Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
Use the "Filter by Track or Type of Session" or "Filter by Session Topic" dropdown to limit results by type. Some of the sessions are also color-coded: purple indicates performances, grey indicates paper forums, and orange indicates sessions which have been organized by one of the regional associations of IMS (ARLAC or IMSEA). (Sessions which are both IMS sessions and performances are only colored orange.)
Use the search bar to search by name or title of paper/session. Note that this search bar does not search by keyword.
Click on the session name for a detailed view (with participant names and abstracts).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 1st Sept 2026, 02:59:02am EDT
|
Daily Overview |
| Session | |
|
The Musical Memorialization of Britishness Session Chair: Christina Fuhrmann | |
    | |
“Music to Drown By”: Musical Inscriptions of Social Class in the Scores of A Night to Remember (1958) and Titanic (1953) Stony Brook University One oft-cited theory for why the Titanic’s sinking remains compelling is that the ship represented a microcosm of Edwardian society. Turn-of-the-century strict class boundaries, for example, are emphasized in every depiction of the disaster. But in films about the sinking, is the onscreen societal microcosm that of 1912 or of the time of the film’s creation? In this talk, I argue that William Alwyn’s and James Horner’s scores for A Night to Remember (Baker, 1958) and Titanic (Cameron, 1997) offer insight into how the balance of contemporary and historical influences often leans toward the former, shaping the representation of the historical past in film. In these films, Alwyn’s and Horner’s scores inscribe differing views of social class. For example, Horner’s Irish-infused score for Titanic participates in a broader romanticization of both Irish culture and the working class in 1990s America (Harrison, 2010), while Alwyn’s more subtle, quasi-religious music for A Night to Remember reflects the comparatively traditional British society of the late 1950s (Rosen, 2003). Beyond the specifically-composed scores, I analyze the pre-existing songs used in the film intertextually, inspired by the work of Spring (2013), Lasser (2019), and Lee (2016), to demonstrate how the pre-existing music—including popular songs, hymns, and “light” classics—significantly contributes to the films’ depiction of social class. While the promotion of both films maintained an emphasis on historical accuracy, the films themselves also propose a perspective on the present-day society that makes the original event relevant to a 1958 or a 1997 audience (Koldau, 2012). The filmmakers’ choice of music directly impacts how the films present modern society in the guise of the past. This role is most apparent in the pre-existing music, but the scores, too, reflect the films’ attitudes toward the role of class in both the contemporary and historical moment. Studying the music in these two Titanic films contributes to an understanding of the broader role music plays in films about history more generally, ultimately demonstrating the complex interactions between music, history, and the present. | |