The first season of the Dedham School of Music's CrossRoads program wraps up tomorrow night with a workshop on musical appropriation called Steal This Song.
The program's first season ends with a workshop led by David Morneau, the New York-based composer who kicked off CrossRoads in late February with a seminar on computer music.
Tomorrow's workshop, which will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Dedham Community House, will cover musical appropriation and sampling in the last century - though such practices go back much farther than that.
"Composers have been borrowing from and quoting each other since the beginning of recorded history. The digital revolution has made sampling from other musicians easier than ever," says Morneau, who adds that the increased interest has also "raised legal issues and aesthetic concerns."
Among the artists and topics Morneau will address in his comprehensive survey are Negativeland, Karlheinz Stockhausen, DJ Shadow's hip-hop collage, mashups, and "bastard pop." The workshop costs $10, but school students get in free. For more info, call 781-329-5740.
It is the sixth and final event for CrossRoads, a series of grassroots musical workshops that also included presentations on Hank Williams, and Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds."
Ed Morneau of Norwood, the uncle of David Morneau and the programmer for CrossRoads, says most of the workshops have drawn only 6 to 9 people.
"We wish they were better attended, but those who have attended the workshops have raved about them," he says. "We're still taking the temperature of the community to see if they're still interested in things like this. I don't know why they wouldn't be."
However, in a "very encouraging" sign, Ed Morneau said, 85 people attended the concert by Maine songsmith Jud Caswell at First Church and Parish in late March. The performance followed a three-hour songwriting course by Caswell.
One of the goals of CrossRoads, Morneau says, is to "open up a community discussion of music from all angles."
For example, the Hank Williams workshop took a three-pronged approach and included a lecture about his life, the playing of archival songs and the performance of five or six songs.
"It was like crossing many roads to expose people to many different things," he says.
Meantime, Morneau has already settled on a topic for a CrossRoads program he will lead next year - a workshop on the Beatles and childhood.
Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
