Ann McNamee

Ann Kosakowski McNamee (Southbridge, Massachusetts, May 21, 1953) is a musical theorist and singer/songwriter based in San Francisco, CA and a retired Professor Emerita of music at Swarthmore College^[1] notable for her contribution to music theory; her song writing; and her musical performances with the bands the Flying Other Brothers and Moonalice^[2] known for their cutting edge technology,^[3] particularly in the area of social media,^[4] as well as their performances at festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass,^[5] Nateva,^[6] Summer Camp Music Festival,^[7] Oregon Country Fair,^[8] Gathering of the Vibes;^[9] and with her band Ann Atomic during the 2010 revival of Lilith Fair.^[10]

Contribution to music theory

She is the author of highly cited academic work in music theory, specifically on bitonality, mode and interval in the music of Karol Szymanowski,^[11] the role of the piano introduction in Franz Schubert's Lieder,^[12] and the octave expansion and sonata form of Grażyna Bacewicz's Second Piano Sonata.^[13]

She has been cited by Allen Forte, co-winner of the 1997 Wallace Berry Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Music Theory for her significant contribution to his 1995 book, "The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924-1950: A Study in Musical Design.".^[14] Dave Headlam, winner of the 1997 Deems Taylor award in the Symphonic Books category of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), cited her for her contribution on interval cycles in Karol Szymanowski's works, in his 1996 book “The Music of Alban Berg”.^[15] Kristine H. Burns in her 2002 book, "Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia [Two Volumes]" cited her for her work on the music of Franz Schubert and Karol Szymanowski.^[16] She has also been cited in reviews of music in the 2004 edition of “New Historical Anthology of Music by Women” edited by James R. Briscoe.^[17]

Contribution to music's digital revolution

McNamee is the co-writer of the Moonalice song "It's 4:20 Somewhere".^[18] The lyrics of the song were referenced in the 2011 book, "The Fall of the House of Forbes: The Inside Story of the Collapse of a Media Empire" by Stewart Pinkerton.^[19] In August 2012 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that the digital logs for "It’s 4:20 Somewhere" had been acquired for its library and archives, describing the Moonalice logs as helping to "...tell the story of music’s digital revolution; specifically the rise of direct-from-artist (DFA) distribution. Moonalice is the first band without a label to achieve one million downloads of a song from its own servers, direct-from-artist. “It’s 4:20 Somewhere” has been downloaded over 4.6 million times".^[20][21]

Personal

She has a B.A. in Music from Wellesley (1975) and a Ph.D. in Music Theory from Yale University (1980).^[22] She has been married to the venture capitalist Roger McNamee since 1983 and with her husband is a co-founder of the Ndovo Foundation.^[23] now known as the Tembo Preserve^[24] and the Haight Street Art Center which will be run as a co-op for artists and will include a fine art print shop as well as exhibition space.^[25] Having retired from performing with Moonalice in October 2012 to pursue a career in musical theater,^[26] she is writing a musical, Love Bytes, together with Roger Love.^[27] Six of the songs from Love Bytes were performed during a public performance in October 2012.^[28] She is collaborating on a second musical, Other World, with Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen and Gabriel Barre, initially developing the project as part of the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals in 2014.^[29] Other World was selected as the inaugural project at the 2016 Spring Space in Saratoga Springs, NY. ^[30]

Discography

• 2012 Let's Start From Here^[31]
• 2012 No End to Love^[32]
• 2011 The Rest of the Words^[33]
• 2011 It’s 4-20 Somewhere^[34]
• 2010 Wherever These Words Land^[35]
• 2008 Blink of An Eye Produced by T-Bone Burnett^[36]
• 2007 Cracks In the Sidewalk Produced by G.E. Smith^[37]
• 2005 Complicated Eyes Produced by G.E. Smith^[38]
• 2003 Crazy In Heaven Produced by G.E. Smith^[39]
• 2000 Space In Your Arms^[40]

References

External links

• www.annmcnamee.com

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