General Assembly

1. The meeting was called to order by the President of the Association, Prof. Walter Bernhart, at 11:20 am. 2. The President gave his report, beginning with mention of Vol. 17 of Word and Music Studies, which has now been published by Brill. This contains the New York conference papers of 2015. Vol. 18, which will contain the Stockholm (2017) conference papers, is being edited by Walter Bernhart and Axel Englund, and should come out later this year or early next year. The President also reported on changes at Brill: Masja Horn will no longer be our contact there, and her responsibilities will be taken over by Christa Stevens. It was also noted that the website is now in good shape, and under the hands of a good webmaster, Amir Dini. The website, the President reminded the meeting, is also the place for the online publication of short papers, and those not on the conference topic(s), read at WMA conferences, and that interested authors should contact the Secretary. Finally, the President announced his resignation from his post in the WMA w.e. after the election of the next President of the WMA. 3. The Treasurer’s Report for 2017-2019 was given by Prof. Werner Wolf. He mentioned that, as decided in Stockholm, there would be no increase in fees for membership, and that we have a credit balance of 16,155.80 Euros. Thus, we are in a good position to face the expenses connected to the next three volumes of Word and Music Studies. The review of the accounts of the WMA were submitted by Prof. Gerold Gruber, sole auditor (in the absence of the late Prof. Zerinschek), who pronounced them "all correct". The accounts were accepted unanimously, with no objections and no abstentions. 4. The WMAF Report was given by Emily Petermann, on behalf of Alexandra Reznik. She reported on the successful WMAF conference in Düsseldorf, held on 5 November 2018 at the University of Düsseldorf on the topic “Popularity in Words and Music”, organized by Thomas Gurke and others. 18 papers were given, predominantly on popular music topics. Some travel expenses for conference attendance were covered by successful grant applications. The next WMAF conference will be held from 1-3 September 2020 at the University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland. The topic is still being finalized. It was also noted that the WMAF has both a Twitter and Facebook presence, as well as the WMAF website. 5. The President reported on Membership matters. There are 112 members of the Association, representing 22 countries. The question of honorary membership was again raised, as this year the traditional honorary members to be elected, who organized this conference (Prof. Bernhart and Prof. Wolf), would have had to nominate themselves. Their election as honorary members was then proposed by Prof. Peter Dayan, seconded by another member, and approved unanimously. 6. Election of Board members and others: the slate of nominations for members of the Executive Board, Liaisons, Auditors, and Advisory Board, prepared by the Executive Board, was then presented. The following changes were noted: Michael Halliwell replacing Walter Bernhart as President, Jessie Fillerup replacing Michael Halliwell as Vice-President, Axel Englund replacing Mary Breatnach as a Member-at-Large (as she is now devoting all her time to performance), and Emily Petermann replacing her as Liaison to the WMAF from the WMA. Walter Bernhart will remain on the Executive Board as a Member-at-Large, for purposes of continuity, the website, and contact with Brill. Saskia Jaszoltowski will replace the late Klaus Zerinschek as one of the two Auditors. As proposed by Prof. Wolf, thirty seconds of silence were observed in memory of Prof. Zerinschek. Advisory Board: after discussion by the Executive Board, it was decided to present the same slate of Advisory Board members as in Stockholm (with the exception of Axel Englund, who becomes a member of the Executive Board), and that the Association will now contact all the members on this list to understand if they wish to continue in their role here beyond the present. The members of the Association were also asked to consider who they think might make a good member of the Advisory Board. 7. Prof. Wolf than read a testimonial (laudatio) in honor of Prof. Walter Bernhart (the text of which is attached as an Appendix to these); he then proposed that Prof. Bernhart should be made an Honorary President of the International Association for Word and Music Studies. This was seconded and approved by acclamation. A gift of CD recordings was presented to Prof. Bernhart from the Executive Board, and Prof. Bernhart responded with thanks. 8. Prof. Bernhart then made the motion that all the proposed offices of the WMA for 2019-2021 should be presented as single slate with a single vote. The slate was as follows: Executive Board: President – Michael Halliwell Vice-President – Jessie Fillerup Treasurer – Werner Wolf Secretary – David Francis Urrows Members-at-Large: Walter Bernhart Axel Englund Heidi Hart Lawrence Kramer Emily Petermann Liaisons: To the WMA from the WMAF: Alexandra Reznik To the WMAF from the WMA: Emily Petermann Auditors: Gerold W. Gruber Saskia Jaszoltowski Advisory Board: Delia da Sousa Correa Peter Dayan Albert Gier Gerold W. Gruber Hannah Hinz Ulla-Britta Lagerroth Eric Prieto Albrecht Riethmüller Deborah F. Weagel Simon Williams This was seconded, and all were approved, with no objections and no abstentions. 9. Prof. Michael Halliwell then spoke on his election as President of the WMA: "I am very honoured by this election. WMA has been my academic ‘home’ since its inauguration in Graz 22 years ago. While my own research had moved into other areas, as a very new and green researcher in 1997, I was given much support and developed confidence in what I was doing. I am very happy to take over this role for a period, but certainly not for ever. I really believe that there needs to be generational renewal, and that it already happening. The range and scope of the Association has been enlarged substantially in recent years, and my view is that this must continue, but we also need to maintain the focus on what the Association was established for. I have to thank certain people for the support over the years and, of course, I will inevitably leave many out: Werner Wolf right from the start provided a rigorous sounding board for my often rather vague and ill formulated ideas. The very much missed Steven Scher, who with his dry sense of humour gave me much encouragement and a sense of direction for where my work might lead. Many conversations with Simon Williams were crucial for me in my early years in WMA. More recently, collaboration on various projects with Delia da Sousa Correa has been very important for me. David Urrows has been a wonderful sounding board for both research ideas, and more recently as a musical collaborator. Larry Kramer as well, both intellectually and in collaboration on at least six or seven major musical works. Finally, and, of course, most significantly, Walter Bernhart. He has been WMA for me. He has been so supportive from the start 22 years ago until the present. He was a wonderfully helpful and generous editor on my book on Henry James and Opera, and of course, on many other papers. From our performance of Schubert’s "Der Taucher" in Santa Barbara in 2003 to "Song Acts" last Wednesday, our musical collaborations have been stimulating and, most of all, great fun. Vielen, vielen Dank für alles. Or, in the immortal words of ABBA: 'Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing. Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing. Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty ...'." 10. Future conferences: it was announced that the next conference of the WMA will take place in Leipzig, Germany, from 2-5 June 2021, at the University of Leipzig. The organizer is Prof. Frieder von Ammon. The conference themes will be "Repetition/Variation" and "Surveying the Field". An open call was made for suggestions for WMA composers and their new works to be included in the opening recital for the Leipzig conference. 11. It was further announced that Vol. 19 of Word and Music Studies, edited by Walter Bernhart and Werner Wolf, will contain the papers from this (Graz) conference, and that the call for submission of papers will be sent out in the next few months. 12. Ideas were then discussed for the 2023 conference, and Vienna or Galway, Ireland were suggested as possible locations, to be explored and settled at a later date. 13. There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 12:12 pm. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: Prof. David Francis UrrowsSecretary SIGNED: Prof. Walter BernhartOutgoing President Prof. Michael HalliwellIncoming President Appendix to the Minutes: LAUDATIO in Honour of Walter Bernhart on the Occasion of his Retirement from the Presidency of the WMA held at the General Assembly in conclusion of the 12th biannual conference of the International Association for Word and Music Studies at Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, 1 June 2019 Dear President Walter Bernhart, dear members of the Word and Music Studies Association, Our president, Walter Bernhart, has announced his intention to retire from the post of President of the WMA. This leaves a vacancy which we must hasten to fill for the sake of our association, and we are grateful to Michael Halliwell that he has volunteered to become Walter’s successor. But before we proceed to the vote, it is my pleasure and a great honour to me to review Walter’s merits for our association and thank him for all he has done in a short laudatio. As all know and many among us recall, it was Walter who founded the WMA in a memorable conference held in Graz in 1997, which he also organized. In fact, the foundation of an association which after 22 years is still prospering and has achieved international renown in the field is perhaps his greatest merit with reference to our organization. However, it is by far not the only one. Since the foundation of the WMA Walter has been its President. That means: for 22 years he has dedicated his energy to this office, and it is to a considerable extent thanks to his circumspect and highly active guidance that our organization is alive and kicking. Part of the international standing of the WMA is the existence of the book series Word and Music Studies, of which the 17th volume has just appeared. Since its emergence with the first volume in 1999 Walter has been the editor-in-chief of this book series, and what is more, has edited or co-edited no less than 12 of its total of 17 volumes so far1. A book edited by Walter has a minimum of typos and other errors, if any at all, and whoever had the pleasure of observing his incredibly sharp-sighted reading and copy-editing will know why that is so. He is eagle-eyed and meticulous to the extent that he would notice a full stop in italics which ought to be recte. We hope that he will continue to dedicate his expertise and remarkable energy to further volumes, among which the proceedings of the present conference would be a very good option. We are all beholden to Walter for his work and undaunted assiduity dedicated to the WMA, but I would like to conclude with a personal word of thanks. In the first conference of the WMA back in 1997, I was no more than one speaker among many and had originally not intended to be further engaged with the matter. Fate – and/or/as Walter – had decreed otherwise: it was on the trip home from the conference venue in Andritz in the north of Graz to the south of it, where be both live – Walter had politely offered me a lift – that the question of who would edit the conference proceedings emerged. And Walter accepted my offer to cooperate, for which I am deeply grateful to him – for this was the beginning of my organizational involvement in the WMA, which I have found to be a very rewarding activity. Subsequently, I became its Treasurer and lately a conference organizer, but here again I am grateful to Walter for having taken over so many agenda as a co-organizer and director musices. This is, however, only a last instalment of a long-standing cooperation, which has developed into a lasting friendship, while our scholarly cooperation has intensified both inside and outside the WMA. A number of co-edited volumes in the WMS series, but also in the no less renowned book series Studies in Intermediality, testify to our common scholarly interests. In all the years since 1997, and indeed since my taking over the chair of Eng. Lit. at Graz University 25 years ago in 1994, Walter has been a favourite academic colleague, a dear friend and a wise counsellor in untold matters both professional and private, for which I would like to express my deeply-felt gratitude. All of which also shows to what extent a lacuna will open once Walter retires from his presidency. In order to minimize the potential damage for our organization I would like to make a move. As it is certainly not a good idea to henceforth renounce the cooperation, the good counsel and energy of an experienced and renowned scholar such as Walter, I propose the following: since Walter is adamant in stepping down from his post and pedestal as President, I would like to create a new pedestal on which he may ascend and remain in a responsible position of our organization: I thereby make the move to elect him a member of the Executive Board of the WMA, and this in a special quality: that of Honorary President of the WMA. Please, join me in acclaiming this move. As an outer sign of our deep gratitude to you, dear Walter, as most important person of our organization I would like to offer you a small present on behalf of the members of the board. May this multimedial combination of words and music in two collections, one a collection of music composed by medieval monks and another one in a complete edition of vocal works by a composer [J.S. Bach] dear to both of us, sound well in your expert ears and give you joy; and, above all, may you continue to prosper and remain active for the International Association for Word and Music Studies, your spiritual creation. Werner Wolf