History CAN rock 'n roll
Glenn Gass, professsor of music at IUB, (double exposure photo right with Bob Dylan on guitar) teaches music appreciation that rocks. Local musician Jimmy Ryser (photo at left) plays guitar during a special guest lecture in Gass' music class.
Photos by Chris Meyer
The history of rock 'n roll
Glenn Gass is a composer who just added international recordings to his list of accomplishments. Midday Above Heiligenblut was recently recorded by the Slovak National Orchestra; a CD was recorded by the Master Musicians label last fall. In 1990, the Greencastle native was one of 16 American composers to be awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. But he is also well known for his development of one of the nation's first for-credit history of rock 'n roll classes and his academic course on the Beatles.
His Random House textbook is titled A History of Rock Music, a book he once described as "a text that takes the music seriously, not a glossy type of thing about rock stars."
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