Marian Wilson Kimber
@mwilsonkimber.bsky.social
Musicologist, writer, half of Red Vespa, author of The Elocutionists: Women, Music, and the Spoken Word and the forthcoming Clubwomen Activists and the Making of American Music. Posts in no way associated with my employer.
What am I doing writing an article that is really about art history? I don't even know what journal to send it to....
November 14, 2025 at 3:15 PM
What am I doing writing an article that is really about art history? I don't even know what journal to send it to....
Today's historic find. Composer Mary Howe, writing ca. 1946, describing audiences complaining about modern music.
November 10, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Today's historic find. Composer Mary Howe, writing ca. 1946, describing audiences complaining about modern music.
Halloween costume: dressed as Ibid. looking for a job, since I have been dumped from the Chicago Manual of Style.
October 31, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Halloween costume: dressed as Ibid. looking for a job, since I have been dumped from the Chicago Manual of Style.
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
October 22, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
Me in a hat many, many decades ago.
October 14, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Me in a hat many, many decades ago.
Still wishing hats would make a comeback.
October 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Still wishing hats would make a comeback.
Tell me you don't know who Mendelssohn was without telling me you don't know who Mendelssohn was.
October 3, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Tell me you don't know who Mendelssohn was without telling me you don't know who Mendelssohn was.
Today's historic find. 1908. San Diego. Amphion audiences are requested to wait until the last note finishes to begin clapping, as often the last note is most exquisite.
September 29, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Today's historic find. 1908. San Diego. Amphion audiences are requested to wait until the last note finishes to begin clapping, as often the last note is most exquisite.
Concert #2. The annual Longfellow Front Porch Music Festival, this year with two brand new pieces by Michael Kimber for viola and cello.
September 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Concert #2. The annual Longfellow Front Porch Music Festival, this year with two brand new pieces by Michael Kimber for viola and cello.
First of a 2-concert afternoon: Orchestra Iowa’s chamber concert that includes PDF Bach’s Sinfonia from his Cantina, based on “In Heaven There is No Beer.”
September 28, 2025 at 6:52 PM
First of a 2-concert afternoon: Orchestra Iowa’s chamber concert that includes PDF Bach’s Sinfonia from his Cantina, based on “In Heaven There is No Beer.”
Today's historic find. 1925. "Says Music Crime Cure. Even Saxaphone [sic], He Declares May Prove Blessing in Disguise." Glen Woods of Oakland, CA, Public Schools tells National Federation of Music Clubs "Teach a boy to blow a horn and he will be too busy to blow a safe."
September 26, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Today's historic find. 1925. "Says Music Crime Cure. Even Saxaphone [sic], He Declares May Prove Blessing in Disguise." Glen Woods of Oakland, CA, Public Schools tells National Federation of Music Clubs "Teach a boy to blow a horn and he will be too busy to blow a safe."
Today's historic find. From A System of Elocution (1841): "postures unfavorable to vocal delivery." For #8 just replace the book with a phone.
September 24, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Today's historic find. From A System of Elocution (1841): "postures unfavorable to vocal delivery." For #8 just replace the book with a phone.
My rapture outfit
September 23, 2025 at 3:15 AM
My rapture outfit
I feel like this fragment of music might be very useful in these times.
September 22, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I feel like this fragment of music might be very useful in these times.
Over the weekend I read the mystery novel, History Lessons, by Zoe Wallbrook, which contains this delightful passage.
September 19, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Over the weekend I read the mystery novel, History Lessons, by Zoe Wallbrook, which contains this delightful passage.
Today's historic find. 1909. Minneapolis women's club paper by Louise Dorr quotes Rose Fay Thomas in advocating teaching music to boys as well as girls, as it doesn't make them effeminate.
September 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Today's historic find. 1909. Minneapolis women's club paper by Louise Dorr quotes Rose Fay Thomas in advocating teaching music to boys as well as girls, as it doesn't make them effeminate.
All of the books I was going to read this summer. [Image credit: Emma Mildred Cowell, www.redbubble.com/people/gentl...
September 7, 2025 at 12:58 AM
All of the books I was going to read this summer. [Image credit: Emma Mildred Cowell, www.redbubble.com/people/gentl...
Today at the Univ. of Iowa's Musicology/Music Theory Colloquium, I will be speaking on Ada Crogman Franklin's Milestones of a Race, an African American history pageant presented at least 25 times in 15 cities in the 1920s with music by Black composers and casts of as many as 500-600 people.
September 5, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Today at the Univ. of Iowa's Musicology/Music Theory Colloquium, I will be speaking on Ada Crogman Franklin's Milestones of a Race, an African American history pageant presented at least 25 times in 15 cities in the 1920s with music by Black composers and casts of as many as 500-600 people.
Maybe I should get this for my office?
August 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Maybe I should get this for my office?
Today’s historic find. 1925. Wichita, Kansas’s Black baseball team beats the KKK team under the eye of white Catholic umpires.
August 25, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Today’s historic find. 1925. Wichita, Kansas’s Black baseball team beats the KKK team under the eye of white Catholic umpires.
It’s the U of Iowa Grad student union band singing the Disappearing History Blues. #SaveIowaHistory.
August 23, 2025 at 8:14 PM
It’s the U of Iowa Grad student union band singing the Disappearing History Blues. #SaveIowaHistory.