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Ankhrasmation—an original compositional language invented by composer, trumpet player, and music theorist/philosopher Wadada Leo Smith (1941-)—has often been misunderstood as graphical notation. Considering and reevaluating the cultural implications of this narrowly framed Eurological interpretation, I seek to offer a different source and an alternative context for Smith’s singular contribution to American music. Building on work in Black studies, American music, and sound studies (Brooks, forthcoming; Brown, 2010; Eshun, 1998; Crawley, 2016; Kelley, 2009; Kun, 2005; Moten, 2003, Radano, 1995; Redmond, 2020), I use a multimodal (archival, ethnographic, and practice-based) methodological approach to offer three related contributions. First, following scholars including Lewis (2008), Piekut (2011), Southern (1997), and Radano (1993), I amplify and extend activism and scholarship that takes African American musicians seriously as composers. Second, through documenting and closely analyzing Smith’s unique notational and compositional strategies within the context of American composers generally, and contemporaneous (1960s-) composers experimenting with notation specifically, this research calls attention to the “exclusionary effects” of listening practices (DGfA 2024 call), and foregrounds an often overlooked dimension to the established story of twentieth century American composers and their practices (including Sitsky, 2002; Duckworth, 1995). And third, this project seeks to map Smith’s legacy—his indelible contribution to the American soundscape—by offering the practice of world making through writing, performing, reading, and listening to Ankhrasmation.

Dieser Vortrag findet in Zusammenarbeit mit der Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities statt. Weitere Informationen folgen auf: www.gsah.unibe.ch