Introduction * Boston's French Connection at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Ellen Knight * Tickler's Secrets: Ragtime Performance Practices, 1900-1920-A Bibliographic Essay, Karen Rege * Mapping the Blues Genes: Technological, Economic, and Social Strands-A Spectral Analysis, Raymond D. Dessy * Some American Firms and Their Contributions to the Development of the Reproducing Piano, Kent Holliday * Dances, Frolics, and Orchestra Wars: The Territory Bands and Ballrooms of Kansas City, Missouri, 1925-1935, Marc Rice * Thomas A. Dorsey and the Development and Diffusion of Traditional Black Gospel Piano, Timothy M. Kalil * Western Swing: Working-class Southwestern Jazz of the 1930s and 1940s, Jean A. Boyd * The Art of Noise: John Cage, Lou Harrison, and the West Coast Percussion Ensemble, Leta Miller * Melville Smith: Organist, Educator, Early Music Pioneer, and American Composer, Mark DeVoto * Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra: High, Middle, and Low Culture, 1937-1954, Donald C. Meyer * Cinema Music of Distinction: Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Gail Kubik, Alfred W. Cochran * The New Tin Pan Alley: 1940s Hollywood Looks at American Popular Songwriters, John C. Tibbetts