Music and Numbers
An international conference hosted by the Department of Music Canterbury
Christ Church University
14 - 15 May 2010
A conference on 'Music and Numbers', in association with Sounds New and
the Institute of Musical Research (IMR), will be hosted by the Department
of Music of Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), on Friday and
Saturday, 14-15 May 2010.
The conference will coincide with and augment the long-established Sounds
New Music Festival, which is closely affiliated with CCCU. The 2010
festival (7-16 May) focuses on the number seven (7). Ensemble
Intercontemporain, Cantus Ansambl, the London Sinfonietta, and the City
of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players are only a few of the
many ensembles and artists who will feature in the festival, while
composers and film-makers will also participate and introduce their
work.
Building on the festival theme, the conference will provide an overview
of the latest scholarly work on music, proportion and numbers in
composition, and aims to bring together scholars, composers and
performers with interests in this area.
Proposals are invited on topics that address specific compositional
and/or analytical aspects of repertoires and genres, or the work of
individual composers. Possible themes might include, but are not limited
to: the use of numbers in compositional theory and practice in the
Western classical tradition; proportion and cryptographic techniques; the
Fibonacci series and magic squares; other numerical calculations and
constructs, particularly those used in compositions of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, such as the use of numbers in algorithmic
composition; the intersections of music and mysticism - in as much as
these relate to composition with numbers - from Pythagoras to the present
day. Proposals from composers and sonic artists demonstrating how working
with numbers underpins their own creative strategies will be particularly
welcome.
The conference key-note speakers are Professor Douglas Jarman (Emeritus
Professor, Royal Northern College of Music), Dr Ruth Tatlow (Associate
Professor, Stockholm University), and Roy Howat (Keyboard Research
Fellow, Royal Academy of Music).
Potential contributors are invited to submit abstracts for:
i) individual papers (20 minutes, plus 10 minutes question
time)
ii) panel sessions (1 hour, with no more than four papers, including
question time)
Abstracts should address the conference theme and state the aims and
methodological approach of the proposed paper(s). Abstracts, which will
be published both electronically and in the conference programme, should
be no longer than 300 words for individual papers and up to 1,000 words
for panel sessions. They should include the following
information:
i) title of the paper
ii) author(s) name(s)
iii) institutional affiliation (if any)
iv) email address (panels: emails for all panel participants)
v) abstract (for panels: description of the panel and brief abstracts of
individual papers)
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Friday 8 January 2010.
Successful contributors will be notified via email by late January
2010.
Abstracts should be submitted via email (preferably as plain text - only
attachments in .rtf format will be accepted) to the conference organiser,
Dr. Eva Mantzourani at:
eva.mantzourani at
canterbury.ac.uk
Postal correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Eva Mantzourani,
Department of Music, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, CT1
1QU, United Kingdom. Further information will appear on the conference
website:
www.cccumusicandnumbers.org.uk