David Cosper
Biographic Data
| ID | 4120558 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Cosper |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Cosper |
| SIGNATURE | COSPER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Towson University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 5 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 5 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
“Small machines of words”: Poetics, phonetics, and mechanisms of narrative realism in late twentieth-century Hip Hop
This work begins with an exploration of various analytical techniques for discerning and describing details of vocal performance in the song “Episodes,” from Philadelphia Hip Hop group The Roots’ 1996 album, Illadelph Halflife . I pair this musical analysis with textual exegesis drawing on narratology and speech act theory. Reconciling the two analytical approaches, I conclude by suggesting a refreshed notion of affective realism in late twentiet…
Through Susy’s Eyes: Sight, Sound, and Subjectivity in Mancini’s Wait Until Dark
The centrepiece of this essay is a close reading of Henry Mancini’s score for the 1967 suspense film Wait Until Dark, starring Audrey Hepburn. Drawing on poststructuralist narrative theory, I explore the implications of a blind protagonist for received thinking about focalisation and propose a music-informed narrative reading of the film. Informed by feminist disability studies and the work of film critics including Steven Shaviro, Stan Link, Viv…
Sweet Science, Sweet Thunder: Jazz, Pugilism, and the Fine Art of Criticism
This article proceeds from the observation that language describing the performances of jazz musicians and prizefighters with reference to one another is common to both sports writing and jazz criticism. I take this as an invitation to explore the historical context, critical significance, and musical implications of the interrelationship of these two crafts, with particular focus on Miles Davis's score to the documentary film A Tribute to Jack J…
Disruptive Voices: The Minor Characters of Musical Narrative
Arthur Phillips’s 2009 novel, The Song Is You, begins with the following passage: Billie counted offf the tune and started the pre-refrain verse, with only the piano accompanying . . . and the soldier hoped that Holiday, having sensed that he was diffferent from all the others, was perhaps granting him more than she allowed lesser supplicants. . . . In the lyrics, she was waiting by the water, longing for her lover’s ship to return. She was singi…
Breaking (from) the History: Postmodern Narrativity in the Music of Jaki Byard
As a pianist and improviser, Jaki Byard (1922–1999) seems to have had an unabridged, if unbound, history book of jazz styles at his fingertips. Rather than synthesizing these in “add-and-stir” fashion, Byard often strings together coherent stylistic gestures in delightfully unintuitive ways. His solo and small-group records of the 1960s and 1970s consistently demonstrate this proclivity for creative anachronism. Yet despite having performed with,…
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Breaking (from) the History: Postmodern Narrativity in the Music of Jaki Byard
As a pianist and improviser, Jaki Byard (1922–1999) seems to have had an unabridged, if unbound, history book of jazz styles at his fingertips. Rather than synthesizing these in “add-and-stir” fashion, Byard often strings together coherent stylistic gestures in delightfully unintuitive ways. His solo and small-group records of the 1960s and 1970s consistently demonstrate this proclivity for creative anachronism. Yet despite having performed with,…
Disruptive Voices: The Minor Characters of Musical Narrative
Arthur Phillips’s 2009 novel, The Song Is You, begins with the following passage: Billie counted offf the tune and started the pre-refrain verse, with only the piano accompanying . . . and the soldier hoped that Holiday, having sensed that he was diffferent from all the others, was perhaps granting him more than she allowed lesser supplicants. . . . In the lyrics, she was waiting by the water, longing for her lover’s ship to return. She was singi…
Sweet Science, Sweet Thunder: Jazz, Pugilism, and the Fine Art of Criticism
This article proceeds from the observation that language describing the performances of jazz musicians and prizefighters with reference to one another is common to both sports writing and jazz criticism. I take this as an invitation to explore the historical context, critical significance, and musical implications of the interrelationship of these two crafts, with particular focus on Miles Davis's score to the documentary film A Tribute to Jack J…
Through Susy’s Eyes: Sight, Sound, and Subjectivity in Mancini’s Wait Until Dark
The centrepiece of this essay is a close reading of Henry Mancini’s score for the 1967 suspense film Wait Until Dark, starring Audrey Hepburn. Drawing on poststructuralist narrative theory, I explore the implications of a blind protagonist for received thinking about focalisation and propose a music-informed narrative reading of the film. Informed by feminist disability studies and the work of film critics including Steven Shaviro, Stan Link, Viv…
“Small machines of words”: Poetics, phonetics, and mechanisms of narrative realism in late twentieth-century Hip Hop
This work begins with an exploration of various analytical techniques for discerning and describing details of vocal performance in the song “Episodes,” from Philadelphia Hip Hop group The Roots’ 1996 album, Illadelph Halflife . I pair this musical analysis with textual exegesis drawing on narratology and speech act theory. Reconciling the two analytical approaches, I conclude by suggesting a refreshed notion of affective realism in late twentiet…
Art (5 works) · Literature (5 works) · Music History and Culture (4 works) · Narrative (4 works) · History (3 works) · Musical (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Visual arts (3 works) · Aesthetics (2 works) · Jazz (2 works)