--- Begin Message ---
MUSIC AS HEARD: LISTENERS AND LISTENING
IN LATE-MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN EUROPE (1300-1600)
A symposium to be held at
Princeton University
Saturday and Sunday, 27-28 September 1997
MUSIC AS HEARD explores the cultural history of `the listener'
and `music listening' in the period 1300-1600. Its aim is to
promote the understanding, interpretation, and analysis of late-
Medieval and Early Modern music in terms of the mentalities,
sensibilities and belief-systems that conditioned its perception.
The symposium features twenty scholarly papers, which are to be
discussed by authors and auditors in six plenary discussion
sessions. The papers will not be formally read out, but are to be
made available to participants in a conference packet, and can be
read during extended reading intervals at the symposium. (These
intervals are scheduled to coincide with coffee, lunch, and tea.)
During the sessions the focus is entirely on discussion.
SYMPOSIUM WEBSITE
(for complete information on sessions, abstracts,
registration, hotels, travel, and campus map):
http://www.princeton.edu/~rwegman/musicasheard.html
TOPICS OF SESSIONS:
Methodological Preliminaries
Listening in the Late-Medieval Intellectual Traditions
Listening and Patronage
Listening and Death
Consonance As Heard
Listening and Reading: The Case of Glarean
Listening and Ideology in Reformation and Counter-Reformation
Listening and the Erotic in Early Modern Europe
SPEAKERS AND CHAIRS:
Carolyn Abbate Linda Phyllis Austern Todd Borgerding
Shai Burstyn Richard Freedman Sarah Fuller
Sean Gallagher Robert Holzer Peter Jeffery
Cristle Collins Judd Robert Judd Peter M. Lefferts
Thomas Y. Levin Timothy R. McKinney Robert Nosow
Jessie-Ann Owens Keith Polk Harold Powers Emery Snyder
Louise K. Stein Elizabeth Randell Upton Peter Urquhart
Kate van Orden Grayson Wagstaff Rob C. Wegman Paul Wiebe
REGISTRATION:
See enclosed form. Registration fee: $90 (after 10 September:
$100). Those with annual income under $21,000 may choose to
register at a lower rate of $60 (after 10 September: $70).
Registration covers coffee, lunch, and tea on Saturday and
Sunday, and a 200-plus-page conference packet containing the full
texts of papers.
AIMS OF SYMPOSIUM:
Discussions will focus on historically-informed analyses `from
the listener's point of view' of individual compositions, as well
as questions such as the following:
o How was music thought to act upon the sense of hearing, the
mind, the heart, the body, and the soul?
o Were music's powers and effects--sensual, medicinal,
spiritual, societal, ritual, magical--thought to depend on
conscious acts of listening and understanding? If yes, how
were those acts identified, described, and explained?
o In what ways was `music listening' affected by the perceived
meaning, function, use, or efficacy of the words (narration,
recitation, invocation, oration, incantation, etc.)?
o What concepts and metaphors did contemporaries use to evaluate
and account for their musical experiences? Did they in fact
acknowledge a concept of `musical experience' to begin with?
o In what ways could `music listening' be sinful (sloth,
idleness, lust, self-indulgence), and under what conditions
could it be virtuous? Were there `correct' and `incorrect'
modes of listening?
o In what ways might musical sensibility and experience have
been seen as differentiated according to gender?
o What role and status were accorded to `the listener' or `the
audience' in theoretical writings on music, and to what extent
were their abilities, needs, and demands recognized in
technical discussions?
o What was the perceived relationship between the written and
sounding dimensions of music? Were technically-informed and/or
literate modes of listening acknowledged, and if yes, was any
special value or benefit ascribed to them?
o What significance was associated with those aspects of
composed music that could only be ascertained through acts of
reading? Was there in fact a `reader' presupposed here, or
might such aspects have been considered mere by-products of
the technical process of manufacture?
o In what respects was `music listening' thought to be a
private, communal, and/or public activity? Did it involve
response, interaction, participation, and gesturing, or,
conversely, privacy, silence, and concentration?
o What historical evidence do we possess concerning actual
listeners or groups of listeners and their musical `horizons
of expectation'?
_________________________________________________________________
REGISTRATION FORM
Print and return this form with check (US$ only) to:
MUSIC AS HEARD
Department of Music
Princeton University
Princeton NJ 08544
Registration: $90 (after 10 September: $100). Those with annual
income under $21,000 may choose to register at a lower rate of
$60 (after 10 September: $70). Registration covers coffee,
lunch, and tea on Saturday and Sunday, and a 200-plus-page
conference packet containing the full texts of papers.
Registration fee: ______
Name (as it will appear on badge): ______________________________
Institution or place of residence: ______________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Phone: __________________ Email: ________________________________
Participants outside commuting distance may wish to make hotel &
travel arrangements well in advance. For the fullest
information, please follow the relevant links on the symposium
website: http://www.princeton.edu/~rwegman/musicasheard.html
or check ___ to request information about hotels and travel.
_________________________________________________________________
--- End Message ---