CFP: Music for Stringed Instruments - Music Archives and the Materials of Musicological Research in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries (Cardiff Univ)

MUSIC FOR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS - MUSIC ARCHIVES AND THE MATERIALS OF MUSICOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE 19TH CENTURY AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
23 - 24 JUNE 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS


The call for papers can be read in full at the conference web page, URL:
http://stringeditions.leeds.ac.uk/news.htm

Broad topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:
* 19th- and early 20th-century music publishing history
* Plate number chronologies
* Creation and significance of digital resources for research in the field
* Comparative studies: editions and performance practices
* Manuscripts
* Editions with significant MS annotation
* Music archives
* Studies of individual editor-performers
* The use of early recordings
* Illustrated papers exploring the practical application of this research

The conference will include a performance given by the LUCHIP ensemble (Leeds University Centre for Historically Informed Performance), followed by a round table discussion. It is hoped to provide assistance for postgraduate students to attend.

Please email proposals for papers to Dr. George Kennaway, at g.w.kennaway at leeds.ac.uk, no later than March 15th 2010.

CFP: Music, Literature, Illustration: Collaboration and networks in English manuscript culture, 1500 – 1700 (University of Southampton)

MUSIC, LITERATURE, ILLUSTRATION: COLLABORATION AND NETWORKS IN ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT CULTURE, 1500 - 1700
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
16 - 17 FEBRUARY 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS

A conference for postgraduate students and early career researchers, hosted by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture, University of Southampton
Chawton House Library, Hampshire, 16-17 February 2010
Keynote speaker: Dr Peter Beal FBA (Institute of English Studies, University of London)

This two-day conference will bring together postgraduate and early career researchers working on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English manuscript sources. Many of the sources from this period are multi-authored and contain strikingly disparate materials, posing a serious challenge to scholars working within traditionally defined disciplinary boundaries.

The primary aim of the conference is to address this challenge: to provide an opportunity for genuine interdisciplinary discussion, and to create new networks between researchers which will enable them to share both theoretical perspectives and practical approaches to working with early modern manuscript materials.

Our definition of ‘literature’ for this conference is a broad one, including (but not limited to) poetry, prose, drama, (auto)biography, letters, devotional writing and medical/scientific texts.

We invite proposals for 20 minute papers that address any aspect of the conference theme but, in particular, those focused in the following areas:

• Studies of individual manuscripts that contain a range of diverse materials
• Manuscripts as emblems of social bonds (e.g. family, friendship, or patronage-based networks)
• Manuscripts as spaces for private reflection
• Manuscripts as objects for public display
• Manuscripts as commodities in a gift economy
• Relationships between manuscript and print culture
• The role of new technologies in manuscript studies, including:

- Project reports and/or practical demonstrations of existing electronic resources
- Conceptual and theoretical models – how can emerging technologies shape the future of manuscript studies?
- Representing non-textual material in electronic editions

Abstracts (300 words max.) for proposed papers should be sent by email to both conference organisers by October 16th 2009:

Michael Gale ( mdg at soton.ac.uk ) and Louise Rayment ( L.Rayment at soton.ac.uk )

Please include contact details and indicate your institutional affiliation and professional status (i.e. doctoral candidate, post-doctoral researcher etc.) in your submission.

Further information about the conference will appear in due course at: http://www.soton.ac.uk/cmrc/news/conferences/2009_10/music_literature.html

CFP: Performance and the Page: Exploring Manuscript Production and Interpretations - International Medieval Congress (Leeds)

PERFORMANCE AND THE PAGE: EXPLORING MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION AND INTERPRETATIONS
INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS
LEEDS, UK
12 - 15 JULY 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/

This interdisciplinary session will consider the metaphorical journey undertaken by all those involved in manuscript production and interpretation. From manuscript design to current presentation and preservation, from the conception of a work to its reception today, this session seeks to explore how manuscript layout and design influence (and are influenced by) reception, past and present.

Papers are invited on all aspects of "performance and the page", and could include:
--Issues of manuscript interpretation (medieval and/or contemporary)
--Issues of manuscript design
--Reconstruction of manuscript "texts" (including music)
--Aural performance of manuscript "texts" (including music)
--The visual impact of the manuscript page
--Presentation of manuscripts and their contents
--The influence of media (e.g. printing, digitisation) on the interpretation of manuscript contents
--The impact of manuscript digitisation on reception
--Reader manipulation through manuscript layout and design
--The manuscript portrayal of the author(s)
--Editing processes (both medieval and contemporary)
--The roles of some or all of those involved in manuscript production and transmission, from author to 21st-century reader.
--Relations between "text" and image

The conference theme for 2010 is "travel and exploration", and papers should address this theme in some way.

Please send proposals of 200 words before 8th Aug 2009 to: K.Maxwell at music.gla.ac.uk

CFP: The Cappella Sistina and the Low Countries, from Dufay to Ameyden

THE CAPPELLA SISTINA AND THE LOW COUNTRIES FROM DUFAY TO AMEYDEN

ANTWERP, BELGIUM

24 - 26 AUGUST 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organised by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Onderzoekseenheid Musicologie – Alamire Foundation vzw | AMUZ (Festival of Flanders Antwerp) – Laus Polyphoniae

Location: Elzenveld - Lange Gasthuisstraat 45, 2000 Antwerp (Belgium)

Conference Theme:

The Alamire Foundation, study centre for music of the Low Countries, and AMUZ, organiser of the early music festival Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp, present the 2009 edition of their annual international musicological conference. This year, the conference will focus on “The Cappella Sistina and the Low Countries, from Dufay to Ameyden”.

Possible themes are: the recruitment of singers from the Low Countries, the decline of recruitment from the Low Countries for the Cappella Sistina in the late 16th century, nationalities of singers in the papal chapel, the Sistine repertoire by composers from the Low Countries, 'northern influence' in the production of manuscripts (scribes, illuminations etc.), the Alamire codices 34, 36 and 160, and the effects, consequences and musical implications of the dominance of singers/composers from the Low Countries within the papal chapel.

We invite proposals for panel sessions as well as for individual papers of twenty-five minutes in the form of an abstract not exceeding 300 words, to be sent as an e-mail attachment to Sofie Taes (sofie.taes[at]arts.kuleuven.be) by 25 June 2009. Notification of acceptance will be given by 1 July. The conference programme will be available from 6 July on. The preferred conference language is English.

Programme Committee

Sofie Taes (Alamire Foundation vzw - AMUZ)

Thomas Schmidt-Beste (University of Wales – Bangor)

Organisation Committee

Sofie Taes (Alamire Foundation vzw - AMUZ)

Bart Demuyt (Alamire Foundation vzw - AMUZ)

Ann Hasendonckx (Alamire Foundation vzw)

For further information, please contact

Sofie Taes

Research Unit of Musicology | Alamire Foundation

Blijde Inkomststraat 21 – Lokaal 06.03

3000 Leuven

Belgium

0032 (0)16 – 32.49.03

0032 (0)3 – 202.46.68

sofie.taes at arts.kuleuven.be

Elliott Carter at 100

The iconoclast of American music, Elliott Carter recently turned 100. The celebration of his centenary has been marked with various interviews, performances and other online exhibitions.

One interview was conducted on the NPR radio programme "All Things Considered:" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98081089 (8:20)

Elliott Carter discussing his new piece, Caténaires, for pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Ensemble Contemporaine (26 October interview from New York): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp95zFUPEj0&feature=related (9:58)



He was also interviewed on NPR (National Public Radio, US) on the Charlie Rose Show (PBS) alongside pianist/conductors James Levine and Daniel Barenboim. The Youtube clip is an excerpt from the interview and contains Barenboim's recollections of his late friend, Edward Said, and his reminiscenses on the 'late style.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiDd4JVN9Vo  Alternatively, one can watch the entire interview at http://www.charlierose.com/

Other recent interviews include one with Frank Oteri (American Music Center - New Music Box) from mid-2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzs8Ov2p-Rc (5:08)



Also in celebration of Carter's 100th birthday, the Library of Congress has digitised the manuscript sketches of his Sonata for Cello and Piano and the String Quartet no. 1. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200155900/default.html Lastly, they have put up a digitised version of The Musical Languages of Elliott Carter (1984) by Charles Rosen which operates in a manner similar to the British Library 'Turning the Page'.

A detail from p. 68 of the manuscript sketches of Carter's Cello Sonata from the Library of Congress.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for digitising these invaluable sketches and Happy Birthday to Mr Carter, may your next century be as prolific as your first!

Back from IAML08

(Panoramic view of Naples in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius taken from the Castello Sant'Elmo high above the city.)

After spending some weeks in Italy, I'm finally back at work. It wasn't all r&r having attended the IAML08 Conference which was held in Naples, Italy this year. (IAML stands for the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres.) Kudos to the conference's organising committee and the host Italian branch (Complimenti e mille grazie!) who pulled off one terrific conference full of interesting presentations!

The keynote speaker, Dr Luciano Scala (Regional Director for Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Campania) delivered (in Italian with Powerpoint slides in English) an amazing speech on Italian efforts to document their cultural heritage. Their efforts resulted in the digitisation of over 9.2 million music manuscripts, scores and other ephemeral objects. (http://www.internetculturale.it/)

The interface operates in trilingual versions (English, French and Spanish). Here one can access (some for the very first time) manuscripts of Paisiello, Puccini and Verdi to name a few. Many can be downloaded albeit with reduced dpi. If needed for publication one can pay for high resolution. I can only imagine that researchers who did not want to have to travel all the way to tiny monasteries and dusty archives will be as struck as many of the conference delegates at what the Italians have truly achieved here!

One of the 9.2 million digital objects from the database. Here you can read in his own hand writing, Puccini sending a telegram the day after the premiere of the second revision of Madama Butterfly in Brescia describing what a 'complete triumph, 7 encores and being called up [to the stage] 30 times' (Biblioteca Statale di Lucca - ms. 3699/59)

The interface also serves as a union catalogue (SBN) amongst the institutions but I think there are some other e-resources (which I'll blog about later) that can do that and then some! There are digital cultural exhibitions (not just music) following on from physical exhibitions from various libraries and museums.

Certainly the Library of Congress, British Library and other national institutions have documented 'cultural memory' but this seems to stand out on its own. This is not to downplay the accomplishments of other institutions but their focus is towards an English-speaking world. It is refreshing to see an endeavour such as the one the Italians have built here operating in a pluralistic world. Certainly the musicological canon with its developments across the world at least begs us to think about it and take note.