Just Curious: Who are the faces on the reliefs of the McCorkle Music Building?
Mercer musicians practicing skills as they get ready to team up with professional members of the Macon Symphony.
MACON, Ga. — This report has been contributed by Samantha Homcy, a student from Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism.
The McCorkle Music Building, located just outside of Mercer Village, is a central spot on Mercer University’s Macon campus. It has a special feature that differentiates it from the other buildings on campus.
When the building was dedicated in Aug. 2002, then-president Kirby Godsey and the building’s architect thought that the building needed something special.
“They decided that they needed to do something to the building that would make it look like it was a music building rather than just another building on campus,” said C. David Keith, the dean of the Townsend School of Music.
They decided to include 10 reliefs; five on either side of the building.
There were 10 faculty members in the Townsend School of Music at the time, and they were able to decide which 10 faces would be featured on the reliefs.
But they didn’t want just any 10 people to be featured; they aimed to choose some of the most influential figures in the history of music.
“The idea was to have 10 of the most historical, important people in music as determined by the faculty and they wanted it to show inclusivity as well as diversity,” said Keith.
To accomplish this, five people from the United States and five from Europe were chosen for the reliefs.
On the American side is Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Lowell Mason, who — according to Keith — is considered the “father of music education.”
The European side features Igor Stravinsky, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Nadia Boulanger.
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