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: 2009 Art of Record Production: Producing Recorded Performances: Capture or Design (Glamorgan, Cardiff)

FIFTH ANNUAL ART OF RECORD PRODUCTION CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN, CARDIFF, SOUTH WALES
13 - 15 NOVEMBER 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS

Producing Recorded Performances: Capture or Design?
The conference organizers invite submissions for papers on the following themes and any other related topics:

1. Performance and Record Production.
The evolving process of record production has altered performance practice in a variety of ways and across the whole range of musical styles. In turn these new developments have themselves driven the development of new musical styles. This stream will examine these issues and also how changes in the creative decision making process have affected the traditional roles of performer, composer, arranger and producer. Leiber and Stoller are often quoted as having said “we don’t write songs, we write records” and this recording based approach to creativity has many implications for the role of performers. How do performers and producers negotiate this creative balancing act? Indeed, how do all the participants in the production process communicate and interact? The stream invites submissions dealing with all aspects of performance in the recording studio.

2. Capturing Environments, Designing Space.
For many recording professionals the idea of ‘capturing’ the character of a specific space is central to their practice. For others the artificial construction of perceived ambience is equally crucial. The ‘sonic environment’ of recorded music can strongly affect the perceived meaning for a listener but the sound the performer hears during the recording process is also an important factor. This stream seeks to examine both how the artificial design of space has been incorporated into the production and compositional process as well as how techniques
that are specific to the recording of classical, jazz, acoustic, folk and traditional music forms utilise the sound of recorded space. Phrases such as hyper realism and “electronic fakery” illustrate the increased public awareness of the creative impact of technological mediation. We would therefore also like to encourage studies and discussions of related issues such as the aesthetics and psychoacoustics of place and proximity, the perception of technological mediation, authenticity and transparency.

3. Independent Production and Distribution
There is a long history of independent and entrepreneurial producers stretching from pioneers such as Sam Phillips and Joe Meek to contemporary artists such as Linda Perry and Steve Albini. There are also a variety of business models and working practices through which independent record producers and independent forms of distribution can be connected. Record production on the small scale impacts on the final sound in a variety of ways but particular business models and audience preferences in niche markets can also influence creative decisions in the production process. How might the model of ‘pay per listen’ as opposed to the ‘traditional’ product / ownership forms of income stream affect the production of recorded music? There are also perceptions amongst both audiences and artists about the relationship of independence and creativity and independence and credibility. This stream invites submissions relating to any of the above points and also those dealing with emerging business models related to independent and /or small scale production and the way they fit into the wider market place.

4. Five Years On: The Musicology of Record Production
Five years after the ‘Towards a Musicology of Record Production’ stream at the first ARP conference, how has this field of study moved on? At that conference Professor Allan Moore argued “that the major context for production decisions is the other musical decisions which go into the making of a track” and that, as such, a musicology of record production only makes sense as a component in the wider study of music. A growing number of academics are seeking ways in which the study of recording practice can be integrated into the study of music. What difference does it make when that study is in the western art tradition of musicology, ethnomusicology or popular music studies? What are the methodologies and approaches being utilised in this area and how do they fit together? What should a musicology of record production study and why?

We welcome work from any relevant academic perspective, including but not limited to popular music studies, ethnomusicology, the study of performance practice, communication studies, historical musicology, the history of technology, ergonomics, acoustics and psychoacoustics, music theory, music cognition, music and music technology education, and the philosophies of music, mediation and technology. Please include a note on methodology where appropriate.

Papers or demonstrations that require recording / studio / 5.1 playback facilities are also encouraged but selection will be subject to a feasibility study by the hosts at Glamorgan.

Proposals for individual papers and poster presentations should not exceed 500 words and should be in Word Document, Rich Text File or Text file formats (doc, docx, rtf or txt files). Submissions by email to simonzt@artofrecordproduction.com

Papers will be accepted in either English or Welsh.

The deadline for proposals is the Monday 20th April 2009.

2008 ARSC Conference Recordings Available

ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (ARSC) 2008 CONFERENCE RECORDINGS

NOW AVAILABLE FREE ONLINE

The Outreach Committee of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) announces that the recordings from the ARSC 2008 Conference are available free online.

Audio recordings of all presentations made during the 2008 ARSC Conference at Stanford University are freely available online in MP3 format at:

http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference/audio2008/

In some cases, PowerPoint slides and other supplementary materials are included.

For those who joined us in Palo Alto, we hope you'll enjoy this chance to relive the memories, and to catch up on the sessions you missed. For anyone who has yet to attend an ARSC conference, here's a good opportunity to find out some of what you're missing.

Questions about the recordings should be addressed to ARSC Program Chair David Giovannoni at: dgio-arsc@comcast.net

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings -- in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC is unique in bringing together private individuals and institutional professionals --everyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.

Sound Copyright Campain (European Union)

From The Sound Copyright Campaign:

The flawed proposal to extend the term of copyright protection afforded to sound recordings, robbing consumers in the name of perfomers but for the benefit of the world’s four major record labels, is being fast-tracked through the democratic process. Earlier this month MEPs from the relevant European Parliament committees presented their draft reports (1) at a meeting of the legal affairs committee (JURI), the Committee which will make recommendations to the European Parliament on how to vote on the Directive early next year. They proposed a host of worrying new amendments which threaten to:

* Weaken further already inadequate measures intended to allow orphan works, and commercially worthless but culturally significant recordings to pass into the public domain (Culture (CULT), Internal Market (IMCO) and the Industry, Technology and Research (ITRE) committees draft reports).

* Allow record labels to deduct “costs” from a fund intended to benefit session musicians, further shrinking the pot of money made available to performers in favour of labels (IMCO committee draft report).

* Dramatically widen the scope of the Directive to include audio-visual recording, even though no relevant impact assessment has been conducted into what effect this might have on consumers and follow-on innovators. (JURI and ITRE committee draft reports).

(1) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/term-extension-committee-draft-reports.zip

At the JURI meeting, Dr Lionel Bently of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL) Cambridge, dismissed the proposal stating that “record producers will gain the lion’s share of revenues on sales in the extended term”. He warned that the Directive would accrue serious social and economic costs, and concluded that MEPs should “oppose this measure in its totality.” (2)

(2)http://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/prof-bently-juri-speech.pdf

Bently is not the only expert to oppose the Directive. In an open letter to MEPs, Europe’s leading intellectual property research centres unanimously condemned the proposal (3). The European Broadcast Union has also stated publicly that the proposal will make consumers foot the bill while stifling innovation (4).

(3) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/term-open-letter-and-statement.zip
(4) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/ebu-position-paper-extending-the-term-of-copyright-protection.doc

Earlier this month ORG met with MEPs in the European Parliament to express our serious concerns about the proposal. We warned that the European Commission’s own figures demonstrate that performers will benefit little from the extended term (5), while the world’s four major record labels will gain millions of Euros direct from consumer’s pockets. We argued that this damaged the respect necessary for a functioning IP system.

(5) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/openrights-scotsman-oct-08.pdf

But our voice is not as powerful as yours. It’s vital that you contact your MEPs now (6) and tell them why term extension is bad news (7).

(6) http://www.soundcopyright.eu/system/files/MEP+lobbying+tips.pdf
(7) http://www.soundcopyright.eu/system/files/Briefing.pdf

With all the evidence pointing against this measure, you can call on your MEPs to put a stop to bad IP law and reject this proposal. You can also also tell the appropriate government department in your own EU country (8) (in the UK it is DCMS), as they will be meeting in the Council of Ministers to discuss term extension.

(8) http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/urls.jsp

With the European elections next year, Parliament is set to move quickly on this issue. It’s up to you to remind your representatives that their job is to look out for your interests, not to rush through bad law.

The Sound Copyright Campaign
Run by the Open Rights Group and EFF

CFP: Scalable Audio-Content Analysis (journal)

SCALABLE AUDIO-CONTENT ANALYSIS

CALL FOR PAPERS

The amount of easily-accessible audio, either in the form of large collections of audio or audio-video recordings or in the form of streaming media, has increased exponentially in recent times. However, this audio is not standardized: much of it is noisy, recordings are frequently not clean, and most of it is not labeled. The audio content covers a large range of categories including sports, music and songs, speech, and natural sounds. There is, therefore, a need for algorithms that allow us make sense of these data, to store, process, categorize, summarize, identify, and retrieve them quickly and accurately.

In this special issue, we invite papers that present novel approaches to problems such as (but not limited to):

o Audio similarity
o Audio categorization
o Audio classification
o Indexing and retrieval
o Semantic tagging
o Audio event detection
o Summarization
o Mining

We are especially interested in work that addresses real-world issues such as:

o Scalable and efficient algorithms
o Audio analysis under noisy and real-world conditions
o Classification with uncertain labeling
o Invariance to recording conditions
o On-line and real-time analysis of audio
o Algorithms for very large audio databases

We encourage theoretical or application-oriented papers that highlight exploitation of such techniques in practical systems/products.

Before submission, authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/asmp/guidelines.html. Authors should follow the EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing manuscript format described at the journal site http://www.hindawi.com/journals/asmp/.

Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/, according to the following timetable:

Manuscript Due June 1, 2009
First Round of Reviews September 1, 2009
Publication Date December 1, 2009

Lead Guest Editor
Bhiksha Raj, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; bhiksha@cs.cmu.edu

Guest Editors

o Paris Smaragdis, Advanced Technology Labs, Adobe Systems Inc. Newton, MA 02466, USA; paris@media.mit.edu
o Malcolm Slaney, Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, CA 95054; Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University, CA 94305-8180, USA; malcolm@ieee.org
o Chung-Hsien Wu, Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; chwu@csie.ncku.edu.tw
o Liming Chen, Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Ecole Centrale de Lyon University of Lyon, 69006 Lyon, France; liming.chen@ec-lyon.fr
o Hyoung-Gook Kim, Intelligent Multimedia Signal Processing Lab, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 139-701, South Korea; hkim@kw.ac.kr

CFP: Sound Property? Investigating the Legal Status of Sound Recordings (Salford)

SOUND PROPERTY? INVESTIGATING THE LEGAL STATUS OF SOUND RECORDINGS
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON MUSIC & COPYRIGHT
UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD, UK
18 - 19 FEBRUARY 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS

This conference proposes to investigate the current U.S. and U.K. statutes that regulate the protection of sound recordings. It will inquire to what degree those laws secure the rights of both the owners and creators of the music contained on these products as well as determine their impact upon those who consume and comment upon this material. The pending efforts to universalize an extended term of copyright underscore the potential for even more draconian controls upon recorded music. Will the public, creators, and commentators continue to be able to acquire, appreciate and appropriate musical materials? Can some balance be found between the need for profit and the pursuit of pleasure? Is it possible in a civil society for music effectively to be silenced through constraints over its recorded legacy?

Proposals are solicited that address the current U.S. and U.K. statutes; the impact of these laws upon writing and teaching about music; the impact of these laws upon musical creators and consumers; and the relationship between legal controls over recorded sound and issues of public policy and the needs of a civil society.

Conference papers will be organized into panel sessions of 2 hours, each comprising three 25-minute presentations with time for discussion. Proposals may be submitted either for individual papers or for organized panel sessions of three papers and a chair.

Proposals are welcome and encouraged from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, (including but certainly not limited to law, economics, sociology, music, popular music studies, history, cultural studies, film and television studies etc.) and from those with professional perspectives related to the subject (performers, producers, composers, lawyers, executives etc.).

Efforts are being made to incorporate responses from the corporate sector in addition to that of commentators, both from the academy and the public arena. Also, final plans may well include both a concert by musicians whose work depends upon the manipulation of pre-existent recordings as well as showings of films about these issues and those that employ a cinematic re-mixing of visual and acoustic sources.

Proposals of at least 250 and no more than 500 words should be sent to David Sanjek before December 17th. Acceptance of papers and a final programme will be announced in late December.

David Sanjek
Professor of Music
Director, Popular Music Research Centre
University of Salford
Adelphi Building
Peru Street Greater Manchester
M3 6EQ U.K.
d.sanjek at salford.ac.uk