The title of this talk references two works – Mclean’s American Pie (1971) and Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (1798), as apt descriptions for the way our experience of music has been drastically changed by the scourge known as COVID-19. Looking outside the pandemic however, I seek to explore the notion of music community borrowing from the concept of speech community in sociolinguistics (Hymes, 1972). 

I discuss musical situations, events and acts from various music communities, including rap battlers, evacuees, mourners, and disenfranchised music professionals.