2012 CUNY Graduate Center GSIM conference April 28–29, 2012

[Society for Music Theory]

Call for papers and lecture-recitals: “Music and Space”

2012 CUNY Graduate Center GSIM conference

The CUNY Graduate Center department of music is pleased to announce
its 2012 Graduate Students in Music (GSIM) conference in New York City
on Saturday and Sunday, April 28–29, 2012. The theme for this year’s
conference will be Music and Space.

In addition to traditional paper sessions, the conference will include
a workshop/seminar for graduate students led by Professor Judith
Lochhead of SUNY Stonybrook entitled “The Places and Spaces of Music:
Scholarship, Performance, Composition” (more details below).

We invite graduate students to submit proposals for papers relating to
the theme of Music and Space. The theme is broadly construed and may
include the following subjects:

1) 1. Music and physical space – how are composers and/or
performers using space to create a unique listening environment?

2) 2. Music and geographical space – how do geographical
surroundings affect the composition and/or reception of music?


3) 3. Music and social space – how do cultures create spaces of
meaning through music?


4) 4. Music and abstract space – how can spatial models help us
understand how music works?


Presentations will be given a 30-minute time slot, with 20 minutes for
the paper and 10 minutes for discussion.

To submit, please send the following to tpass...@gc.cuny.edu by
February 1, 2012:

1) 1. A proposal/abstract of no more than 300 words in PDF format.
Up to two additional pages of musical examples and/or references may
also be included (though this is not required). The proposal should
include the title of the paper, but withhold any information that
might identify the author.


2) 2. A cover letter, written as text in the body of the email,
that includes the title of the paper as well as the author’s name,
institutional affiliation, email address, and telephone number, plus a
list of audio/visual requirements for the presentation.


Performers and composers are also invited to submit proposals for
lecture-recitals. Composers are responsible for providing their own
musicians to perform their piece(s). Proposals for lecture-recitals
should follow the same proposal guidelines described above. Lecture-
recitals are limited to 40 minutes.

We also invite students to apply for the workshop with Dr. Lochhead by
sending an email to tpass...@gc.cuny.edu that includes the author’s
name, institutional affiliation, email address, and telephone number,
and a 100–150 word statement detailing the student’s background and
interest in the subject. Below is Dr. Lochhead’s description of the
workshop:

The Places and Spaces of Music: Scholarship, Performance, Composition

Dr. Judith Lochhead, SUNY Stonybrook

Concepts of place and space play increasingly important roles in music
scholarship, performance, and composition over the last half century.
The range of approaches to conceptualizing and realizing place and
space is extensive, as the following list suggests: Stephen Feld’s
“acoustemology of place,” David Lewin’s transformational spaces
(which developed into Neo-Riemannian spaces), spatialization of music
composition through digital technologies, and ecomusicology. In the
seminar, we will consider these diverse approaches to the places and
spaces of music, contextualizing these approaches through a brief
historical and philosophical review and then considering how this
diversity might be put into a productive relation.