In 1997 a computer beat a human composer and music professor in composing a Bach-sounding chorale... more In 1997 a computer beat a human composer and music professor in composing a Bach-sounding chorale. In 2016, the world’s first computer-generated musical premiered in London’s West End. Now what lies ahead for Broadway musical theatre? This chapter explores the technology behind the computer-generated musical and state-of-the-art digital musicology tools, and points out that Broadway canons largely determine the musical theatre sound that digital tools capture and recreate. It then proposes six metrics of (re)canonizing US Broadway musicals in the digital age, including personal canonization. Stressing the importance of diversifying the “American” sound and reinventing the Broadway song machine (formulas that constitute a hit Broadway song), it argues that digital musicology offers human beings tools to rethink and reassess the past, develop musical theatre pedagogy, and challenge composers to create futures of a new and more varied “American” sound.
The most essential element of nautical melodrama—the sea—has been largely overlooked in the study... more The most essential element of nautical melodrama—the sea—has been largely overlooked in the study of nautical melodrama. The sea has been naturally treated as the setting and spectacle, or “opsis”—the bottom tier of the six Aristotelian components of a serious theatrical presentation: mythos (or plot), ethos (character), dianoia (theme), lexis (diction), melos (melody), and opsis (spectacle). In the scholarly study of nautical melodrama, most attention has been paid to the glorification of heroic sailors manifesting in an upsurge of patriotism. The sea is often ignored as merely the venue where melodramatic actions take place. In this article, Liu proposes that the sea plays a more important role than simply the “opsis”: that of an “ethos,” which is analogously a living character.
Forward This study by Sissi Liu, Strategic Typology of Impact Pathways for Natural Resource Manag... more Forward This study by Sissi Liu, Strategic Typology of Impact Pathways for Natural Resource Management, provides an innovative perspective on the structure and functions of the Alternatives to Slash and Burn System-wide Programme (ASB) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It was undertaken as one contribution to preparations for the upcoming external review and impact assessment of ASB by the CGIAR. The author was an intern with the ASB global coordination office in Nairobi, Kenya, for eight weeks in June and July 2003. Drawing on interactions with the staff of the global coordination office and review of documents on file concerning four sets of ASB activities in Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, and Peru, the study explores the complex causal chain of relationships from the program's activities at various levels (local to global) through to intended impacts, illustrating the role of programmatic integration in enhancing impact potential along th...
This chapter submits three properties that define Hamilton as a model American musical. First, it... more This chapter submits three properties that define Hamilton as a model American musical. First, it is a model cultural commodity on multiple political fronts: rendering race ambiguous, it appeals to the typical Broadway audience; promoting utopian fantasies, it enchants the underprivileged. Second, it puts forth a model history education tool that lauds white Founding Fathers, applauds American exceptionalism, and downplays atrocities suffered by its disenfranchised people. Last but not least, Hamilton facilitates the rise of model minorities—the elitist people-of-color who thrive in a neoliberal society where individuals do not necessarily operate on a level playing field. This essay proposes the term “model minorities”—both a critique of and reparation to “model minority,” a problematic term coined to refer to Asian Americans in the 1960s, to elucidate the key relationship between Hamilton and the minority population in the times of neoliberalism.
In 1997 a computer beat a human composer and music professor in composing a Bach-sounding chorale... more In 1997 a computer beat a human composer and music professor in composing a Bach-sounding chorale. In 2016, the world’s first computer-generated musical premiered in London’s West End. Now what lies ahead for Broadway musical theatre? This chapter explores the technology behind the computer-generated musical and state-of-the-art digital musicology tools, and points out that Broadway canons largely determine the musical theatre sound that digital tools capture and recreate. It then proposes six metrics of (re)canonizing US Broadway musicals in the digital age, including personal canonization. Stressing the importance of diversifying the “American” sound and reinventing the Broadway song machine (formulas that constitute a hit Broadway song), it argues that digital musicology offers human beings tools to rethink and reassess the past, develop musical theatre pedagogy, and challenge composers to create futures of a new and more varied “American” sound.
The most essential element of nautical melodrama—the sea—has been largely overlooked in the study... more The most essential element of nautical melodrama—the sea—has been largely overlooked in the study of nautical melodrama. The sea has been naturally treated as the setting and spectacle, or “opsis”—the bottom tier of the six Aristotelian components of a serious theatrical presentation: mythos (or plot), ethos (character), dianoia (theme), lexis (diction), melos (melody), and opsis (spectacle). In the scholarly study of nautical melodrama, most attention has been paid to the glorification of heroic sailors manifesting in an upsurge of patriotism. The sea is often ignored as merely the venue where melodramatic actions take place. In this article, Liu proposes that the sea plays a more important role than simply the “opsis”: that of an “ethos,” which is analogously a living character.
Forward This study by Sissi Liu, Strategic Typology of Impact Pathways for Natural Resource Manag... more Forward This study by Sissi Liu, Strategic Typology of Impact Pathways for Natural Resource Management, provides an innovative perspective on the structure and functions of the Alternatives to Slash and Burn System-wide Programme (ASB) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It was undertaken as one contribution to preparations for the upcoming external review and impact assessment of ASB by the CGIAR. The author was an intern with the ASB global coordination office in Nairobi, Kenya, for eight weeks in June and July 2003. Drawing on interactions with the staff of the global coordination office and review of documents on file concerning four sets of ASB activities in Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, and Peru, the study explores the complex causal chain of relationships from the program's activities at various levels (local to global) through to intended impacts, illustrating the role of programmatic integration in enhancing impact potential along th...
This chapter submits three properties that define Hamilton as a model American musical. First, it... more This chapter submits three properties that define Hamilton as a model American musical. First, it is a model cultural commodity on multiple political fronts: rendering race ambiguous, it appeals to the typical Broadway audience; promoting utopian fantasies, it enchants the underprivileged. Second, it puts forth a model history education tool that lauds white Founding Fathers, applauds American exceptionalism, and downplays atrocities suffered by its disenfranchised people. Last but not least, Hamilton facilitates the rise of model minorities—the elitist people-of-color who thrive in a neoliberal society where individuals do not necessarily operate on a level playing field. This essay proposes the term “model minorities”—both a critique of and reparation to “model minority,” a problematic term coined to refer to Asian Americans in the 1960s, to elucidate the key relationship between Hamilton and the minority population in the times of neoliberalism.
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