadth, and spirit of collaboration are deeply impressive.
The volume displays an impressive range of original research, interpretation, and methodological innovation. Many essays offer fresh archival discoveries, new analytical insights, and novel interdisciplinary perspectives that extend and deepen the field of Czech and Central European music studies. The editors have curated an excellent set of contributions that are both intellectually adventurous and personally resonant, reflecting Michael Beckerman’s own example of imaginative, boundary crossing scholarship. The originality lies in exciting, individual findings and in the collective reframing of familiar repertories and ideas through new cultural, philosophical, and transnational lenses.
This Festschrift makes a substantial professional contribution to the discipline, enriching the historiography of Czech, Central European, and transatlantic musical cultures. It documents the continuing vitality of these fields while highlighting Beckerman’s profound and lasting influence on generations of scholars. The essays complement rather than duplicate existing work, and there is little overlap among contributions beyond shared engagement with Beckerman’s themes and methodologies. Together, they form a wide-ranging yet coherent portrait of a discipline shaped by his intellectual generosity and curiosity."

Nicole Grimes, associate professor of music, Trinity College Dublin

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Music Examples
List of Tables
Notes on Contributors

PRELUDE
(Aleš Brezina, Bohuslav Martinu Institute in Prague, Czech Republic; Anja Bunzel, Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic; Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Maynooth University, Ireland)

PART ONE
MUSIC AND SOCIETY IN CENTRAL EUROPEAN HISTORIOGRAPHY
Chapter 1: Larry Wolff (New York University, USA): The Oratorio Themes of Myslivecek in the Habsburg Florentine Enlightenment of Pietro Leopoldo: Adam and Eve between the Angels of Justice and Mercy
Chapter 2: Susan McClary (Case Western Reserve University, USA): Lessons from the Margins
Chapter 3: Craig A. Monson (Washington University in St. Louis, USA) “Pana Catana sunt Pramium Amoris”: Bodily Mortification and Mystical Death in Convent Choirlofts
Chapter 4: Erika Honisch (Stony Brook University, USA): Musical Miscellanies and Other Histories
Chapter 5: Naomi Tadmor (University of Lancaster, UK): “Praise him upon the harp”
Chapter 6: Bret Werb (US Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA): Judentanz

PART TWO
CONSTRUCTING CZECH IDENTITIES
Chapter 7: Anja Bunzel (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic): Voicing the Self: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Czech Female Vocalists as Composers
Chapter 8: Martin Flašar (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic): From Beskydy to the Prague Music Salon of the 1930s: Couleur locale in the First String Quartet by the Composer Sláva Vorlová
Chapter 9: Jirí Kopecký (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic): On Martinu’s Puppets: Wonderful Ways of Inspiration
Chapter 10: Judith Mabary (University of Missouri, USA): Martinu’s Contemplation of Friendship, Loss, and Mortality in The Epic of Gilgamesh
Chapter 11: Aleš Brezina (Bohuslav Martinu Institute in Prague, Czech Republic): New Documents of Bohuslav Martinu’s Friendship with Vladimír Vanek
Chapter 12: Marie Rakušanová (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic): Josef Váchal: The Art and Magic of Type Chapter 13: David Malvinni (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA): Advancing Czechness in Music: Alois Hába’s Microtonal Music and Its Theoretical, Cultural and Practical Sources
Chapter 14: Brian S. Locke (Western Illinois University, USA): Traxler’s Century (1912–2011): Popular Music and the Cyclic Re-Invention of Czech Cultural Identity

PART THREE:
MUSIC AND TRANSCENDENCE IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Chapter 15: Derek Katz (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA): Erwin Schulhoff, Dada, Novelty Piano and Ecstatic Rhythms
Chapter 16: Milan Hain (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic): Separated by War, Bound by Blood: Hugo and Pavel Haas and the Merits of Interdisciplinarity
Chapter 17: Lubomír Spurný (Masaryk University, Brno / Terezín Composers’ Institute, Czech Republic): Unheard Music: Fragments and Missing Compositions in the Terezín Works of Pavel Haas
Chapter 18: Anna Hájková (Warwick University, UK): Lesbian Chimeras: Jewish Women Kissing in the Holocaust

PART FOUR:
CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE US
Chapter 19: Leon Botstein (Bard College, USA): On Music and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 20: Tamara Levitz (University of California, Los Angeles, USA): George Herzog and the Conceptual Double Bind of Racism in Comparative Musicology
Chapter 21: Mark Burford (Reed College, USA): W. E. B. Du Bois and Music as Propaganda in The Crisis
Chapter 22: Brigid Cohen (New York University, USA): Listening to Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece”
Chapter 23: Christopher H. Gibbs (Bard College, USA): Curating Concerts: Challenges for Public Musicology

PART FIVE:
A COMMONWEALTH OF OPERA, POETRY AND SONG
Chapter 24: Paul Boghossian (New York University, USA): Roger Scruton’s The Ring of Truth
Chapter 25: Marie Rolf (University of Rochester, USA): Debussy’s Artistic Embrace of the Commedia dell’arte and Fetes galantes
Chapter 26: Yoke-Sum Wong (Alberta University of the Arts, Canada): “Bengawan Solo”: Singing the Imagined Communities
Chapter 27: Lorraine Byrne Bodley (Maynooth University, Ireland): “Here I Glisten”: A Garland for Gloria Brim Beckerman
Chapter 28: Harry White (University College Dublin, Ireland): “The Give of Speech and the Take of Song”: Seamus Heaney’s Version of Diary of One Who Vanished

PART SIX: MUSICAL MEANING AND FORM
Chapter 29: Hugh Macdonald (Washington University in St. Louis, USA): Bizet as Transcriber
Chapter 30: Ildar D. Khannanov (Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University, USA): Reconnecting Music History and Theory: Michael Beckerman on the Theoretical Studies of Leoš Janácek
Chapter 31: Derek Sayer (University of Alberta, Canada): Lifting the Curtain on the Twentieth Century: An Entertainment
in Four Acts
Chapter 32: Albrecht Gaub (Brandenburger Theater, Germany): Straightening the Pitch, or Rimsky-Korsakov Struggling Free from the Embrace of Auntie Miliy
Chapter 33: Pieter C. van den Toorn (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA): Agon Briefly Revisited; Stravinsky in a Nutshell
Chapter 34: Kevin C. Karnes (Emory University, USA / Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Latvia): A Microgenre for a Moment of Change: The Latvian Tape Jockey in a New Europe, 1985–1991
Chapter 35: J. Martin Daughtry (New York University, USA): “Killing Me Softly”: Thoughts on Listening, Whistling, Mourning, the Imagination, and Hope

PART SEVEN: ARS AMICITIAE—MUSICAL FRIENDSHIPS
Chapter 36: Vít Zouhar (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic): Michael Beckerman: Theme with Inspirations
Chapter 37: Don Sparling (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic): Folklore, Authenticity and Mike Beckerman—A Memoir
Chapter 38: Pavel Kolouch (Independent filmmaker and photographer, Pilsen, Czech Republic): The Mike Experience

POSTLUDE: Véronique Firkusny (Avery Fisher Artist Program, Lincoln Center, USA): Marvelous, Magnanimous, Mimorádný Mike

MICHAEL BECKERMAN: SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY, LECTURES AND AWARDS

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