If I go on about all of the inaccuracies in Mozart/Mozart--many of them intentional given the YA "vaguely historical romance" genre--I will never do anything else ever again. But I will say that I may have audibly gone "yes!" in my office when we got a couple of shoutouts to Der Rauchfangkehrer.

Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI” Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages

Speaking of forthcoming work-related things for me, I want exactly two things from the new Amadeus miniseries: (1) some music "by Salieri" that is maybe actually sort of by Salieri and (2) an episode set entirely after 1791 focusing on where Salieri's and Constanze's lives went subsequently.

I would say that I have questions about the plot of this new alt history series about Nannerl Mozart. But, to be honest, the plot is pretty much exactly what I was expecting.

Haven't received as many contributions as usual for this year's lists--could be many things, but one aspect is surely that our ability to get this in front of people is much diminished. If you know folks whose stuff should be on here, please suggest it! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...

I get "oh, music, that must be so fun!" fairly often from other academics. I mean, I do find it fun, but presumably in the same way that cultural historians and literary scholars might find their research fun.

What concerns me is how much this is clearly affecting how hiring and research funding are happening now. How many of us will continue to be pushed out of academia before this bubble bursts? How many tenure lines and how much research funding will be used for university admin to promote AI hype?

Since the trailer for the limited series adaptation for Amadeus launched, I've seen a lot of opinions, some of which suggest this is an affront to the 1984 film adaptation. While I have zero time for those being racist about Will Sharpe, I do have some thoughts about remaking Amadeus now. 1/8

I wrote this. As part of our promotion we are going to destroy every single copy of the 1984 original movie in existence and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it

I always like teaching his clarinet quintet in music history.

It is not at all the most important thing to happen today, but it is (going by the current date where I am) the 275th anniversary of Salieri's birth. Whatever one thinks of musical commemorations, it seems like a good excuse to put on a meta-opera and eat some marzipan.

musicological conspiracy theories eschewed by non-musicologists are so fascinating to me (& random!) and as a musicologist, the answer to the question is: no. (sorry! 🤣)

I need Mozart/Mozart and the new Amadeus miniseries to be released ASAP. Partially so that I can include them in this book project, but mostly so that the rest of the world can share my (and my very patient friends') experiences of some truly strange musical fictions.

Excellent thread about the frustrating state of so-called "AI" in academia. It's especially telling in my opinion that a lot of this is being pushed by the same admin constantly telling us there is no money for new tenure lines or student funding, especially in the arts/humanities/social sciences.

Compared Mälzel's metronome marketing to current tech hype during a job interview this week, so that's how my summer is going.

Volume 44, Issue 1 of the Journal of Musicological Research was just published! For those who prefer their musicological research with page numbers, you can read my article on the rapid fictionalization of Salieri's legacy and late 19th-century queer writings on musical crime for free here:

This is how I feel when the same people and institutions that go "it's so sad that we can't hire TT faculty" and "here's another event for postdocs about your ~choice to leave academia" pour money and effort into trying to convince us all that tech is the cutting edge of research and teaching.

For someone who makes zero claims to being a Beethoven scholar despite the (very) odd publication and conference presentation, I just checked out the new critical edition of the conversation books while carrying a Ninth Symphony tote bag. (I needed to cite Czerny's comments on Salieri's health.)

Oh hi, new exciting fear. While dubious and invented sources are kind of my thing, this is horrifying. As Bull mentions, there is already a problem with myth in history of sexuality. (And historians are all-too-often accused of "reading too much into" sources, especially in LGBTQ+ history.) But wow.

I am looking forward to the new adaptation of Amadeus, think Simon Keefe's research is great, and always want more on Nannerl (even if skeptical of media touting "controversial" evidence). But part of me definitely went "doing a Mozart season during a Salieri anniversary year is certainly a choice."

<cough> healthcare <cough>

Musicologists and historical fiction folks! If you are planning a colloquium or seminar series, I'd love to come speak (in person or virtually) about my in-progress book project on anecdote and gossip in music history! Feel free to reach out and/or share with anyone who might be interested! Thanks!

This sort of thing comes to mind when I read about people using it to make connections between historical sources.

I've seen some people celebrating how this might represent a move away from academic history. But the thing is, really good pop history or public history or history communication is still good history. And good history requires some level of curiosity about sources and interpretation.

I have now been to two Salieri-themed music festivals wherein the idea of focusing on Salieri instead of his canonical students or colleagues was itself a topic of mild humor. Something about pointing out the limits of the canon while also kind of reinforcing them? Need to unpack this further.

There are so many things I wish the people who write (and read) articles about US academics choosing to move to Canada knew, both about immigration and the academic job market. Signed, a postdoc who has been a foreign worker for a while and who still might wind up having to leave next year 1/9

Nothing makes me feel more like a (temporary) part of the music faculty like getting piano scam emails.

I am limiting this book to one (1) chapter about Peter Shaffer, partially because I have spent years telling people that my Salieri project is not about Amadeus and partially because this happens whenever I think I maybe know enough about Shaffer, his collaborators, and his endless writing process.

Randomly stumbled across yet another person who claimed to compose the music attributed to Salieri in Amadeus. As I messaged a friend last night, that is too many guys for what was supposed to be one footnote about fictional music attributed to historical composers and is now getting ridiculous. 1/3

Looking forward to presenting my paper "Reputation, Myth, and Fiction in the Nineteenth-Century Reception of Salieri’s Axur, re d’Ormus" (on a session on "the historical post-truth" with Shaena Weitz and Hester Jordan and chaired by Frederick Reece) at the AMS/SMT meeting in Minneapolis in November!

As is typical after too much maple cold brew, I'm pondering writing a thing about Mälzel and tech puffery. I don't think metronome ads will make it into the Salieri book. "Early adopter of the metronome" isn't exactly central to Salieri's posthumous reception, even if it definitely should be! 1/3

It's time for me to embarrass myself by putting this out there: if your college or university in the greater Los Angeles area needs an instructor for anything to do with music history or medieval studies, I'm available to teach this fall.

In case any musicologists out there overthink the AMS timeline showing program decisions "in early June," this is a note that my email records since 2022 show that decisions tend to go out during an afternoon sometime between June 4-6. (Me. I am the musicologist who needs this reminder every year.)

Having a great time at the International Association for Word and Music Studies conference on frauds and fakes! So many great papers on what to do with unreliable (and outright fraudulent) sources!

If you'd like to read my latest article (on the fictionalization of Salieri's legacy and late 19th-century queer fiction about musical crime), the eprint can be read for free here!

I am mildly disappointed not to be able to be at the very cool multilingual event on Salieri biography currently happening in Vienna, but my article on reputation, friendship, and betrayal in late 19th-century musical crime fiction just went live online at the Journal of Musicological Research!

Today in primary sources, Schubert's D. 407, Beitrag zur fünfzigjährigen Jubelfeier des Herrn von Salieri. As with Hüttenbrenner's "Talleyrand of music" remark, novelists have had fun questioning the sincerity of Schubert's musical contribution and diary entry recounting the related festivities. 1/5

I've noticed this a lot in professional development and pedagogy workshops, as though spending all of that energy and time unpacking how AI "thinks" has equal value to developing one's own interpretative skills.

I realize there are no college students on BlueSky but just in case: Professors assign term papers to assess 1) your understanding of the course material and 2) your ability to apply that understanding to a specific question or topic. The process of writing *is part of your learning*

It is now firmly May 2025, I have acquired a smoked maple cold brew, and this seems a great time to return to the curious issue of gender, familial language, and Salieri's legacy in one of my sources, Anselm Hüttenbrenner's 7 March 1858 letter to Ferdinand Luib. 1/7

Part of my skepticism towards genAI in academia is personal bitterness about how some are willing to throw an amount of money, energy, and support at the AI hype while treating the humans pushed out of academia (esp. grad students, adjuncts, and postdocs) as an unfortunate inevitability.

Me in my natural habitat (an AMS meeting), gesturing while talking to @mwilsonkimber.bsky.social, probably about Rosa Newmarch. Or, as the alt text says, "academic women standing around a publisher's booth at an American Musicological Society meeting."

Very cool thread about Florence Price!

Current mood. phdcomics.com/comics/archi...

The historical Salieri was on a number of committees throughout his career. But more to the point, I am prepping to teach 19th-century Mozart fictions while fielding committee emails and other bureaucratic things and my patience for endless monologues about legacy and divinity is particularly low.

Possibly the second-most unrealistic element of Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri" (third if you count the Requiem sounding monumental on a tavern piano) is that anyone would have time to monologue about divine injustice in the arts when they probably should be dealing with committee logistics.

It's still in the copyediting process, but I'm thrilled to say that my article "'Some strange temptation to evil’: Salieri as Literary Type and the Queerness of Musical Crime in 19th-Century Fiction" has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Musicological Research!

an endowed chair in What Is Even Going On

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity. TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

New from Symphony: Academy Award Nomination for Documentary About Orin O’Brien, Groundbreaking Bassist - Symphony