Awards went to Brian Johnson, Ph.D.,assistant professor of philosophy, for undergraduate teaching in the humanities; Melissa Labonte, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science, for undergraduate teaching in social sciences; Silvia Finnemann, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, for undergraduate teaching in the sciences; andBenjamin Dunning, Ph.D., associate professor of theology, for excellence in graduate-level teaching.

Larry Stempel, Ph.D., professor of music, was the event’s featured speaker. In his lecture, “What Is/n’t a Broadway Composer? The Case of Richard Rodgers,” Stempel, author of Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater (W.W. Norton, 2010), presented his research on the role that Rodgers played in composing some of Broadway’s best-known show tunes.

Stempel approached Rodgers from a music historian’s perspective informed by first-person interviews, analysis of original composition notes, and placement of the subject within historical context.

He placed Rodgers among contemporaries that included Frankfort School philosopher Theodor Adorno and set out to frame not just the nature of Rodgers’ art, but also the nature of Broadway composers more generally.

Adorno felt that certain composers (Kurt Weill, for one) lost sight of what it means to be a composer through an association with the commercial venue of Broadway. The very notion of a composer, said Stempel, grew out of the 18th-century court musicians who struck out on their own as artists. By the end of the 19th century the Romantic notion of the composer as an autonomous artist had fully evolved.

On Broadway, however, a composer is hardly autonomous, said Stempel, but works with orchestrators, musical editors, conductors, vocal arrangers, and many more in a collaborative effort.

In the context of Adorno’s claim that Weill had abandoned the true composer’s ideal, Stempel said that Rodgers’ true talent lay in his tuneful songwriting rather than his composing.
Stempel gave as an example an early version of the song “Oklahoma” as presented in an out-of-town performance in New Haven, Conn. At the time the show was called Away We Go and was in desperate need of a showstopper.

Stempel said that the original “Oklahoma” composition shows Hammerstein’s lyric inserted into Rodgers’ chorus music, syllable-to-note. The song’s harmonies were altered during production, however, by musical arranger Robert Russell Bennett who was summoned by Rodgers himself. The new version of “Oklahoma” was so good that the show’s name was changed to bear its title, Stempel said.

“The song took on new heft,” said Stempel. “From a cultural perspective it [was]transformed into something more like an anthem… as the chorus now strove vocally to embody, in sound, certain tropes in the mythology of the American frontier.”

One risks settling for a more limited understanding of the song’s “cultural moment” without taking Bennett’s arrangement into account, said Stempel. But practically speaking, Bennett’s work gave the show its much-needed commercial appeal.

The annual Faculty Arts and Sciences day was sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

• Humanities: Aristotle “Telly” Papanikolaou, Ph.D., associate
professor in the Department of Theology

• Science: Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychology (see profile Psychologist Helps Transition Young Organ Transplant Patients in this issue)

• Social Science: John Entelis, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Middle East Studies Program

• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Elaine Forman Crane, Ph.D., professor in the Department of History

This year’s lecture was given by Jason Morris, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in the Department of Natural Sciences, and was entitled, “Arrested Development and Bad Eggs: Genetics of Growth and Fertility in Drosophila.”

Faculty were treated to dinner and a reception in the McGinley Ballroom. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

• Humanities: Aristotle “Telly” Papanikolaou, Ph.D., associate
professor in the Department of Theology

• Science: Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychology (see profile Psychologist Helps Transition Young Organ Transplant Patients in this issue)

• Social Science: John Entelis, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Middle East Studies Program

• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Elaine Forman Crane, Ph.D., professor in the Department of History

This year’s lecture was given by Jason Morris, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in the Department of Natural Sciences, and was entitled, “Arrested Development and Bad Eggs: Genetics of Growth and Fertility in Drosophila.”

Faculty were treated to dinner and a reception in the McGinley Ballroom. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

Congratulations to four members of Fordham’s faculty, who were honored on Friday, Feb. 3 for their distinguished teaching in the areas of graduate study, science, social sciences and humanities at the annual Faculty Arts & Sciences Day. Pictured above are the awardees. From left to right they are:

Humanities: Aristotle “Telly” Papanikolaou, Ph.D., Department of Theology

Science: Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., Department of Psychology

Social Science: John Entelis, Ph.D., Department of Political Science

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Elaine Crane, Ph.D., Department of History

This year’s lecture was given by Jason Morris, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in the Department of Natural Sciences, and was entitled, “Arrested Development and Bad Eggs: Genetics of Growth and Fertility in Drosophila.”

Faculty were treated to dinner and a reception in the McGinley Ballroom. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. (photo by Ken Levinson)