Musical performance is a research field that is gathering great momentum in recent years. You will find in this page information about five upcoming conferences on performance. The two last conferences have a call for papers. By the way, I attend the CHARM conference and give a paper at the conference on Adorno.

(1) CHARM Symposium 6: Playing with recordings

Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, 11-13 September 2008

How do musicians use recordings and what has been their impact? In this final CHARM symposium we explore the attitudes towards recordings of performers and teachers, along with the ways in which recordings contribute to both the maintenance of musical culture and processes of style change. Do recordings prompt or inhibit style change? Have they resulted in stylistic convergence, as is often claimed? And what is the relationship between such processes and the technological or business history of recording? Might technology and business practices be seen as the principal drivers of performance style in the age of recordings? In addressing the interface between recordings and the professional practice of performance, the symposium will prepare the transition to CHARM’s successor centre from April 2009, the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice.

PROGRAMME

The symposium will run from lunchtime on Thursday 11th through to lunchtime on Saturday 13th September. Speakers and panellists will include John Carewe, Mine Dogantan-Dack, Martin Elste, Anthony Gritten, Pekka Gronow, Peter Martland, Nick Morgan, Ian Partridge, David Patmore, and Jeremy Summerly. Further scheduling details and abstracts will be posted online very shortly.

(2) “Formulate with the greatest care”: Adorno and Performance

13-14 September 2008
Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK

A conference based around readings of Adorno’s Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction (TTMR) and its contexts, interpretations, and uses.

(3) Minimalism, Post-Opera, and Performance

GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
MINIMALISM, POST-OPERA AND PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2008
10.00 - 5.00

A one-day colloquium organised in association with the Society for
Minimalist Music

(4) The Musical Body: Gesture, Representation and Ergonomics in Performance – call for papers!

The Musical Body: Gesture, Representation and Ergonomics in Performance

Institute of Musical Research, Senate House, Malet Street, London, in
association with the Open University, the University of Durham and the
Orpheus Instituut, Gent, the University of Sussex, the Royal College of
Music and the IMR Music & Science group

22-24 April 2009

The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to bring together
researchers from widely divergent fields to share perspectives on the
physicality of performance, and its visual representation, in musics of
all kinds. From connections between musical performance and health, and
musical performance as dance, to representations of the ‘ideal’ posture
in historical treatises and the lampooning of soloists in caricature,
the conference will explore the ways in which music and the body
interact, both with ease (such as where composition or improvisation are
explicitly ergonomic) and in tension (where physical strain is etched
into a musical composition or acts as a marker of authenticity in a
performance style). Finally, it is pertinent to consider those areas in
which physical ease in performance is either obstructed (eg. via
performance anxiety) or results from the creative adaptation of standard
practices (eg. as a response to disability).

Sessions will be built around themes, with presentations grouped as far
as possible in ways that bring together a variety of historical and
generic areas of study. The following list of themes and topics is
indicative only:

· Music and health
· Iconographical representation
· History of performance style
· Organology
· The boundaries of the idiomatic and the ergonomic in composition
· Entrainment, ensembles and community
· Gesture and embodied cognition
· Stage presence and performance anxiety

A Call for Papers and Lecture-recitals will be issued in the early autumn.

Programme committee:

Katharine Ellis (IMR)
Martin Clayton (Open University)
Mieko Kanno (Durham University; Orpheus Instituut, Gent)
Nicholas Till (University of Sussex)
Aaron Williamon (Royal College of Music; IMR Music & Science group)

(5) The Performer’s Voice: An International Forum for Music Performance & Scholarship – call for papers!

29 October – 2 November 2009

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore 

Symposium Partners:

Peabody Institute, John Hopkins University
Royal Northern College of Music 

The Performer’s Voice aims to stimulate discussion, develop ideas, and disseminate research on music performance from a range of angles. Though interdisciplinary in scope the symposium’s distinct focus derives from an uncompromising emphasis on the act of performance, the role of the performer, and the professional performer’s perspective. The program will feature plenary and parallel sessions of lecture-recitals, papers with live or recorded performance, open rehearsals, panel discussions, and workshops.  

Keynote Speaker:

Prof. Richard Taruskin (University of California, Berkeley)

Guest Panelist, ‘Asian Voices’:

Prof. Kishore Mahbubani (National University of Singapore)

Plenary Presenters:

Prof. John Rink (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Dr. Elisabeth Le Guin (University of California, Los Angeles)
Dr. Stephen Emmerson (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University)
Dr. Helena Gaunt (Guildhall School of Music and Drama)
Dr. Aiyun Huang (McGill University)
Dr. Thomas Hecht (Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music) 
Qian Zhou (Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music)
Qin Li Wei (Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music)  

Call for presentations & more information available at: www.performersvoice.org

Symposium Convener: Dr. Anne Marshman

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There are several reasons why to write a book review. It is a good way to gain experience in writing. Publishing reviews is easier than publishing articles. One is not expected to contribute something completely new to the world of research. When you submit your review to a journal you usually receive feedback from the editor and that can improve the level of your writing. Another reason is that it may help you learn the book more thoroughly than if you would just read it. Good writing is a form of teaching. When one teaches something, one remembers it forever. Moreover, this is a way that other scholars in the field (especially the one whose book your will review) will know you and what you think. In other words, this is a way to start making a name in the field. Finally, if you where asked to review a book, although you will probably not be paid for it, you will receive the book. In this post I will mention some of the things that can help you write a good book review.

Read the book

Read review written by others

Do not be too critical

Balance your criticism

Show your personal reading

Be helpful

Listen to the comments of the editor

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Being a young music scholar in Israel is almost impossible. In other counties it is also very hard. A few words about the situation in Israel, which could serve as a case study. There are only five small universities: Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv University, Haifa University, Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, and Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan. There is only one musicological department in Jerusalem which has only four scholars who are there on a permanent basis and there is something almost non existent in Bar-Ilan. In Tel-Aviv the department was closed about two years ago because some, of I have heard, played with the University’s money and lost it in the stock exchange! Haifa and Ben-Gurion have no department of musicology. Moreover, the tendency to cut budgets in social sciences makes the future not very optimistic.

How young scholars react

Teach and write on the web

Teach music for Money

The problems

A possible solution

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One of the common mistakes of music students is to read letters, articles and other musical documents by composers, performers and musicologists, completely out of context. In order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of what one reads, the reader must attempt to gain access to the context/s of the document. One can start doing so by asking to whom was the document written. The next second question could be: what was the writer seeking to achieve? Only these two questions may help avoiding many misunderstandings. To answer these questions, one often needs to do further reading of other documents. Further questions could help building a wider context: at what period was this document written? Are any of the key terms in the document being treated in a special way with regards to their history or the writer’s history? A practical example could help to understand what I mean when I say that a historical music document must be read in context.

What next?

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Related posts:

Jehoash Hirshberg wrote a letter on the new Israeli Musicological website. Avior Byron respondes to this letter in the following video calling the IMS members to join Hirshberg’s initiative and think what content they can contribute to the website.

Byron: It is my first video post, so it is not very "edited" and "clean", however, I hope you will enjoy it. The video is in Hebrew, so I apologize to my English readers who do not know the holly language. I added subtitles to the most important parts. Please turn on your speakers and press on the button in the center of the picture below:

Here are the parts of Hirshberg’s letter that Byron refers to:

Related posts:

What next?

Compare the two following videos to see how great the difference are between the performances. The first is by Glenn Gould the second is by Isaac Barry.

Glenn Gould

Isaac Barry

06 Hanns Eisler — Elegie 1939, poem by Bertolt Brecht

Hanns Eisler - Nonett nr.1, Variationen

Giving a successful conference paper is not an easy task. I have seen more people fail communicating during conferences than people who presented their arguments in an affective manner. In my Review of the IMS conference 2008: what there is and what there is not to read in Hebrew in Music I promised to write about how to give a conference paper. In this post I will give several tips that might help improving a conference paper thus achieving better communication and a stronger effect.

Practice make perfect: read your paper before the conference and measure
Most papers are limited to twenty minutes (with additional time for questions). It is not uncommon to see scholars who do not finish their paper reading on time (I am speaking now about conferences that one reads from a paper). A simple way to avoid this embarrassing situation is to read the paper you plan to give a few days before the conference takes place, and measure the duration. If you measure the time it takes to read the paper you can decide to make changes accordingly. Take into consideration that the pace of reading during a conference is usually different than when you are more relaxed at home. It is better to leave two-three minute spare so that you do not feel in a rush during the reading. This will also give a more relaxed impression during your reading and motive more people to listen to you. I saw some experienced scholars to write on their papers instructions what to leave out in case that the time will run out.

Present your paper before family and friends and record it
It is very effective to gather a few people that you trust their opinion and read the paper before them. This could be an excellent way to prepare to the conference. Ask these people to tell you what they understood from your paper. Try that the audience will include people who have a potential to understand your paper and others who are not from the field of your study (perhaps even not scholars at all). Receiving feedback can help you understand how you look and what is actually being communicated to others. Recording the session can help you see how you are talking and this will surely help you improve.

Body language
Some people argue that eighty percent of what one communicates is body language. When you prepare your paper you can add performance signs that will refer to body movements that you would like to use in order to underline, illuminate or express the things you say. Take into consideration that movements are an excellent way to keep your listeners listening to you. With one an unexpected movement you might gain the attention of people many people who are otherwise lost, dreaming, or asleep. Yet it is important not to be rude or too sudden – you do not want to achieve listening, yet cause a bad effect on your lecture!

Using power point
If you decide to use power point or any other visual presentation of text, make sure that the text size is greater than 18 and that there are a relatively little number of words that are presented. The power point presentation (unlike the hand-out) is useful for two reasons: (1) it gives the listeners an orientation in case that they get lost during your lecture (trust me, this happens all the time); (2) it gives you structure to your lecture. Do not present table with lots of data that no one will see. In other words, keep your power point text very short.

Check that everything is working before the lecture
Make sure that you will have time before the paper giving to come to the place and check if everything is working. Check whether people can hear you. Check whether the person at the last row can read your power point presentation. Check whether people can hear your sound examples. Make sure that you feel at home (as much as possible).

Keep your ideas simple
Take into consideration that when one reads a text, one can stop and think about it, change the pace of reading, return to the text, etc. During the paper you give, people will not have the possibility to do so. This is why keeping the ideas simple and even repeating them (something that you would like to avoid in an article or a book) is important.

After you give the paper
Do not forget to speak to people that heard your paper in the conference. You will learn an important lesson on what you actualy managed to communicate and what not. Ask more than one person so that you will be able to receive more than one perspective.

Relevant posts:
The difference between a poor critic and a good scholar
How to write good texts about music

The Israel Musicological Society opened a new website (http://israel-musicological-society.huji.ac.il). I wrote in my post Review of the IMS conference 2008: what there is and what there is not to read in Hebrew in Music that it is sad that much money was spent on this website. The result is poor. The decision was made three years ago, and at that time it was perhaps a reasonable one. Today, it is almost free of charge to build a site with content management systems like Joomla. Moreover, one can use services such as Google analytics for receiving valuable information on the behavior of visitors on one’s website. The only reason that I write this, is to point to fruitful directions that can be done in the near future.

A word about search engines

Websites have a potential of attracting visitors from all over the world. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN scan websites constantly for new information. After they index a new page that is added to a website, it leads traffic to it, when it thinks that it contains relevant information for web surfers. Search engines like websites that are constantly being updated. New information can include: new pages, blog posts, forum posts, comments, etc.

The goal

I think that the goal of building a website for the IMS should be, to attract people to its activities in the real and virtual world. In other words, the website should make people aware of the publications of IMS members, conferences and other activities, as well as to any of their activities on the web (that at present, apart of Min-Ad, almost do not exist).

The problem with the current site

The current site does not encourage its member or visitors to take actions on the website. A website that wants to attract visitors must create new texts all the time. These texts must be interesting in order to create further action by members and visitors. The current site includes CVs in attached documents. It is clear that most people will not bother reading more than one of two CVs. It would be useful if more personal information would be added. For example, scholars could write about their fields of interests, how they became musicologists, what they are working on in the present, plans for the future, etc. This information is more fun to read and is likely to attract more reactions than CVs (remember, reaction on the web is the most important thing). People can ask for advise from other scholar and web surfer concerning their research. People can recommend and review new and old books. Students may be encouraged to write for the website, participate in forum discussions and be active in other activites on the website.

Writing on the web

One can find music journal on the web (see my post on Where to publish online articles on music: journals review). The web can encourage a kind of writing that is less formal than in journals. This has disadvantages, however, it also has advantages. I would never write an article as I write a post in my blog. Yet, writing a blog helps me improvise on ideas, test them and communicate with a relatively big number of people. Believe me, this is fun.

The real problem

The real problem is that it is really hard to make people react and be involved in a website. I tried many things in my blog and some of these things worked. But the truth is that most forums and blogs do not survive more than two months.

The solution

What one needs to do is to think hard how a website could be a ground for involving IMS members to write about what they care of and to constantly be active and participate on the website. This is hard. But it is perhaps the only way. Technology is almost free today and there are possibilities. Things can be built relatively fast. However, first one must think about the ways to achieve social participation. I think that the IMS members should participate in this thinking and perhaps some good ideas will come up. Please comment in the form below!

In the last two decades musicology and music theory are moving from text based research towards methodologies that include wider cultural and social contexts. One of the results of this shift is the need of scholars to include sound recordings and other multimedia features in the presentation of their research. This post will review some of the online music journals where one can publish and enjoy the vast possibilities offered by the web.

Before I will review the journals I would like to state briefly some of the advantages of publishing online:

More people read online articles
Search engines such as Google constantly scan the web and index any new information that appears on websites. When people search the web the search engines aim to offer them the most relevant information. In practice, this means that they are working for you for free. They bring you audience on a daily basis to your online articles.

More people quote your online articles
As a result of this, there is more chance that people will find your article and react to it. This is true also in the scholarly world. Today, any scholar who respects himself will use, not only university catalogs, but also the search engines and other online resources to find articles on music. Publishing on the web has the potential of making people quote your articles more often. In the academy, the more you are quoted, the more you are appreciated.

The medium is the message
Using the web offers you the possibility of linking to other resources, adding sound, video and other multimedia features. Music Theory Online is the most advance journal that is consciously attempting to implement these features.

Social reaction
Unfortunately, there is no online journal that is using the web as a truly interactive tool. In the Web 2.0 age, the internet is an excellent medium for scholars and other people to react (comments on articles, forums, sharing possibilities (such as Stumbleupon)) to the work of one and other in other formats than articles. We are still waiting for MTO or a new journal to take the initiative and implement these features.

A kleine disadvantage
Having said all this, there are some disadvantages in online publishing. One is the fact that it is hard to read an article on the web. The result is a kind of scan through reading that gives less attention to what the author wrote. Very few readers bother to print the article and fully read it. There are probably other disadvantages that I did not think of (feel free to comment below).

It seems to me that the disadvantage is negligible in comparison to the advantages that I just stated. This and the fact that my research often includes sound examples leads me to publish most of my articles in online journals.

I have gathered some links to online journals on music that can be helpful for anyone who wishes to find places to publish an article. In the following I will review some of these journals:

Music Theory Online
If you want a high level peer-reviewed scholarly journal on music you should first turn to Music Theory Online (MTO). This journal is live and kicking (not like most of the online journals that stopped publishing several years ago, or publish very rarely). MTO encourages the use of web features such as scans of sound examples in impressive formats, the use of recordings and probably anything that the web can offer. The articles are published as web pages (and not pdf of doc files). This is better for the search engines indexing. Yet, it is not easy to read through these long articles on the computer screen. Research shows that people do not usually read more than 600 words on one web page. The printing possibilities are still something that needs improvement in MTO. As mentioned above, that would be wise to include things like commenting, forum, web 2.0 sharing and other social features that can be useful in creating interaction between people and help the information spread on the web.

Journal of Music and Meaning
This journal is less popular and prestigious than MTO. Unlike MTO which includes everything. M&M encourages articles that deal with the meaning of music. It “encourages any multidisciplinary research on meaning that is able to challenge conceptions of music, or research that explores the notion of meaning by the study of musical phenomena.” It is a peer-reviewed journal and it has a forum (which is not very active)

Min-Ad and JSMI
These journals are local journals (in the sense that most people who publish there are locals). Min-Ad is from Israel and JSMI is from Ireland. They publish many kinds of things. JSMI attempts more than Min-Ad to be international by approaching authors from other countries. Another reason to speak about these two journals in one breath is the fact that their articles are published in pdf format. This has the advantage of easy printing in a professional format. There is the stated above disadvantage of being less friendly to the search engine robots (these articles therefore attract less web visitors).

Long live Gamut
Gamut is a new online journal on music. It is peer-reviewed online journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic. Journals need money for editing and other activities, and only some rich universities have such possibilities. This is why most journals die after several issues. We hope that Gamut will have a different destiny.

Ethnomusicology Online - EOL and Journal of Film Music
There are journal that deal with very specific areas. EOL focuses on ethnomusicology and JFM on film music. If you have an article that falls in one of these areas, it would be wise to check these places first.

ECHO and British Postgraduate Musicology
If you are a student you should be aware that publishing is something that you would like to start sooner rather than later. This will help you find a job later on. ECHO and British Postgraduate Musicology are two places where students can publish. I must admit that when I started to publish online I approached MTO. Tina Ramnarine advised me: “Always aim high. Start with the most prestigious journal or publishing house and then approach the others”. Having said this, I did publish in local journals such as Min-Ad and Tav+ in order be locally known and support the latter journal in its first steps.

Semi online journals: RMA
There are many journals that have web pages with some information about their non-web articles and activities. Some journals publish online only abstracts and/or selected articles. The feeling is that the “real thing” is the paper journal. The Royal Music Association Journal does not pretend to be an online journal. However, Nicholas Cook arranged that it will have the possibility to add sound examples on the web. So one can read the paper article and then turn to the web to hear the sound recordings.

Other issues to consider
Before submitting your article to an online journal it would be wise to look who is sitting on the editorial board (this is true also for non-online journals). In order to avoid the process of being rejected (see Zoë Lang post on the challenges of getting published as a young scholar) by editors who are not in favor of your kind of scholarship, read or at least go through some of their articles.

Some journals, like JMSI, request the surfer to register before being able to read an article. This process discourages many surfers from going on and accessing the article. For the editors of journals registration might seem a small matter comparing to the advantages of reading the articles. However, for the web surfers this might mean going on to other sites.

How will look future online journals on music
There is a feeling that musicologists are still thinking in paper format when they create a journal of write on the web. Here are some points for those who will create the online music journal of the future:

(1) The will include text formats that will be friendly both for search engines and human readers.
(2) They will include possibilities of commenting and forum discussions.
(3) They will include possibilities of sharing information between users and sites.
(4) They will use all of the advantages of multimedia presentations on music and music related information.