Conference:MUSIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

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XIII. International Congress
Gesellschaft für Musikforschung

MUSIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Weimar, 16-21 September 2004

The German musicological society Gesellschaft für Musikforschung) is
holding its thirteenth international congress at the Musicological
Institute of the FRANZ LISZT Academy of Music, Weimar, and the
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, 16 21 September 2004. With its
theme "Music and Cultural Identity", the congress aims to develop a
broad interdisciplinary dialogue.

Virtually no other location in Germany seems as predestined as Weimar
for a congress about cultural identity. It was Herder's "Stimmen der
Völker" and Goethe's notion of "Weltliteratur", both having originated
in Weimar, that set early landmarks in the scholarly treatment of
cultural identity and the Other. However, contradictory aspects of the
same phenomenon are also juxtaposed here: It was in Weimar both that
Franz Liszt coined his idealistic concept of "Weltmusik", aiming at the
elements of identity common to all nations, and that innocent people
suffered the dreadful experience of maintaining identity with the help
of music in an environment that sought the psychological and physical
destruction of identity in the concentration camp of Buchenwald.

The fact that music, in a similar fashion to language, is an essential
element both of our individual and collective identity, whether
locally, regionally or nationally grounded, has been the subject of
Western discourse on music under a variety of aspects since Antiquity.
Summed up in the catchword of "cultural identity", these aspects, in
the context of globalization, have significantly regained relevance
during the last decades in musicology, especially in ethnomusicology,
the sociology of music, and the "new" or critical musicology.

Four roundtable discussions will lead to key questions surrounding the
general theme. The first round table focuses on the terms "culture" and
"identity" and their concrete musical implications. The second deals
with the phenomena of demarcation and assimilation. The third round
table is dedicated to the significance of locality and globality for
the development of musical identity. The fourth centers on historical
aspects of continuity and change in music.

In contrast, the symposia are conceptualized as "case studies". Six of
the scheduled symposia are organized in cooperation with the program
committee and the specialist groups of the Gesellschaft für
Musikforschung:
1. Music Editing in Terms of National Identity;
2. New Music in Totalitarian States 19301989/90;
3. Popular Music - Identity and Difference;
4. The Music Star - Personality or Construction?;
5. Voice and Gender Identity/Identities and
6. Youth and their Musical Worlds.
Six further symposia will be open toproposals by participants, which
will be selected by the program committee.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The program committee hereby calls for proposals for symposia 7 to 12,
for free papers and research presentations. Musicologists of all
specializations (music historians, ethnomusicologists, music
sociologists, music psychologists) and music educators are invited, as
well as scholars of history, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology,
philosophy, and psychology.

Each symposium will take approximately 3 to 4 hours, allowing time for
5 to 7 papers each. Submissions (including CV, list of publications, 3-
page proposal indicating the topic and main questions, names and
addresses of the organizer and speakers plus one-page abstract) are
requested by email or by post.
Deadline: 15 December 2003.

Proposals for individual papers and research presentations need not
consider the congress theme. They must take the form of an abstract
that describes the research findings and their significance as fully
as possible. Individual papers are limited to 20 minutes and will be
followed by time for questions and discussion. Abstracts must not
exceed one page.
Deadline: 15 January 2004.

Languages of the congress: German, English and French.

Mailing Address
Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar
Institut für Musikwissenschaft Weimar-Jena
Kongressorganisation 2004
Postfach 2552
99406 Weimar
Germany

Fax: +49 (0)3643555233
EMail: kongress@hfmweimar.de

For current information see: www.musikforschung.de