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

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please believe me when I write that it was one of the best conferences that I have attended. Due to traffic jams I missed the first hour of so of the IMS conference. I heard two papers: one by Shulamit Marom and the other by Alona Sagi. Both were very interesting. They made me think, and this is something that I cannot say about many of the papers that I heard in other conferences. Moreover, they both presented sound recordings, and this is something that is often absent from discussions about music. You probably all know the lectures that speak about music in a highly detailed manner, assuming that everybody knows about what performance you one is speaking about, and neglecting the act of listening to the recording with the audience.

Shulamit Marom made a distinction between “Mandate songs” that were written in Tel-Aviv and other that were written in the “Yeshuv” (elsewhere). David Halperin suggested that making a distinction between the two categories will not stand scrutiny in many cases. I have little knowledge about Zemer to know whether Halperin is right. I did wonder whether our contemporary thinking of Tel-Aviv as a “bubble” that is disconnected from the rest of Israel, especially in relation to the territories and the second war in Lebanon, affected the categorization that Shulamit Maron suggested to us in her research. Anyway, Shulamit Marom’s presentation was very clear and enjoyable. It is possible to see that she is a very gifted lecturer.

Alona Sagi examined the improvisation of Miles Davies in “Walkin’” during the 50s and 60s. She observed that as time passed there was a change from “vertical thinking” to “linar thinking” on the one hand, and a tendency towards “free jazz”, on the other hand. She mentioned the presence of young and experimental musicians in the 60s as something that stimulated this change. Sagi’s transcriptions were impressive and it was fun reading them while listening to the music and hearing her comments. I am using the word “fun” on purpose, since enjoying a paper is something that should be taken for granted. It was a pity that she did not manage to finish her paper due to time limit. Although she blamed it on technical issues of handing the CD, I think that a well prepared paper would predict such problems and avoid them. In the next few days I plan to write a post on “How to give a paper in conferences: useful tips”. I wondered whether there are more social and cultural issues that affected the technical change that Sagi described in the performance of Miles Davis. I enjoyed listening to this music after so many years.

After that session, there was a general meeting of the society. It was sad to see how much money was spent on the internet site of the society. Prof. Edwin Seroussi rightly argued that three years ago it was reasonable to pay such sums for buliding a website, while today websites (at least ones on the level that was presented) are constructed almost for free. I plan to write a post about the IMS website and what I see as possibilities for the future.

The second part of the conference was devoted to “what there is and what there is not to read in Hebrew in Music”. I could not stay until the end of the conference. I had to leave an hour earlier so I did not manage to hear the paper given by Prof. Judith Cohen and people that spoke thereafter. This session was simulations very interesting and disappointing. It was fascinating to see how people deeply care about the miserable situation that there are almost no books to read in Hebrew (most of them are not updated and out of print). Some of the comments were truly illuminating (I will come back to them in a moment).

The “paper” given by Gila Flamm was disappointing. It was mainly an improvisation that amounted to a presentation of “facts” by browsing through items in the National Libraries catalog. There was little information given on the nature of the books that were mentioned, and of the frequency that people read them. There was no attempt to categorize the types of readers and the various manners that people read Hebrew books on music. There was no discussion on the history of institutions approaching the library for such books. Is this information not available?

The paper given by Elisheva Rigby had few interesting points. She said that we must be able to explain to ourselves why writing about music is essential to Israeli culture if we wish to convince others. Her argument was based on the idea that any knowledge and culture are based on discourse. She mentioned the myth of the composer at the top of the creative musicians, the performers as those who could not compose, the conductors as those who could not play an instrument, and the musicologists and critics at the bottom of the hierarchy, the perfect impotents, as those who could not do anything but talk. This myth, as Rigby said, is based on the idea of “originality” that is initiated from one source. Postmodern views demonstrate how the construction of meaning is done in a social network. In other words, the hierarchy is different and every cultural agent contributes in potentially significant ways. It seems to me that the myth of the “genius composer” is, unfortunately, sustained also among many musicologists in Israel and the world. This is why performance is regarded by many as a marginal and unimportant activity in relation to composing. The composer Zippi Fleisher said in the conference something like “what can one do, it all starts with the composer, and then one performs it, and then one writes about it”. This is an old fashioned and anachronistic view of what is happening in musical culture. Beethoven would never be famous if it would not be for music critics and musicologists who wrote about him and elevated him as a Romantic icon. We would not hear Beethoven the way we do, and he would not symbolize what he does, without the words that were written on him.

In my blog there is a poll asking why there are almost no books on music in Hebrew. Many people blamed it on the academy who demands that books will be written in English. Prof. Don Haran speculated in the conference why is it possible that the French and the Italians would never think writing in a language different than their own, and we seem to find it natural to write in English. This comment was thought provoking.

Prof. Yoash Hirshberg explained how disappointing it was to find that his book on Paul Ben-Haim is not available anymore. He was especially disappointed that his publisher Am-Oved did not find it important enough to keep a few copies of the book. He compared the Israeli publisher with Oxford University Press that published one of his books in two prints and then kept an electronic copy for anyone who might be interested. There was bitterness in his voice from the attitude of Am-Oved, whom he called “a commercial publication house” and he ended his comment by saying that in the present situation he has no motivation for writing anything more in Hebrew.

As mentioned about, I could not stay for the last session. The first session of the second part, which I just described, was not well organized. The speakers were not well-prepared (in England it is considered not serious to give a paper without reading from a text that was prepared in advance). Elisheva Rigbi gave herself too much liberty in commenting on the comments of others, something that took too much time of the session.

This session, was however, successful. It was interesting for me to hear the comments that some of them I have mentioned above. One of the fascinating comments in this session and the one before, were made my Prof. Ruth Katz. She stressed again and again that we must define our goals before we take action. It is useless to speak about low attendance of members and that fact that there are almost no students who find it important to attend the IMS conference (I agree that they must be forced to attend by making their presence obligatory for finishing their studies), if the IMS in general and Min-Ad in particular do not define their goals. With goals well-defined much can be achieved with limited energy. Without it, one is lost. It was wonderful to hear that an evening is organized in honor of her 80th birthday.

The conference, it seems to me, was successful. I wounder if any practical points for action were defined during the last session. It would be useful that in future conference smaller groups will be organized in round tables so that there will be more space for interaction. In any case, it is wonderful that Elisheva Rigbi, Rivka Elkushi and others initiated and organized this conference on around this important theme.

I will be glad if anyone who attended the conference will comment on it or on what I have written above. I am especially interested in knowing what happened in the last part that I could not attend. One of the reasons that I opened this blog is to attribute to the Israeli discourse on music. My assumption is that if we want a discourse to occur we must actively contribute to it. So please take a few minutes and comment by filling the form below or by sending me your comment for publication in this forum.

Related posts:
Here it comes מה יש ומה אין לקרוא על מוסיקה בעברית
Call for papers “What there is and what there is not to read about music in Hebrew”
Response to Dr Elisheva Rigbi’s second comment: are we normal?
Why my Blog is in English: an answer to Dr. Elisheva Rigbi
We seem to fail doing the very same thing in music

See also
Article on the conference published in Achbar Ha-Ir

Do not forget to subscribe to the blog in order to receive future posts. If you need help with subscribing or commenting in this blog please contact me now.

The program of the conference מה יש ומה אין לקרוא על מוסיקה בעברית? “What is and what there is not to read about music in Hebrew” was announced today. The program has some papers that seem very interesting. מושב ב’\1: מוסיקה “אחרת” seems especially interesting. Alona Sagi will speak about the improvisation of Miles Davis in the recordings of “Walkin’” and Shulamit Marom will speak about Tel-Aviv songs during the British Mandat (1920-1948). Another promising paper will be given by Asaf Sheleg titled “פוליפוניות אונטולוגיות: בין היהודי לישראלי במוסיקה הישראלית האומנותית” (Ontological polyphonies: between the Jewish and the Israeli in Israeli art music).

It is always the second part
The second part of the conference which is devoted to the burning question of Hebrew literature (scholarly, semi-scholarly and non-scholarly) is unclear. Gila Flamm will give a report of what exists in the library. This has potential to be very interesting, providing that the information will be more than descriptive. It would be very interesting to know not only what books exists but also what books are being read all the time and what books simply gather dust on the shelves. This could be valuable information that could help publishers and “decision makers” decide where to invest their money.

I wrote that the second part is unclear since the titles of the papers/discussions do not say too much about the content. What does “education” stand for? Is it only to educate the two and a half students that study music today, or are we speaking about educating the government, academy, book publishers, the rich people who donate money, and the general public?

What seems as a potential problem, is that the answer to the acute problem of almost no books in Hebrew on music, seems to be known to the conference organizers. It would be perhaps better to wait and see what comes out of the conference and research of others before one jumps into conclusion. Most important, I hope that the conference will result not only with interesting papers and conversations, but also with operative actions in order to change this miserable situation.

A tale of two women
I was once invited by Áine Heneghan to give a paper in the 2005 Dublin International Conference on Music Analysis, in Ireland. Since it was an international conference with important participants from around the world (Carl Schachter, Jonathan Dunsby, and many others), Áine was very busy (she was one of the two people that I know of, who organized the conference). I asked her “are you also giving a paper in the conference?” She answered “We decided that the organizers of the conference will not give papers in this conference so that people will no say that it has bad taste that we give papers while other people are rejected from speaking in the conference”. I felt that this is indeed an admirable behavior (a year or two before I was present in a UK conference where the organizer gave two papers!). We have much to learn from Áine Heneghan.

Related posts:
Call for papers “What there is and what there is not to read about music in Hebrew”
Response to Dr Elisheva Rigbi’s second comment: are we normal?
Why my Blog is in English: an answer to Dr. Elisheva Rigbi
We seem to fail doing the very same thing in music
Next post: Review of the IMS conference 2008: what there is and what there is not to read in Hebrew in Music

I always liked the music of Luigi Nono. I once took a special flight to Switzerland to hear a performance of La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura (1988-89) with Irvine Arditti as violinist.

International Symposium
to be held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy
25-27.06.2009
The Archivio Luigi Nono in Venice, in collaboration with the University of Venice is organizing an international symposium on The dramaturgy of sound in the music of Luigi Nono .

In the catalogue of Luigi Nono’s compositions only three works are normally considered as “music for the theater” because, for different reasons, these works can be associated with scenic or visual components: Intolleranza 1960, Al gran sole carico d’amore and Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto. However, deeply ingrained in Nono’s entire ¦uvre, regardless of ensemble or destination, there is the search for an acoustic dramaturgy (in the classical meaning of drâma or drân); an “active” sound the implications of which embrace different dimensions relating as much to the form as to the content of the work. The use of electronic technologies and consequently the possibility of spatialization and transformation of the sound-event in real time have radicalized the dimension of “drama” in Nono’s creative horizon.

The Organization Committee is pleased to invite scholars (musicologists, philosophers, literature and theater historians) to present proposals for papers relating to the following subjects:

1) Dramaturgy of sound and listening space
2) Dramaturgy and sound action
3) Dramaturgy and text
4) Dramaturgy and the stage
5) Compositional process and sound dramaturgy

First priority will be given to proposals based on new archival research.

Presentation of the abstracts
Applications must contain the following information:
1) The thematic subject chosen
2) Method of research
3) Object of the research/ Aim pursued
4) A selective bibliography
5) A short curriculum vitae (max. 100 words; in case of two applicants, max. 150 words.
6) Present position and referral contacts

The abstracts (containing points 1-6) should not have over 3000 characters, counting the spaces.
The abstracts, written in Italian or English in rtf format, must be presented by and not later than the 1st November 2008.
They should be sent as an attachment to the following e-mail address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Organization Committee is made up of the following members of the Committee of scholars of the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono:

Gianmario Borio (University of Pavia)
Angela Ida De Benedictis (University of Pavia)
Marco Mazzolini (Universal Music Publishing Ricordi)
Giovanni Morelli (University of Venice)
Veniero Rizzardi (University of Venice)
Jürg Stenzl (University of Salzburg)

For further information

Claudia Vincis
Artistic Director

Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono ONLUS
Ex Convento SS. Cosma e Damiano
Giudecca 619-621
30133 Venice, Italy
tel/fax: +39 041 5209713
www.luiginono.it

–

Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono ONLUS
Ex Convento SS. Cosma e Damiano
Giudecca 619-621
30133 Venezia, Italia
tel/fax: +39 0415209713
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.luiginono.it

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Music/Golden-pages/Conferences/2009/09-6-dsn.html

Last Wednesday I went to a conference in the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem on Zionism and Lebensphilosophie. I was especially interested in a paper given by Philipp Theisohn from University of Tübingen called “The Body Politic of Zionism: Klages, Beitar, Schönberg”. I guess you know which keyword attracted me in the title…

The paper was very interesting, although I am not sure that I agree with all the connections Theisohn made between Schoenberg and Zabotinsky. Schoenberg’s position towards mechanical music was very ambivalent as can be seen in his article “Mechanical Musical Instruments” that can be found in his book Style and Idea.

After the lecture we saw the the film Children of the Sun by Ran Tal. It was the first time I saw the film and I must say that it was nothing less than amazing. My mother lived for two years in an Kibbutz and was three months every years there thereafter. One of the reasons that my grandmother left the kibbutz was because it was not permitted that children will sleep with their parents (the children slept together and were raised by nannies). It was shocking what the kibbutzim did in order to create what they saw as the “new man”. This film is a must for anyone interested in the history of Israel.

The music of the film was by Avi Belleli. It was very good.

I thought it would be a useful idea to gather here some information about music conferences in the world. Sometimes we forget to check for information about such conferences and those of you who have subscribed to my blog will enjoy receiving such abstracts directly to their email. Please note that I do not promise to send information about all the conferences that exist! Here is information about 4 conferences:

The information on this page was collected from
Royal Holloways “Golden Pages” music portal.
If you are interested in one or more of the following conferences you can find at the link above more information.

HAYDN 2009: A BICENTENARY CONFERENCE
Budapest & Eszterháza, 27 to 30 May 2009
The Hungarian Musicological Society, the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Hungarian Haydn Society are pleased to announce an international conference to commemorate the bicentenary of Joseph Haydn’s death. The conference will be held in two locations: the Institute for Musicology in Budapest; and the Esterházy Palace at Eszterháza, where the composer spent much of his professional life.

Crosscurrents: American and European Music in Interaction, 1900-2000
(Crosscurrents: Wechselwirkungen zwischen amerikanischer und europäischer Musik, 1900-2000)
An international conference in two parts: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 30 October - 1 November 2008; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, 7-9 May 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS

Recognizing the extraordinary degree of interaction between North American
and European music and musicians during the twentieth century, we invite
papers exploring this cultural exchange and its historiographical
implications. Possible topics include:

* exile and emigration
* pedagogical networks
* institutional exchanges (for example concert tours, festivals, societies)
* the role of technology in the dissemination and composition of music
* convergence and divergence of musical languages
* differing cultural hierarchies and their interactions (high and low, U und E)
cultural politics (diplomacy, propaganda, state-sponsored initiatives)

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Zyklus und Prozess.
Joseph Haydn und die Zeit
(Cycle and Process: Joseph Haydn and Time)
Interdisciplinary Symposium, January 19–21, 2009
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
In daily experience, time is perceived either as repetition of the same (cycle) or as continuous, irreversable change (process). Music has, thanks to its quality of temporal existence, always had a special relation to time in tempo, meter, and rhythm. Furthermore, since Haydn’s day the perception of continuity and change, time patterns and irregular developments, has gained a sharper focus. Not incidentally, authentic titles or later added programmatic names of works by Haydn allude to time and its passing: Le matin / Le midi / Le soir / Die Uhr / Die Jahreszeiten. Therefore, our conference intends to examine applications of this sharpened perception on music.
Our topic relates to recent debates in various fields and research areas such as New Musicology (e.g., narratology), Cultural Studies (significance of memory in the reception of music) and to the discussion initiated by Reinhart Kosellek regarding the new perception of time during the 18th century (cf. the journal Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert: vol.30/2 [2006], „Zeitkonzepte
Music Theory and Interdisciplinarity

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University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz (KUG)

October 9-12, 2008

Deadline for Proposals: May 5, 2008

Event Description and Information:

Music Theory and Interdisciplinarity

8th Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (GMTH)

Graz, October 9-12, 2008

University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz (KUG)
in association with the Austrian Society of Musicology (ÖGMW)

Conference Chairs: Christian Utz, Andreas Dorschel, Clemens Gadenstätter

The polymorphism of music theory as a scholarly and artistic discipline offers great potential for interdisciplinary musical research and practice. In current developments, music theory seems to temper its traditional objective of defining a consistent, ontological, generalised “theory of music”, and find its meaning and functions primarily by discovering common ground with music history, music aesthetics, musical interpretation, composition, ethnomusicology, and (systematic) musicology. In these in-between spaces, the disciplines have the opportunity to challenge, doubt, cross-fertilise each other, and thus to contribute to the differentiation of musical knowledge and musical perception. This congress aims to shed light on this basic interdisciplinary character of current music theories in six sections, each focussing on the dialogue between music theory and one of the related disciplines

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The Fourth Annual Art of Record Production Conference 2008Nov. 14 - 16, 2008
Hosted by William Moylan at The University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
The deadline for proposals is the 15th April 2008

General Information: http://www.artofrecordproduction.com/content/view/59/95/

Conference Summary:
The ARP Conference gathers together industry professionals, academic scholars, and musicians who utilize and study recording technology as a principle means of creative expression. It is the aim of this conference to facilitate the exchange of ideas between these groups, drawing upon broad areas of expertise, and providing a unique opportunity for individuals to inform, challenge, and stimulate the discourse surrounding the intersection of technology and music. ARP provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and multiple perspectives across disciplines.
The conference addresses a range of topics such as; how creative expression is achieved through technological practices; how changes in recording technology have impacted upon and informed musical practices; the so-called “democratization” of access to modes of creative expression and the resultant opportunities for the distribution of recorded work in the age of computer-based recording and the Internet. The conference will comprise academic papers, industry speakers and panels, practical demonstrations and masterclasses as well as plentiful opportunities for networking and informal debate