Alex Cowan
@alexcowan.bsky.social
Musicologist, UChicago. British/American. Guitar hoarder. Writing on music and eugenics. Ask me about my transatlantic accent.
Reposted by Alex Cowan
IT’S HERE IT’S HERE IT’S HERE!!!! The very first album ever dedicated to Avril Coleridge-Taylor. This has been such a labour of love - please do listen to it, her music deserves to be heard @jkaconductor.bsky.social @tomedney.bsky.social open.spotify.com/album/6EroQD...
Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works
open.spotify.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:12 AM
IT’S HERE IT’S HERE IT’S HERE!!!! The very first album ever dedicated to Avril Coleridge-Taylor. This has been such a labour of love - please do listen to it, her music deserves to be heard @jkaconductor.bsky.social @tomedney.bsky.social open.spotify.com/album/6EroQD...
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Texas National Guard arrives in the Chicago area www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/07/n...
Texas National Guard arrives in the Chicago area
Texas National Guard members have arrived in Illinois. City and state officials say Donald Trump is using them as “political props” in Chicago.
www.chicagotribune.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Texas National Guard arrives in the Chicago area www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/07/n...
Land with slightly more music
GOOD NEWS !
"A team of musicologists has unearthed the printed score of a previously unknown Purcell song, as well as the original manuscript for various keyboard compositions."
#baroque #music
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
"A team of musicologists has unearthed the printed score of a previously unknown Purcell song, as well as the original manuscript for various keyboard compositions."
#baroque #music
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
‘Almost unheard of’: experts find more music by English composer Henry Purcell
Printed score and keyboard manuscript by Purcell, who died in 1695, unearthed in Worcestershire and Norfolk
www.theguardian.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Land with slightly more music
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Federal agents are overtly abusing their power to try to intimidate advocates and elected officials. We need ICE out of Illinois immediately and justice for people like Ald. Jessie Fuentes who are defending their communities.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/03/f...
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/03/f...
Federal Agents Handcuff Chicago Alderperson At Hospital ER
In another incident caught on video Friday, federal agents inside a car randomly threw tear gas into a Logan Square street while people — including a 2-year-old — were outside nearby.
blockclubchicago.org
October 3, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Federal agents are overtly abusing their power to try to intimidate advocates and elected officials. We need ICE out of Illinois immediately and justice for people like Ald. Jessie Fuentes who are defending their communities.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/03/f...
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/03/f...
Reposted by Alex Cowan
In the past 4 weeks in Chicago, ICE/CBP have snatched hundreds of people off the streets & homes, shot & killed a single-father in his car, smashed & abandoned countless cars, and deployed chemical munitions at protesters, journalists, & now on public streets. Today they cuffed an alderperson.
October 3, 2025 at 9:32 PM
In the past 4 weeks in Chicago, ICE/CBP have snatched hundreds of people off the streets & homes, shot & killed a single-father in his car, smashed & abandoned countless cars, and deployed chemical munitions at protesters, journalists, & now on public streets. Today they cuffed an alderperson.
Reposted by Alex Cowan
thread
All charges brought against protesters at Broadview today must be dropped. When cops and agents attack crowds without provocation, they make shit up to justify their attacks (in his case, an attack waged on a cooperative crowd to produce fascist social media content). These charges must be dropped.
October 4, 2025 at 12:26 AM
thread
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Ireland just released a report showing the huge success of the unconditional basic income it provided to artists. Each $1 spent led to society gaining $1.39. Artists' earned incomes went up more than their side job incomes fell. And they were happier and used less welfare
www.gov.ie/en/departmen...
www.gov.ie/en/departmen...
September 23, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Ireland just released a report showing the huge success of the unconditional basic income it provided to artists. Each $1 spent led to society gaining $1.39. Artists' earned incomes went up more than their side job incomes fell. And they were happier and used less welfare
www.gov.ie/en/departmen...
www.gov.ie/en/departmen...
Reposted by Alex Cowan
this is what Wagner libretti read like in English
September 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM
this is what Wagner libretti read like in English
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Feels like a question for Old Twitter so asking here: does anyone know anyone at the Mary Lou Williams foundation/has been able to purchase scores from them?
August 26, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Feels like a question for Old Twitter so asking here: does anyone know anyone at the Mary Lou Williams foundation/has been able to purchase scores from them?
Feels like a question for Old Twitter so asking here: does anyone know anyone at the Mary Lou Williams foundation/has been able to purchase scores from them?
August 26, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Feels like a question for Old Twitter so asking here: does anyone know anyone at the Mary Lou Williams foundation/has been able to purchase scores from them?
Reposted by Alex Cowan
when I'm trying to figure out if Lyndon Larouche was right that Josef Goebbels organized a global conspiracy to destroy people's minds by tuning orchestras to 440Hz I turn to music superstore SAM ASH for the PLAIN FACTS
August 6, 2025 at 1:50 PM
when I'm trying to figure out if Lyndon Larouche was right that Josef Goebbels organized a global conspiracy to destroy people's minds by tuning orchestras to 440Hz I turn to music superstore SAM ASH for the PLAIN FACTS
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Music historians WATCH THIS SPACE:
@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social will shortly advertise a permanent opera/music theatre AND/OR 19th century position.
Immediate start preferred (no later than Jan 26), interviews likely Sept/early Oct.
Will update with details as soon as the ad is published.
@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social will shortly advertise a permanent opera/music theatre AND/OR 19th century position.
Immediate start preferred (no later than Jan 26), interviews likely Sept/early Oct.
Will update with details as soon as the ad is published.
July 30, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Music historians WATCH THIS SPACE:
@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social will shortly advertise a permanent opera/music theatre AND/OR 19th century position.
Immediate start preferred (no later than Jan 26), interviews likely Sept/early Oct.
Will update with details as soon as the ad is published.
@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social will shortly advertise a permanent opera/music theatre AND/OR 19th century position.
Immediate start preferred (no later than Jan 26), interviews likely Sept/early Oct.
Will update with details as soon as the ad is published.
If I ever make it out of the O’Hare traffic - do say hi!
July 28, 2025 at 10:23 PM
If I ever make it out of the O’Hare traffic - do say hi!
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Absolutely HORRIFIC decision by UPenn. Will scrap all of Lia Thomas' wins, will adopt "biological definitions" for Title IX under Trump's order, and more.
Some of this could lead to bathroom bans at UPenn too given the admin views bathroom usage as in violation.
Some of this could lead to bathroom bans at UPenn too given the admin views bathroom usage as in violation.
BREAKING
The University of Pennsylvania has come to an agreement with the Trump administration on what the Department of Education said was its Title IX violations.
This will include stripping trans athlete Lia Thomas of her records, titles, and recognitions.
The University of Pennsylvania has come to an agreement with the Trump administration on what the Department of Education said was its Title IX violations.
This will include stripping trans athlete Lia Thomas of her records, titles, and recognitions.
July 1, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Absolutely HORRIFIC decision by UPenn. Will scrap all of Lia Thomas' wins, will adopt "biological definitions" for Title IX under Trump's order, and more.
Some of this could lead to bathroom bans at UPenn too given the admin views bathroom usage as in violation.
Some of this could lead to bathroom bans at UPenn too given the admin views bathroom usage as in violation.
Reposted by Alex Cowan
Awful—this is going to be a huge blow to the entire field of Folklore
In addition to many other important programs, IU Bloomington is eliminating its Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, one of the most storied and successful in the country.
So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
July 1, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Awful—this is going to be a huge blow to the entire field of Folklore
Reposted by Alex Cowan
IU has the oldest Folklore Department in the country--no longer a major. Cognitive Science? gone! PhD programs also sacrificed. Full list here: www.in.gov/che/files/In...
www.in.gov
June 30, 2025 at 9:15 PM
IU has the oldest Folklore Department in the country--no longer a major. Cognitive Science? gone! PhD programs also sacrificed. Full list here: www.in.gov/che/files/In...
Reposted by Alex Cowan
In addition to many other important programs, IU Bloomington is eliminating its Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, one of the most storied and successful in the country.
So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees
Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.
www.ipm.org
June 30, 2025 at 9:46 PM
In addition to many other important programs, IU Bloomington is eliminating its Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, one of the most storied and successful in the country.
Reposted by Alex Cowan
We are dismantling American higher education & scientific research & health care & all the other things to fund concentration camps
If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029:
- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring/retention
- Billions more.
- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring/retention
- Billions more.
‼️‼️
June 28, 2025 at 10:11 PM
We are dismantling American higher education & scientific research & health care & all the other things to fund concentration camps
Reposted by Alex Cowan
More details on the loss of Belmont Music Publishers www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/a...
Vast Trove of Arnold Schoenberg’s Music Is Destroyed in Fire (Gift Article)
An estimated 100,000 scores by Schoenberg, the groundbreaking 20th-century composer, were destroyed when the publishing company his heirs founded burned down.
www.nytimes.com
January 14, 2025 at 4:40 AM
More details on the loss of Belmont Music Publishers www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/a...
Reposted by Alex Cowan
It's because everyone's going to have extra fingers
Uhm, sorry, what? Starmer thinks AI is going to DOUBLE UK productivity in less than 5 years?
January 13, 2025 at 9:10 PM
It's because everyone's going to have extra fingers
Climate catastrophe PhD quals is gonna be learning the location of major archival collections down to the street address
January 12, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Climate catastrophe PhD quals is gonna be learning the location of major archival collections down to the street address
Reposted by Alex Cowan
hey y'all, not going to quote any because don't want them spread further, but there are some widely re-shared posts that misinterpret what Larry Schoenberg said about the absolutely tragic loss of Belmont Music Publishers in the Los Angeles fires.
January 12, 2025 at 3:15 AM
hey y'all, not going to quote any because don't want them spread further, but there are some widely re-shared posts that misinterpret what Larry Schoenberg said about the absolutely tragic loss of Belmont Music Publishers in the Los Angeles fires.
Reposted by Alex Cowan
This is not true: these manuscripts are at the Schoenberg Center in Vienna and at the Library of Congress. Belmont mostly held rental material for performance - while there was some original material there, & it is indeed tragic, most of the archival legacy is safe.
January 12, 2025 at 12:42 AM
This is not true: these manuscripts are at the Schoenberg Center in Vienna and at the Library of Congress. Belmont mostly held rental material for performance - while there was some original material there, & it is indeed tragic, most of the archival legacy is safe.