ACE President Anna Lomax Wood published Part I of a 2-part series in Ethnomusicology, the Society for Ethnomusicology’s academic journal.

Called “Like a Cry from the Heart”: An Insider's View of the Genesis of Alan Lomax's Ideas and the Legacy of His Research, Wood’s article is part prose poem of remembrance, recalling travels with Lomax and working in his rambling Upper West Side apartment-office on what would be his life’s projects to create the Global Jukebox. The article also includes deep analysis of Lomax’s work and the criticism that it met with, as well as a synthesis of new research on the projects that Lomax, and ACE, championed.

The abstract follows.

 This article takes us on a journey into the origins of Cantometrics and other interdisciplinary studies of expressive style undertaken by Alan Lomax (1915–2002) in collaboration with Conrad Arensberg (1910–97), Victor Grauer, Forrestine Paulay, Edith Trager, Norman Markel, and others. Using archival sources, it traces their theoretical development, influences, methodologies, and outcomes as accretions of knowledge, observation, and converging streams of thought. It documents the trail of Lomax's discourse with a wide range of authorities and collaborators. I render a candidly critical portrait of Lomax (my father) in relation to his work, collaborations, and rhetorical style.

Read the article here.