Organization founded in 1934 to advance scholarly research in the various fields of music. It grew out of the American Library of Musicology (1932–8, an organization devoted to the publication in English of important works of musical scholarship), the New York Musicological Society (1930–34) and a small contingent of the Music Teachers National Association. Seeger and Yasser had been officers, with Blanche Wetherill Walton, of the American Library of Musicology; they invited other scholars to a meeting at Mrs Walton's home in New York on 3 June 1934 at which the society was created and Otto Kinkeldey was elected its first president. The society, with over 3300 individual members and 1360 subscribing institutions, holds annual meetings (sometimes in conjunction with those of other societies) where presentations, symposia and concerts are given; members also read papers at meetings of the 15 regional chapters. In addition the society gives awards, prizes and fellowships. It was admitted to the American Council of Learned Societies in 1951 and participates in several international organizations including RISM and RILM.
Most of the society’s resources are dedicated to publications. Most notable is the Journal of the American Musicological Society, published three times a year since 1948; it was preceded by the Annual Bulletin (1936–47) and Papers (1936–41). It also issues a Newsletter twice annually. Other studies and documents published by the society include the Complete Works of William Billings, edited by Karl Kroeger and others (four vols., 1977–90); the series Music of the United States of America (including In Dahomey and works by Ruth Crawford, Irving Berlin, Amy Beach, Daniel Read and Timothy Swan, 1993–); Ockeghem’s collected works, edited by Dragan Plamenac and Richard Wexler (three vols., 1966, 1992); Dunstaple’s complete works, edited by Manfred Bukofzer, published jointly with Musica Britannica (2/1970); Joseph Kerman’s The Elizabethan Madrigal (1962); E.R. Reilly's Quantz and his Versuch (1971); E.H. Sparks’s The Music of Noel Bauldeweyn (1972); Essays in Musicology: a Tribute to Alvin Johnson, edited by Lewis Lockwood and Edward Roesner (1990); and, in conjunction with the International Musicological Society, Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology, edited by C.D. Adkins and A. Dickinson in succession to Helen Hewitt (1952, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1971, 1977, 1984, 1990, 1996).
O. Strunk: ‘State and Resources of Musicology in the United States’, ACLS Bulletin, xix (1932) [whole vol.]
A. Mendel, C. Sachs and C.C. Pratt: Some Aspects of Musicology (New York, 1957)
B.S. Brook, ed.: American Musicological Society, Greater New York Chapter: a Programmatic History, 1935–1965 (New York, 1965)
W.J. Mitchell: ‘A Hitherto Unknown – or – a Recently Discovered …’, introduction to Musicology and the Computer, ed. B.S. Brook (New York, 1970), 1–8
R. Crawford: The American Musicological Society, 1934–1984: an Anniversary Essay (Philadelphia, 1984)
‘By-Laws’, AMS Directory (Philadelphia, 1997), 14–19
RITA H. MEAD/R