An international conference
Venue: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Date: 10-11 July, 2009

Over the last twenty years or so there has been much interest in music and diaspora, that is in migrating music. No doubt this interest is historically grounded. Movement of peoples and their music across the world has been occurring to an unprecedented extent and in novel ways.

Researchers in a variety of disciplines have then responded by studying musical flows and the formation of hybrid styles, but also the way in which apparently similar music can mean quite different things in different contexts. We might sum up the overarching framework as one in which researchers focus on the (largely benign) diversification and pluralisation of musical meaning and experience.

We do not seek to overturn this framework. Quite simply, it taps an important part of the reality of migrating music in the contemporary period. But we do want to bring up a number of problems and issues, and call on colleagues to think about what these might mean. Continue reading →

Call for Papers

Society for Music Analysis Autumn Study Day
University of Liverpool, School of Music
22 November 2008

For most listeners to music, sensuous affect is of primary, perhaps even singular, importance. Our responses to music in everyday situations, ranging from background ambience to pounding film scores to sources of studious contemplation, are mediated through music’s sculpting of sensual, physical, emotional and affective experiences.

Yet when it comes to analyzing the musically sensuous, music theory and analysis have proved stubbornly resistant to (and perhaps even fearful of) engaging with the musically sensuous, often retreating instead into ostensibly more cerebral studies of the musically syntactical. This one-day conference seeks to contribute to the process of redressing that imbalance, not least by acknowledging that separations of the sensuous and syntactical in music are, at best, artificial necessities for study and, at worst, utterly misleading. Continue reading →

Call for Papers
Jazz Research Journal special issue
19 November 2008
Adelphi House, University of Salford

“History is his story – my story is a mystery” (Sun Ra)

Since the mid-1990s jazz scholars have challenged established jazz histories, using a range of critical methodologies to examine the constructed nature of existing narratives. More recently, studies have set out either to write new jazz histories or to expose the underlying ideologies of canon formation and a linear tradition found within the jazz mainstream.

This one day symposium will explore the theme of New Jazz Histories, using Alyn Shipton’s New History of Jazz (Continuum, 2007 [2nd edition]) as a starting point for discussion. Alyn Shipton will provide an introduction to the event, focusing on the problems of reconciling academic history, oral history and discographical concerns in one synoptic history. Subsequent papers may seek to use Shipton’s work as a starting point for discussion, exploring the nature of jazz history. The event aims to provide an interdisciplinary context for discussing and developing a deeper critical understanding of what jazz is.

The review committee welcomes papers that cover one or more of the following topics:

• Writing new jazz histories
• Tradition and lineage
• The origins of jazz
• Causality and teleological narration
• Historical revisionism
• Canonisation and cultural value
• The mythology of jazz
• Progress and modernity
• Forms of jazz historiography
• Jazz modernism, postmodernism and the avant garde
• Community and boundary
• Subverting dominant codes and conventions

Selected papers will feature as articles in a special issue of the Jazz Research Journal, to be published in 2009. Therefore, authors must ensure that submissions have not been previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted to Tony Whyton by 15 September 2008.

Review panel: Tony Whyton (University of Salford), Nicholas Gebhardt (University of Lancaster), Catherine Parsonage (Open University) and George McKay (University of Salford)

Call for Papers
Annual Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology 2009
http://www.bfe2009.net
Submission deadline: 30 November 2008

The Annual Conference of the BFE will be held from 16 – 19 April 2009, and hosted by the Popular Music Studies Unit at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. This 4-day conference seeks to generate new perspectives and understandings on the interrelatedness of music, culture and globalisation through stimulating interdisciplinary and intercultural theoretical dialogues, and thereby moving beyond those conceptualisations that are already established in ethnomusicology and other music-related disciplines. To this end, various guest speakers will be engaged to contribute a range of different theoretical perspectives on a more contemporary understanding of music and global culture. The keynote will be delivered by Professor John Tomlinson, Professor of Cultural Sociology and authority on the cultural aspects of the globalisation process.

Submissions are now invited on any aspect of the theme with papers that seek to explore newer issues relating to this subject, including, but by no means limited to, the following: (1) Musical traditions in transformation; (2) Music, place and identity; (3) New centres and peripheries? ; (4) Music, mediation and tourism; (5) New approaches to ethnographic enquiry and research methods. Abstracts (approximately 300 words) for paper presentations lasting 20 minutes should be submitted by 30 November 2008. Film shows and performances may also be proposed, as may pre-formed panels or workshop sessions, for which a longer abstract with named speakers should be submitted (approximately 1,000 words).

The Annual BFE Conference will be held in Liverpool (UK), a buzzing musical city that has just celebrated its 800th birthday in 2007 and continues celebrations as European Capital of Culture 2008. Liverpool is renowned for its vibrant music culture and the Beatles, football, maritime heritage, arts and culture, shopping, and exciting nightlife, and there will be time during the conference to explore its fabulous attractions. There will be a conference dinner and party on Saturday evening, and a themed night and a range of live music performances are also planned.

Detailed information on all aspects of the conference can be found on the
BFE conference website, or obtained directly from Dr
Simone Krüger, BFE 2009 Conference Organiser.