Academic Presentations in 2008 & 2009
upcoming events:
February 26-28: Los Angeles, U.S.A.
'Filming with Mengelberg - revisited'
April 16-19: Hong Kong, China
'Beijng opera and a hammered piano: East meets West in Dutch music'
May 16: Orgelpark, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
'Creation in the moment of performance: Mengelberg's improvisando demonstrated via his recordings'
July 4-5: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
-the launch of an IMS Study Group Music and Media, MaM, plus a presentation:
'Brief encounters of a third kind: first Life live concerts in Second Life venues'
July 5-10: IMS IAML Joint Conference, Amsterdam
'Grab it, Motherfucker, Grab it!: Multiple appearances of a single composition'
@ @ @ @ @ @
February 26-28: Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Intellectual Commons, Room 233
Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California
At this three-day symposium a group of international scholars will speak on such issues as
sources and archives of film music, issues of accessibility, and editions (and what those would entail).
The latter is particularly important, since no published editions of American film scores currently
exist for study along with the film. The third day of the conference will be linked with the
regional AMS chapter meeting.
Feb 26: 6.30 p.m.: Methodologies II
Moderator: Brian Mann, Vassar College:
Emile Wennekes, Utrecht University: “Filming with Mengelberg – Revisited,”
Todd Decker, Washington University, St. Louis: “8 Brass, 5 Sax, 4 Rhythm: Swing Arrangements
and Arrangers in the Musicals of Fred Astaire,”
Krin Gabbard, SUNY Stony Brook: “Malle Meets Miles: Jazzing the French Cinema”.
8:00 p.m.: Source Studies I
Moderator: Emile Wennekes, Utrecht University:
Volker Straebel, Technical University Berlin: “The optical soundtrack as a means of sound synthesis. Implications of a media-specific art form”,
Miguel Mera, Anglia Ruskin University: “Sketches, Ashes and Music Technology”.
April 16-19: Hong Kong, China
ACC 109 Jockey Club Academic Conference Center, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
Beijng opera and a hammered piano: East meets West in Dutch music
In western Europe, creative cross-breedings and confrontations between Eastern
and Western music idioms have had an intriguing history. The Netherlands,
a small country that has had commercial ties with Asia for more than four hundred years,
forms an outstanding example in this respect. In the proposed paper,
musical encounters between East and West in recent Dutch music history will be discussed.
Firstly, light will be shed on Ton de Leeuw’s (1929-1996) compositional oeuvre and his
deeply rooted belief that art and philosophy in the West should merge with their
counterparts from the East. Secondly, there are significant and relevant compositional
techniques used by a younger generation:.Guus Janssen (1951) wrote an opera wherein
singers from the Beijng Opera play a significant part (Hier˚, 2000).
In Willem Jeths’ (1959) composition Fas/Nefas (1997) the piano is sardonically
hammered with sicks and treated like a Japanese koto.
A third point of attention will be contemporary ensembles that gather an eclectic
mix of instruments to play styles from all over the world, thusly creating hitherto
unheard music. Bun-ching Lam (1954), Theo Loevendie (1930), Guo Wenjing (1956)
and Jia Daqun (1955) are just a few of the composer’s who have written for the Holland
based Atlas Ensemble. Their specific culture-exceeding works are exemplary of creative
confrontation between East and West.
April 19, 10 a.m.: Session: Cultural Hybridity in Music
Other speakers include: Dipendu Das, India; Joyce Tang, Hong Kong; Steve Emerett, Emory, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Cornelia Szabo-Knotik, University of Vienna, and Hon-Lun, HK Baptist Univeristy.
May 16:
Orgelpark
, Amsterdam
'Creation in the moment of performance: Mengelberg's improvisando demonstrated via his recordings'
July 4-5: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
-launch IMS Study Group Music and Media: Call for Papers
The International Musicological Society
Music and Media will be launched as an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary IMS Study Group
in a pre-conference preceding the joint IAML-IMS conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The Study Group seeks to examine and explore diverse aspects relevant to the theme of
‘mediatizing music’. We are looking for perspectives from scholars engaged in the
fields of musicology, media studies, film studies, theatre etc.
Papers, reports and works-in-progress are now invited for submission on issues related,
but not limited to any of the following themes: * the implications of mediatizing for
performance practice * the implications of mediatizing music in terms of ´liveness´ *
the way media have changed the compositional process * the economics behind the
mediatisation of music * (the functioning of) music in television and film * (the functioning of)
music in virtual worlds and games. Papers will also be considered on any theme related to these.
Abstracts (of 300 words max. ) should be submitted by Sunday 1st March 2009.
Abstracts in Word or RTF formats should be send to Emile Wennekes as follows:
-author(s) -academic affiliation -e-mail address -title of the abstract -the abstract -special technical requirements (piano, overhead, power point, etc).
The Organ Park (Orgelpark) is provided with modern audio/visual equipment and has a variety of musical instruments that can be used, including a grand piano. Publication of the contributions in book form is under consideration.
Organizing Chair: Prof. Dr. Emile Wennekes Department of Media and Culture Studies
Utrecht University The Netherlands Email: emile.wennekes[at]let.uu.nl
Commentary: Music plays an important role in media, both in old and certainly in new media:
commercials, games, films, ring tones and the like. The other way around, media play an
increasing role in music. They have changed the compositional process and characteristics of
style; media severely influences performances, composing techniques,
the way of recording and visualizing music. What are the theoretical and philosophical
consequences of mediatized music? What are the economics behind these processes of mediatization?
What role does the process of ‘remediation’(Bolter & Grusin, 2000), from LP to MP3 and 4, play?
How has mediatization influenced performance practice, what was the ‘phonograph effect?’
(Katz, 1999). What do processes of mediatizing music mean in terms of ‘liveness’ (Auslander, 1999),
‘animated liveness’ (Wennekes, 2009) and/or ‘immersion’ (Grau, 2003)?
-Auslander, Philip, Liveness: Performance in a mediatized culture. (New York: Routledge, 1999).
-Bolter, Jay David & Grusin, Richard, Remediating: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: MIT Press 2000).
-Grau, Oliver, Virtual art: From Illusion to Immersion. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003)
-Katz, Mark, The Phonograph Effect: The Influence of Recording on Listener, Performer, Composer, 1900-1940. PhD Thesis University of Michigan, 1999.
-Wennekes, Emile, ‘Brief encounters of a third kind: First Life live concerts in Second Life concert venues’. In: Thea Brejzek, Wolfgang Greisenegger and Lawrence Wallen (eds.), Monitoring Scenography 2: Space and Truth / Raum und Wahrheit. Institute for Design and Technology (idt) Zurich: Zurich University of the Arts, October 2009.
Plus a presentation at the launch:
'Brief encounters of a third kind: first Life live concerts in Second Life venues'
July 5-10: IMS IAMAL Conference, Amsterdam
'Grab it, Motherfucker, Grab it!: Multiple appearances of a single composition':
It is not uncommon that scores, orginally intended for one instrument or combination of instruments, are rescored for other instruments – sometimes with a composer’s permission, sometimes without it, sometimes with his(/her) collaboration. Occasionally, idiomatic changes are made. These multiple appearances of a single composition are certainly a challenge to music librarians intent on efficient codification.
A new phenomenon has cropped up in contemporary composition which poses an even greater challenge. Nowadays, one title can cover a whole series of works. The concept of rescoring can be further enriched by ‘remediation’, by adding text samples or images, thusly creating extra layers of meaning.
In this paper the various shapes of Grab it!, a composition by Dutch composer Jacob ter Veldhuis (alias Jacob TV), will be analysed in all its different versions, notations and their subsequent performative countenances. One could argue that the composition turns into a ‘format’ here, instead of belonging to a fixed genre. The piece is no longer a forma formata, to quote Dutch musicologist Frits Noske, not a completed form, but rather a forma formans, a formative form - or perhaps even an argumentum formans, a formative content.
July 10, Amsterdam Conservatorium, 11 a.m.:
Dutch, South-African and Swiss composers: further speakers are
Dr. D. Staverman, Codarts, Rotterdam; Matildie Thom Wium, Bloemfontein, South Africa; Chris Walton
July 10, Amsterdam Conservatorium, 4 p.m.: Wennekes is chair of the session on Performance:
Speakers include Amanda Bayley, University of Wolverhampton, U.K.;Antonio Baldassarre, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Vienna; Guido Olivieri, Univeristy of Texas at Austin, USA; Sarah Eyerly, USC, Los Angeles, USA.
@ @ @ @ @ @
Past Presentations 2008-2009:
December 18-19: Kiel, Germany
Bach-Saal des Musikwissenschaftlichen Instituts
der CAU Kiel
Rudolf-Höber-Straße 3, 24118 Kiel. 13.30 u
'Mengelberg meets the Molech(s) of the New Era: Orchestral Performances in Sound and Vision'
Kieler Symposium zur Filmforschung
Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel
October 9-11: Zurich, Switzerland
MONITORING SCENOGRAPHY 2: SPACE AND TRUTH / RAUM UND WAHRHEIT
ZÜRCHER HOCHSCHULE DER KÜNSTE (ZHdK) ZURICH UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
Institute for Design and Technology Postgraduate Program Scenography
http://sceno.zhdk.ch
-Session 12: Virtual Vertigo, Friday October 10, 16.00 hours
Chair: Emile Wennekes
papers by Daniel Tercio, Technical University of London and
Pablo Ventura, Tanzakademie Zurich
-Session 3: (Virtual) Sound Worlds, Friday October 10, 9.30 hours
Chair: Thea Brejzek
papers by Tahera Aziz, London South Bank University,
Pamela Scorzin, Kunstakademie Stuttfart and
Emile Wennekes:
'Brief encounters of a third kind: first Life live concerts in Second Life venues'
(Classical) music within the virtual environment of Second Life (SL) is a niche in research.
To date, neither musicologists nor new media scholars have shown hardly any interest
in this phenomenon. In Baudrillard’s terms[1] SL could be considered a sumulacrum,
even one with ‘immersive’[2] qualities. Music, in a way, has the same qualities;
it can be immersive and is capable of providing a simulacrum.[3]
Music’s function within SL, however, can only be understood at the intersection
of two worlds: Second and First. The sound of music and parts of the visual
footage are created in Real Life, and subsequently ‘streamed’ into SL.
So the signs of ‘the real’ function not only as substitions for ‘the real itself’,
but are now ‘remediated’[4] within a newly created, ‘hyperreal’ context.
Analyzing music within SL, therefore, raises not only questions of a
philosophical and technical nature, but also ones relevant to
performativity, reception, ‘liveness’[5] and even economy. Besides these,
there is the matter of the spatial design of simulated concert venues.
They are either replica or ‘chimaera’, as I would call them - a choice for one or
the other brings with it significant consequences.'
April 11: London, England
Music, Oppression and Exile:
The Impact of Nazism on Musical Development in the 20th Century
Royal Holloway & Institute of Musical Research - School of Advanced Study, University of London
http://jmi.org.uk/downloads/ExileConferencedraftprogramme.pdf
Institute of Musical Research, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1:
'Some of the Jewish musicians are back at their desks',
a case study in the remigration of European musicians after World War Two
rosa spier
March 12 & 14: New York, USA
Music, Body, and Stage: The Iconography of Music Theater and Opera, City University of New York
The Tenth Conference of the Research Center for Music Iconography, CUNY &
The Twelfth Conference of the Répertoire Internaitonal D'Iconographie Musicale
photo by András Borgó
'Mengelberg conducts Oberon: The Conductor as Actor, Anno 1931'
'...this specific film production is a useful example for the consideration of a series of problems, either theoretical or practical. These include questions about aspects of performativity, questions concerning Mengelberg’s specific performing practice, about the relation between music and images, as well as questions about the historical context of this film production...'